Do researchers find charter schools offer students a slight edge in learning to read?
Some studies have found that charter schools offer measurable but slight boosts to students' reading skills. A 2019 study by Fordham Institute also contends that just having more charter schools in a community increases student performance in all schools. "...Competition from charter schools has a positive, or at worst neutral, effect on traditional public schools," the Fordham author wrote. Fordham is known as an advocate of charter schools.
A 2015 report for the U.S. Education Department concluded that "overall, charter school students, especially low-income ones, performed as well as or better than the comparison group in math and reading." A 2013 study of schools in 27 states quantified one advantage as eight days of additional learning in reading.
