(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Colorado’s Department of Education released a study of state scores showing that the state’s charter schools scored higher than districts on the state exam. So in 2015 Colorado charter school students also rocked the NAEP. The charts below will slice and dice the NAEP 8th grade math exam by subgroups, and displays Colorado charter students only to the top 10 scoring states by subgroup. Colorado charter students did very well on the other NAEP exams as well, scoring for instance near the very top in overall 8th grade reading, but we will use 8th grade math for purposes of illustration.
Colorado Anglo students attending charter schools came out on top compared to the states with the top overall math scores for Anglos:
Colorado Hispanic students attending charter schools were near the top (Anglos and Hispanics were the two groups numerous enough for NAEP to report on for Colorado charters):
What about for kids whose family incomes qualify for a Free or Reduced Price lunch under federal guidelines?
What about kids above the FRL threshold?
Finally there is always a chance that charter schools have a smaller percentage of English Language Learners and/or Special Education students. The chart below therefore only compares the scores of general education students in Colorado charter schools to general education students in the top 10 states.
How should folks in Colorado feel about all of this? Approximately like:
Jay P. Greene's Blog 