By Ildi Laczko-Kerr and Eileen Sigmund
Contrary to the common myth that charters skim the “cream of the crop” from school districts, the average student who transferred to a charter school over the summer in 2015 from a district school performed below the state average on AzMERIT in both math and English language arts. At the same time, districts that received students from charter schools during summer transfer actually enrolled higher performing students; begging the question: Who’s creaming whom?
What data was used in this study?
In a new study from the Center for Student Achievement, an LLC of the Arizona Charter Schools Association, summer transfer patterns and associated student achievement results were analyzed. All student summer transfers between the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years were matched to standardized AzMERIT test results for those same years. These data do not provide insight as to the reasons families choose to change school systems over summer.
How many students were involved in the study?
The data set was for grades 3-12 for all public district and charter schools, including alternative schools. About 85,000 students who completed the 2015 school year in one school system and enrolled in a different system in 2016, and did not reach the terminal grade in their district or charter school, were included in this analysis. Data were analyzed for transfers within sector: district to district and charter to charter, as well between sectors: district to charter, vice versa; resulting in four distinct “migration patterns.”
Nearly half of all migrating students (46 percent) moved from one district to another, compared to 10 percent of summer transfers moving between public charter schools. Between-sector summer transfers resulted in 29 percent of students leaving districts to enroll in charters, and 15 percent of students leaving charters to enroll in districts.
How is the myth busted that public charter schools are not creaming students?
Student-level AzMERIT test data in mathematics and English language arts (ELA) were analyzed across each of the four migration patterns. AzMERIT data were standardized within grade/test levels and subject areas for comparison. This resulted in a state average score of 0. So, a score greater than zero (0) is represented by a bar on the right side of the graph, and is above state average, while a score below zero (0), is represented by a bar on the left side of the graph, and is below the state average. The results by migration path are presented below.
Results indicate that contrary to myths about school choice and charter enrollment, charters are not “creaming” high performing students from districts. Rather, it looks like district schools benefit from summer transfers from charters, not the other way around. In other words, data suggests that districts are “creaming” high performing students from charter schools. Overall, the highest performing group of students moved between charters, and the lowest performing group moved between districts.
