OHIO — A study released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has a few answers to the debate whether charter schools are helping or hurting local districts.

What You Need To Know

  • The study examined public charter school increases from 1998-2007
  • As a result of a spike, .08% increases were seen in graduation and attendance rates
  • Officials believe the increase is producing healthy competition and more school choices are needed

Ohio State University Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Stéphane Lavertu, researched the significant increase of public charter schools in their initial phases and what happened as growth continued, especially in urban district areas between 1998 and 2007.

While it focused on attendance, graduation and test scores, it did not include affects from the EdChoice program and implementation of No Child Left Behind.

Ultimately, the findings showed that as charter schools increased in the first couple of years, there was no impact on district graduation rates, but four years later graduation rates rose nearly 1%.

Three years after charter school increases, district attendance rates increased approximately 1% as well, according to the findings. There was not a notable difference in test scores.

“The more charter competition a district felt, the less likely their students were to miss school or drop out three or four years later,” Lavertu said.

Aaron Churchill, Ohio Research Director for Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said, this is a good time for traditional public schools to lean into the competition and work at improving their programming. Yet, he noted it’s also an opportunity for those looking to start public charter schools to make sure that what they’re creating is high quality. 

“They can operate side by side without there being sort of the sometimes skepticism on one side or the other or the questioning about the quality of one side or the other or making it a zero sum game,” he said.