Charter schools on average improve to the level of traditional public schools
- In a year’s time, the typical charter school student in New Mexico made similar progress in both reading and math compared to the educational gains that the student would have made in a traditional public school. This result represented an improvement in the charter sector compared to earlier periods in which the performance of charter school students lagged behind their peers.
- Online charter schools are another story. Enrollment in online charter schools is associated with substantially weaker learning gains in both reading and math.
- The outlook for a large proportion of charter schools with below-average growth and low achievement is a source of great concern in New Mexico. Students in these schools will fall further behind their traditional public school peers in the state academically over time if their negative growth persists.