Report: pandemic reveals why charter schools excel

A main topic of discussion surrounding education during the pandemic has been the superior performance of charter schools in comparison with district schools. Linda Jacobson explores the data for Los Angeles School Report.

Charter schools appeared to follow a more routine class schedule and stay in closer contact with students and families following shutdowns than district schools, according to a new analysis out Tuesday from Public Impact and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The report finds that charters have the biggest advantage in terms of teachers providing instruction, with 74 percent of charter networks reporting this expectation, compared with 47 percent of districts.

On another indicator, 54 percent of the networks said they expected teachers to check in with students, compared with 37 percent of districts. The authors highlight, for example, Excel Academy Charter Schools in Massachusetts and its “relentless outreach” to students.

The two reports add to the many ways that scholars and policy analysts have compared traditional and charter schools in recent years — research questions that range from which parents are more satisfied, where Black students are more likely to have a Black teacher, and, of course, which schools score higher on national tests.

“Districts will have a heavier lift,” said Annette Campbell Anderson, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University who is leading work on a state-by-state school reopening tracker. “They’ve got to ensure what kids can do in a virtual platform is exactly the same as in person and the rigor is consistent. There was no expectation in the spring that that would happen.

“It doesn’t mean that all district schools should become charters and that charters are better under every circumstance,” he said. “If we think that districts tend to be not great at innovating, then it makes sense to have a broader education sector [with] some schools that are freed from some of the constraints that districts have to operate under.”