New York, NY —

Another study finds students in New York City charter schools are performing better on average than their peers in regular public schools. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

REPORTER: Researchers at Stanford University compared students in 49 of the city's charter schools to control groups of kids who are demographically and academically similar, to see if the charters got better results. Over a 3-year period, the charter students performed four points higher on their state reading tests. Their math scores averaged 15 points higher. Margaret Raymond, who directs the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford, says that might not sound huge but it is statistically significant. Blacks and Hispanics also performed significantly better in charters; but special education students and English Language Learners didn't perform any better or worse. This is the second study in a year finding charter school students in New York City outperform their peers in regular schools. Charters get public funds but are privately managed and critics claim they attract more academically inclined students. But Raymond says she saw no evidence of that. For WNYC, I'm Beth Fertig.

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