Charter schools have traditionally been located in cities; many are designed to serve minority students in high-poverty areas. A body of literature suggests that charter schools located in urban areas may be more effective than charters located outside of the urban core. The studies in this analysis measure the impact of attending a charter school compared to a traditional public school in urban areas. The analysis includes findings from specific cities (e.g. New York or Chicago), as well as statewide studies that examine impacts by urbanicity. We present the findings for reading scores here.

 

Meta-analysis is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The outcomes measured are the program impacts measured in the research literature (for example, impacts on crime or educational attainment). Treatment N represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An effect size (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases. See Estimating Program Effects Using Effect Sizes for additional information on how we estimate effect sizes.

The effect size may be adjusted from the unadjusted effect size estimated in the meta-analysis. Historically, WSIPP adjusted effect sizes to some programs based on the methodological characteristics of the study. For programs reviewed in 2024 or later, we do not make additional adjustments, and we use the unadjusted effect size whenever we run a benefit-cost analysis.

Research shows the magnitude of effects may change over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments, which we apply between the first time ES is estimated and the second time ES is estimated. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.

Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured	Treatment age	Primary or secondary participant	No. of effect sizes	Treatment N	Effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE)			Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
					ES	SE	Age	ES	p-value
Test scores Standardized, validated tests of academic achievement.	12	Primary	38	339551	0.044	0.013	12	0.044	0.001

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Angrist, J.D., Dynarski, S.M., Kane, T.J., Pathak, P.A., & Walters, C.R. (2012a). Who benefits from KIPP? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/pam.21647.

Angrist, J.D., Pathak, P.A., & Walters, C.R. (2012b). Explaining Charter School Effectiveness (Working Paper 12-11). Cambridge, MA: Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Betts, J.R., Rice, L.A., Zau, A.C., Tang, Y.E., & Koedel, C.R. (2006). Does school choice work? Effects on student integration and achievement. San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California.

Center for Research on Education Outcomes. (CREDO) (2009a). Charter school performance in Colorado. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Education Outcomes.

Center for Research on Education Outcomes. (CREDO) (2009b). Charter school performance in Illinois. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Education Outcomes.

Center for Research on Education Outcomes. (CREDO) (2009c). Charter school performance in the District of Columbia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Education Outcomes.

Center for Research on Education Outcomes.(CREDO (2012). Charter school performance in New Jersey. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Education Outcomes.

Center for Research on Education Outcomes. (CREDO) (2013a). Charter school performance in Massachusetts. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Education Outcomes.

Center for Research on Education Outcomes.(CREDO) (2013b). Charter school performance in Michigan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Education Outcomes.

Center for Research on Education Outcomes. (CREDO) (2013c). Charter school performance in New York City. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Education Outcomes.

Dobbie, W., and Fryer, R. (2012). Getting beneath the veil of effective schools: Evidence from New York City. Unpublished manuscript, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

Hoxby, C. M., Kang, J. L., & Murarka, S. (2009). Technical Report: How New York City Charter Schools Affect Achievement. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research

Hoxby, C.M., & Rockoff, J.E. (2005). The impact of charter schools on student achievement. Cambridge, MA: Author. Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/www/external/labor/seminars/adp/pdfs/2005hoxby.pdf.

Imberman, S.A. (2011). Achievement and behavior in charter schools: Drawing a more complete picture. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(2): 416-435.

Nicotera, A., Mendiburo, M., & Berends, M. (2009). Charter school effects in an urban school district: An analysis of student achievement gains in Indianapolis. Paper presented at the National Center on School Choice Conference at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.

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Supovitz, J., & Rikoon, S. (2010). Early achievement impacts of the Harlem Success Academy charter schools in New York City. Unpublished manuscript. Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Witte, J. F., Wolf, P. J., Carlson, D., & Dean, A. (2012). Milwaukee Independent Charter Schools Study: Final Report on Four-Year Achievement Gains (SCDP Milwaukee Evaluation Report #31). Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas, Department of Education Reform, School Choice Demonstration Project.

Woodworth, K.R., David, J.L., Guha, R., Wang, H., & Lopez-Torkos, A. (2008). San Francisco Bay area KIPP schools: A study of early implementation and achievement (Final Report). Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Zimmer, R., & Buddin, R. (2006). Charter school performance in two large urban districts. Journal of Urban Economics, 60(2): 307-326.

Zimmer, R., Gill, B., Booker, K., Lavertu, S., & Witte, J. (2012). Examining charter student achievement effects across seven states. Economics of Education Review, 31(2): 213-224.