Abstract
Charter schools are a national controversy, and have been since they were first adopted in the early 1990s. Yet in nearly thirty years in operation, only half of the country knows what a charter school is, and perhaps more important, if they are effective. With the current administration putting school choice on a national platform, it is more important now more than ever to under charter schools. This study asks, in terms of academic achievement, do charter schools perform as well as traditional public schools? Using school-level panel data from the California Department of Education’s Academic Performance Index, this study uses fixed-effects analysis to test this question. This study finds that charter schools perform at the same levels as traditional public schools, and potentially even slightly better. This study also examines demographic and socioeconomic indicators, and their relationship to academic achievement. I identified a number of policy recommendations aimed at improving charter school, reducing funding disparities between charters and traditional schools, and ensuring underserved California’s have the opportunity to benefit from a fulfilling education.