Abstract
In comparison to whites, Hispanic and African American students have the lowest standardized test scores, lowest high school graduation rates, and are less likely to go to college. This achievement gap not only hurts the African American and Hispanic communities, but increases economic inequality and decreases social mobility. For the most part, traditional schools have struggled to effectively educate African American and Latino students, while some charter schools (“charters”) have not only closed the gap but have enabled their lowest performing students to surpass their more affluent and white peers. This study aims to estimate the effect charters have on the Academic Performance Index (API) scores of African American and Latino students and determine whether they are helping to close the achievement gap. This thesis uses the California Department of Education’s API database and an ordinary least squares regression to estimate the effect charters have on the API scores of African American and Latino students. After controlling for several independent variables, I found that Latino students who attend charter schools perform worse than Latino students who attend traditional schools. However, the drop is even greater for whites who attend charter schools versus those who attend traditional schools thereby leading to a decrease in the achievement gap between Latinos and whites. Although reducing the achievement gap is a laudable accomplishment, in this case, it is not something to applaud. This phenomenon also occurred after controlling for additional independent variables including student characteristics and school demographics. In addition, I found that African American students who attend charter schools perform similarly to African American students who attend traditional schools, even after controlling for additional variables. Within the past decade, charter schools have exploded across the state without much research showing that they are consistently improving academic performance. Despite their focus on improving the academic performance of traditionally underperforming students, my research shows that most charter schools are not fulfilling their purpose. Based on my findings, I recommend policy makers limit charter school growth and focus on implementing evidence-based policies that improve student performance such as early childhood education, additional learning time and establishing a college going culture.