Effect of time spent in charter schools on student test scores: A Michigan case study

Journal of School Choice

Volumn 2, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 20-46

  Wolfram, Gary ^a  

^a HILLSDALE COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

Charter schools; Test scores; Value added

Indexed keywords

EID: 71049187257     PISSN: 15582159     EISSN: 15582167     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/15582150802007341     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Milton Friedman, "The Role of Government in Education," in Economics and the Public Interest, ed. Robert Solo (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1955).
2. James Coleman, Thomas Hoffer, and Sally Kilgore, High School Achievement: Public, Catholic, and Private Schools (New York: Basic Books, 1982).
3. National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (Washington, D.C.: Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O. distributor, 1983).
4. Eric Hanushek, "The Economics of Schooling: Production and Efficiency in Public Schools," Journal of Economic Literature 24, no. 3 (September 1986): 1148-1173.
5. U.S. Charter Schools. Retrieved from: http://www.uscharterschools.org/cs/sp/query/q/1595: Accessed April 3, 2008.
6. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 2006 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2006), table 167.
7. Data are from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2006).
8. For further discussion see Paul Peterson, "Little Gain in Student Achievement," in Our Schools and Our Future (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institute Press, 2003).
9. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776; reprint, Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1981), 27-28.
10. For further discussion along these lines, see Gary Wolfram, "Public Education and the Benevolence of the Butcher," Michigan Education Report 1:1 (fall 1998): 5.
11. As a privately held corporation, NHA does not report earnings; however, personal correspondence with NHA yielded the information that the corporation operates at a profit.
12. John Merrifield, "Charter Laws: Disaster, Detour, Irrelevant, or Reform Tool," Journal of School Choice 1, no. 1 (2006): 3-22.
13. Michigan Compiled Law (M.C.L.) 380.502(2)(d).
14. For further discussion see Merrifield, "Charter Laws: Disaster, Detour, Irrelevant, or Reform Tool."
15. The enabling legislation was Public Act 362 of 1993.
16. Data from Michigan Association of Public School Academies. Retrieved from: http://www.charterschools.org: Accessed January 19, 2008.
17. Caroline Hoxby, "Rising Tide," Education Next 1, no. 4 (winter 2001): 68-76.
18. See also David Arsen, David Plank, and Gary Sykes, "A Work in Progress," Education Next 1, no. 4 (winter 2001): 6-19.
19. Michigan Department of Education, Office of School Improvement, Public School Academies in Michigan 2003-04, Report to the Legislature (2005): Lansing, MI.
20. The calculation of the foundation grant is somewhat complicated. While all districts are guaranteed a certain foundation allowance, some districts are guaranteed substantially more. Charter schools receive the same foundation allowance as the school district within which they are located. Thus, if charter schools are located in districts with lower foundation allowances, they will on average receive a smaller foundation grant that is lower than the average for regular public schools.
21. For example, see Lewis Solmon, Kern Paark, and David Garcia, Does Charter School Attendance Improve Test Scores: The Arizona Results (Phoenix: Goldwater Institute, 2001).
22. Caroline Hoxby, A Straightforward Comparison of Charter Schools and Regular Public Schools in the United States (Harvard University and NBER, 2004).
23. Dennis Jansen and Timothy Gronberg, Navigating Newly Chartered Waters: An Analysis of Texas Charter School Performance (Austin: Texas Public Policy Foundation, 2001).
24. Robert Bifulco and Helen Ladd, "Results from the Tar Heel State," Education Next 5, no. 4 (fall 2005): 60-66.
25. F. Howard Nelson, Bella Rosenberg, and Nancy Van Meter, Charter School Achievement on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Teachers, 2004): Cambridge, MA.
26. National Charter School Research Center, Key Issues in Studying Charter Schools and Achievement: A Review and Suggestions for National Guidelines (Seattle: Center on Reinventing Public Education, 2006).
27. Bryan Hassel, Studying Achievement in Charter Schools: What Do We Know? (Washington, D.C.: NAPCS, 2005).
28. See, for example, Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Lubienski, "Academic Achievement and NCLB," Journal of School Choice 1, no. 3 (2006): 55-62.
29. These results are consistent with earlier research by the author examining the effect of time spent at NHA using 2001 MEAP data. The data in the earlier study were more limited, only having categorical test score data rather than raw scores and not having actual time spent at NHA but time since application for enrollment. It thus looked at the probability that a student who was enrolled at NHA would meet the highest and lowest category score. Using logit analysis, time spent at NHA positively affected the probability that a student would score in the highest category and negatively affected the probability the student would score in the lowest category. See Gary Wolfram, Making the Better Grade: A Detailed Statistical Analysis of the Effect of National Heritage Academies on Student MEAP Scores (Hillsdale, Mich.: Hillsdale Policy Group, 2002). Retrieved from: http://www.heritageacademies.com/nha/assets/hillsdale.pdf: Accessed January 3, 2008.
30. Caroline Hoxby and Jonah Rockoff, "The Impact of Charter Schools on Student Achievement," (2005): 31.
31. unabridged version of "Findings from the City of Big Shoulders," Education Next 5, no. 4 (fall 2005). Retrieved from: http://media.hoover.org/documents/ednext20054unabridged_52.pdf: Accessed January 3, 2008.
32. Curriculum overviews for each grade are available at http://www.heritageacademies.com.
33. Paul Peterson, "Vouchers and Test Scores: What the Numbers Show," Policy Review 93, no. 1 (January/February 1999): 10-15.
34. Eric Hanushek, John Kain, and Steven Rivkin, "Disruption versus Tiebout Improvement: The Costs and Benefits of Switching Schools," Journal of Public Economics 88, no. 9-10 (August 2004): 1721-1746.
35. Two other forms of the regressions were run. One entered NHA as the natural logarithm, which would be consistent with a diminishing effect of NHA over time, and one with the square of NHA, which would be consistent with an increasing effect of NHA over time. In neither case was the adjusted R squared improved and the results were similar to those of the strictly linear model.
36. For a discussion of the hierarchical linear model as a solution to the problem, see Jason Osborne, "Advantages of Hierarchical Linear Modeling," Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation 7, no. 1 (2000).
37. For details see Part 6A of Public Act 451 of 1976, the Rpfevised School Code, M.C.L. 380.501-380.507.