The Chance of a Lifetime

Many status-quo educators dismiss the superior results of school choice programs on the basis that they cream off the best students. A brand-new study out of Stanford University takes advantage of the fact that in New York State, admission to charter schools is decided by means of a lottery. By comparing “lotteried-in” students with “lotteried-out” students, the researchers were able to determine whether the students who won the chance to attend a charter school are learning more than the students who lost the lottery. It turns out that the lotteried-in students are learning significantly more than their unlucky peers. Each year spent in a charter school equals a three-point gain on the state exams. “On average, a student who attended a charter school for all of grades kindergarten through grade 8 would close about 86 percent of the ‘Scarsdale-Harlem achievement gap’ in math and about 66 percent of the achievement gap in English.” This amounts to a huge advantage to the lottery winners in terms of attending a post-secondary educational institution and achieving a satisfying career. 

Given that New York charter schools cost roughly only 60 percent of what regular public schools cost, it’s hard to explain why Alberta is the only Canadian province that allows them. Even Alberta permits only 15 charter schools? Why?

Comments