Abstract

Keeping track of student outcomes associated with charter schools has been an ongoing objective for researchers and policymakers. The following review seeks to establish an up-to-date assessment of the state of the evidence available today. The scope of the review covers a wide variety of prior studies, and emphasizes the most recent research that has employed lottery-based designs and quasi-experimental analyses using longitudinal administrative data with robust controls. Included in this review is an additional focus on research that has attempted to unpack the heterogeneity observed within the charter school sector, with special attention to the different types of charter school operators. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the state of the evidence and key questions for future research.