Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

As the charter school sector has expanded over the past couple of decades, there has been an accompanying increase in the different types of charter school operators. These operators include for-profit educational management organizations (EMOs), non-for-profit charter management organizations (CMOs), virtually-operated EMOs (with entirely online or hybrid classroom instruction), or independently-operated charter schools. Our research questions focus on the impact of switching from a traditional public school into the different types of charter schools on academic achievement and whether these impacts differ by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location.

To test these questions, we analyzed statewide administrative data from Indiana that contains longitudinal measures of student achievement for students switching to and from different types of charter schools serving grades 3-8. Following insights from prior within-study comparisons of experimental and quasi-experimental designs, we used prior achievement measures that are closely aligned to the outcome assessments and compared students from the same local (i.e. school-level) settings. We estimated the effect of charter school operators using multiple strategies, including within-student fixed effects models and the use of propensity score matching with OLS and difference-in-differences models.

Overall, we find that brick-and-mortar EMOs, independent charters, and virtual charters have a negative impact on students’ mathematics achievement growth. In addition, students in virtual charters experience significant losses in English/Language Arts (ELA), and students in CMOs see no changes to their achievement growth, on average. The virtual charter losses in mathematics and ELA are large and occur across all subgroups, while the results for CMOs, brick-and-mortar EMOs, and independent charters point to substantial within-operator heterogeneity. However, there is very little heterogeneity across urban, rural, and suburban contexts. We will further unpack how these findings change over the length of time a student is enrolled in a specific charter school.

The results add to the growing body of evidence suggesting that virtually-operated EMOs have strong, negative consequences for student achievement growth. We discuss these results in the context of the public financing of for-profit management organizations that exacerbate losses in student achievement. We conclude by recommending further research to better understand parental decision-making and satisfaction when it comes to virtually-operated charter schools.