According to a new study to be published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, former charter school students earn more in their 20s and are more likely to graduate from college. The study also confirmed previous research that shows charter school students are more likely to graduate high school and enroll in college. It compares students who were in charter high schools with those who weren’t, as long as both groups of students were in charter schools in eighth grade.
The research shows that higher graduation rates in charter schools aren’t a fluke or the result of low graduation expectations. Charter students appear to be better prepared for college and work after leaving their high school.
The study was authored by Tim Sass with Georgia State University and Ron Zimmer with Vanderbilt.
“Charter high school attendance is associated with an increase in maximum annual earnings for students between ages 23 and 25 of $2,318 — or about 12 percent higher earnings than for comparable students who attended a charter middle school but matriculated to a traditional high school,” Sass and Zimmer write.
They were not able to rule out the possibility that students who choose to attend charter schools are naturally more inclined to do better in life anyway.
While not able to empirically explain why charter students do better after high school graduation, Sass and Zimmer lean toward one explanation. “Successful charter high schools might be particularly good at promoting skills such as grit, persistence, self-control and conscientiousness — skills that are not fully captured in test scores but that are critical for long-term outcomes.”
The study examines students in Florida who were in the eighth grade between the 1997 to 1998 school year and the 2000 to 2001 school year. Assuming students spent four years in high school and college, this means they would have been in the high school graduating classes of 2002 through 2005 and the college graduating classes of 2006 through 2009.
“Nonetheless,” Sass and Zimmer write, “evidence of positive effects for these students on educational attainment and earnings in adulthood raises the question of whether charter schools’ full long-term impacts on their students have been underestimated by studies that examine only test scores.”
Charter schools are publicly-funded and do not charge tuition. Compared to traditional public schools, charter schools have more independence and flexibility in their operations and curricula, which is why so many families find charter schools desirable. They are open to all students, but they often don’t have enough space to meet demand. In that case, they use a random lottery system to determine admission.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
