Working Paper: NBER ID: w15740
Authors: Joshua D. Angrist; Susan M. Dynarski; Thomas J. Kane; Parag A. Pathak; Christopher R. Walters
Abstract: Charter schools affiliated with the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) are emblematic of the No Excuses approach to public education. These schools feature a long school day, an extended school year, selective teacher hiring, strict behavior norms and a focus on traditional reading and math skills. We use applicant lotteries to evaluate the impact of KIPP Academy Lynn, a KIPP charter school that is mostly Hispanic and has a high concentration of limited English proficiency (LEP) and special-need students, groups that charter critics have argued are typically under-served. The results show overall gains of 0.35 standard deviations in math and 0.12 standard deviations in reading for each year spent at KIPP Lynn. LEP students, special education students, and those with low baseline scores benefit more from time spent at KIPP than do other students, with reading gains coming almost entirely from the LEP group.
Keywords: charter schools; KIPP; educational achievement; lottery-based evaluation
JEL Codes: I21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Attending KIPP Academy Lynn (I21) | Increase in math scores (C29) |
| Attending KIPP Academy Lynn (I21) | Increase in English Language Arts (ELA) scores (I24) |
| Attending KIPP Academy Lynn (I21) | Greater benefit for students with limited English proficiency (LEP) (I24) |
| Attending KIPP Academy Lynn (I21) | Greater benefit for special education students (I24) |
| Attending KIPP Academy Lynn (I21) | Reduced likelihood of falling into the lowest performance category on MCAS (I24) |
| Lower baseline scores (C29) | Increased benefit from attending KIPP Academy Lynn (I24) |