Using the Ohio Proficiency Test to Analyze the Academic Achievement of Charter School Students: 2002-2004

By Matthew Carr and Samuel R. Staley, posted December 21, 2005

Charter schools in Ohio have been subjected to harsh criticism for their academic performance in recent months.  Such criticism, however, has been based on inappropriate and overly simplistic analyses that do not take into account the unique nature and student populations that charter schools serve.

Using Ohio Proficiency Test (OPT) data from 2002 to 2004, this study advances our understanding of Ohio charter school performance by:

1. Applying a rigorous quantitative analysis, controlling for confounding influences such as family income, poverty, and building characteristics, to assess charter and public school performance;

2. Examining the improvement in student achievement rather than comparing absolute pass rates; and

3. Analyzing school performance by comparing similar schools with similar student populations.

The first stage of the analysis examined changes in passage rates while controlling for demographic variables such as income, poverty and race, revealing:

• Charter schools made greater gains on the OPT than the traditional, government-run schools on five subsections of the Ohio Proficiency Test: 4^thgrade Writing.

• There were no statistically significant differences between traditional and charter schools on five other tests: 4^th grade Science and 6^th grade Citizenship, Math, Reading, and Science.

• In all cases charter schools performed as well or better than traditional public schools.

The second stage of the analysis considered demographic characteristics as well as school characteristics such as spending on teachers and administration. This analysis revealed that:

• Charter schools made greater gains in the percentage of their students passing the OPT than the government-run schools on five subsections of the Ohio Proficiency Test: 4^th grade Citizenship, Math, and Reading plus 6^th grade Math and Reading.

• No statistically significant difference between charter schools and traditional public schools existed for three other tests: 4^th grade writing, 4^th grade science and 6^th grade Writing.

• As with the first model, in all cases charter schools performed as well or better than traditional public schools.

The results show another important trend that portends well for Ohio's public schools. Except for 4^th grade citizenship tests, traditional schools are showing robust gains on the OPT tests and their PIS scores. Thus it would appear that charter schools are also creating competition that spurs improvement in the traditional schools.