Florida's Charter Schools

A study by Florida's Department of Education shows that:

The achievement gap section of the report contains data that are used to analyze the gap between white students and African American students, and white students and Hispanic students, in reading, math, and science. This section of the report includes 18 separate comparisons of current achievement gaps. The achievement gap was lower for charter school students in 18 of the 18 comparisons.

The learning gains section of the report includes 96 comparisons. The report compares the percentage of students in charter schools making learning gains against the percentage of students in traditional public schools making learning gains, by subject, grade level, and subgroup. The percentage of students making learning gains was higher in charter schools in 83 of the 96 comparisons. The percentage of students making learning gains was higher in traditional public schools in 6 of the 96 comparisons. There was no difference in the percentage of students making learning gains in 7 of the 96 comparisons

Bottom line: cut it any way you want it, cut it 96 different ways, and public schools beat charters in only 6 of those ways; charters beat publics in 83 of those ways.

Student Achievement in Florida's Charter Schools - Charter_Student_Achievement_2012.pdf