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Educational practices of the most successful charter schools could meaningfully reduce the nation鈥檚 racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps鈥攂ut only if these practices are adopted in a significant number of public schools, according to a new synthesis of existing charter school research by Sarah Cohodes, Assistant Professor of Education and Public Policy at Teachers College.

National studies have found that, on average, charter school students perform at about the same level as students who attend traditional public schools. But Cohodes鈥檚 article, highlights that urban charter schools serving low-income and minority students 鈥� a number of which share a 鈥渘o-excuses鈥� philosophy 鈥� produce significant gains in test scores. By itself, however, the charter school sector is simply too small to make much of a dent in achievement gaps nationally, Cohodes says 鈥� even if all charter schools followed 鈥渘o excuses鈥� practices.

鈥淭o make significant progress in reducing the achievement gaps, we need to focus not on the type of school 鈥� charter versus traditional public 鈥� but on the practices used in the most successful charter schools,鈥� says Cohodes, discussing her article, which comprises the entire current issue of the journal  (published online on February 6).

The expansion of K-12 charter schools and the use of 鈥渘o excuses鈥� tactics are polarizing, often politicized issues among educators, policymakers and parents. Proponents of charter schools, which are publicly funded but run by private nonprofit or for-profit entities, see them as a good alternative for students who are dissatisfied with traditional public schools, while those who want to contain charter expansion believe they draw talent and scarce resources away from regular public schools.

The 鈥渘o-excuses鈥� model emphasizes high expectations for academics and behavior, longer classroom time, intensive tutoring, data-driven instruction, frequent testing, and frequent teacher observations. The model鈥檚 supporters believe the extra academic work and discipline in urban schools that primarily enroll students of color, such the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and Uncommon Schools, are largely responsible for their performance gains. The model鈥檚 critics fault 鈥渘o excuses鈥� policies for being too rigid and too focused on test preparation and test results, and not enough on deeper learning and creativity.

Cohodes collected and summarized rigorous research on charter schools from the past decade, focusing on studies that used charter school lotteries as a tool to compare students who were offered a seat at a charter to those who were not. She tied together these studies to make an argument about the potential of charter schools to help close the achievement gap. In comparing charter and traditional public schools in urban and nonurban locations, Cohodes found that 鈥渘o-excuses鈥� charters in urban communities such as New York, Boston, Denver, and New Orleans produced the largest advances in standardized math and reading test scores.

鈥淚n some cases,鈥� she writes, 鈥渢hese charter schools have quite large effects, such that attending one for three years produces test-score gains that are equivalent to the size of the U.S. black-white achievement gap.鈥� And the benefits can extend beyond school performance, she notes. Evidence from charter schools in Boston, Chicago, and New York City shows that more students at these schools took Advanced Placement tests and achieved higher A.P. and SAT scores. They also had higher rates of four-year college enrollment, and lower rates of pregnancy and incarceration.

Cohodes isn鈥檛 sure that all aspects of the 鈥渘o-excuses鈥� policies, such strict disciplinary policies, are good for all students. But she believes her research should serve as 鈥減roof that it鈥檚 possible for a school to have a transformational effect on individual students鈥� academic trajectory.鈥�

Sarah McLanahan, Editor-in-Chief of The Future of Children, agrees. 鈥淚f we really want to make a difference in the achievement gap, here鈥檚 the evidence,鈥� she says. The journal is jointly published by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution.

The first public charter was established in Minnesota in 1993 with a mandate to experiment with new teaching techniques while being freed from strict oversight by state and local school boards. The concept took off, and in the last 10 years, 300 to 400 new charter schools have been created each year. Today, 43 states and Washington, D.C. allow charter schools, and some 7,000 of them serve more than 5 percent of students in the United States.

Despite their robust growth, charters enroll too few students to meaningfully affect the national achievement gap, and it isn鈥檛 practical to add enough charters to make a difference, Cohodes writes. Instead, traditional public schools could adopt the policies and practices of successful charter schools 鈥� such as intensive tutoring or frequent teacher observations and feedback 鈥� to reach a much wider population of struggling students and 鈥渄rive a meaningful reduction in achievement gap in the United States.鈥�

鈥淎ny interventions that are built around using charter schools to close the achievement gaps should focus not on the type of school but on the practices that work in the most effective charter schools,鈥� writes Cohodes, 鈥淕iven the relatively small size of the charter sector, if charter-based interventions are to have large-scale impacts in the United States, we would likely have to intervene in traditional public schools.鈥� 鈥� Patricia Lamiell

The study was covered by two education publications: Education Dive K-12 posted this story: , and The 74 Million posted this story: