Choices and Challenges: Charter School Performance in Perspective

As charter schools enter their third decade, research in this key sector remains overwhelmingly contradictory and confused. Many studies are narrowly focused; some do not meet the standards for high-quality academic research. In this definitive work, Wohlstetter and her colleagues isolate and distill the high-quality research on charter schools to identify the contextual and operational factors that influence these schools’ performances.

The authors examine the track record of the charter sector in light of the wide range of goals set for these schools in state authorizing legislation—at the classroom level, the level of the school community, and system-wide. In particular, they show how the evolution of the charter movement has shaped research questions and findings.

By highlighting what we know about the conditions for success in charter schools, the authors make a significant contribution to current debates in policy and practice, both within the charter sector and in the larger landscape of public education.

Priscilla Wohlstetter is distinguished research professor in the department of education policy and social analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a senior research fellow with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Joanna Smith is an assistant research professor at USC’s Rossier School of Education and assistant director of the Center on Educational Governance. Caitlin C. Farrell is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.