Working Paper: NBER ID: w17632
Authors: Will Dobbie; Roland G. Fryer Jr.
Abstract: Charter schools were developed, in part, to serve as an R&D engine for traditional public schools, resulting in a wide variety of school strategies and outcomes. In this paper, we collect unparalleled data on the inner-workings of 35 charter schools and correlate these data with credible estimates of each school's effectiveness. We find that traditionally collected input measures -- class size, per pupil expenditure, the fraction of teachers with no certification, and the fraction of teachers with an advanced degree -- are not correlated with school effectiveness. In stark contrast, we show that an index of five policies suggested by over forty years of qualitative research -- frequent teacher feedback, the use of data to guide instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and high expectations -- explains approximately 50 percent of the variation in school effectiveness. Our results are robust to controls for three alternative theories of schooling: a model emphasizing the provision of wrap-around services, a model focused on teacher selection and retention, and the "No Excuses'' model of education. We conclude by showing that our index provides similar results in a separate sample of charter schools.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I20; J10; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| index of five policies (R28) | school effectiveness (I21) |
| index of five policies (R28) | annual math gains (I21) |
| index of five policies (R28) | annual English Language Arts (ELA) gains (I24) |
| frequent teacher feedback (A21) | annual math gains (I21) |
| frequent teacher feedback (A21) | annual English Language Arts (ELA) gains (I24) |
| high-dosage tutoring (A21) | annual math gains (I21) |
| high-dosage tutoring (A21) | annual English Language Arts (ELA) gains (I24) |
| charter schools (I28) | student achievement (I24) |