Charter Schools: Do They Work?

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Education | January 31, 2017

By Michael Q. McShane | Read Time 1 minute minutes

With a new administration in place in Jefferson City, don’t be surprised if discussion of charter schools (amongh other school choice initiatives) ramps up in the coming months. With this in mind, the Show-Me Institute’s Director of Education Policy has released an essay exploring the most basic question of all concerning charters: Are they effective? The question sounds simple, but the answers are nuanced and multifaceted. McShane’s essay surveys and synthesizes data about the impact charter schools have on the students who attend them and also the students who remain in traditional public schools. Click on the link below to read the entire paper.

About the Author

Michael Q. McShane

Michael Q. McShane is Senior Fellow of Education Policy at the Show-Me Institute. A former high school teacher, he earned a Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas, an M.Ed. from the University of Notre Dame, and a B.A. in English from St. Louis University. McShanes analyses and commentary have been published widely in the media, including in the Huffington Post, National Affairs, USA Today, and The Washington Post. He has also been featured in education-specific outlets such as Teachers College Commentary, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, and Education Next. In addition to authoring numerous white papers, McShane has had academic work published in Education Finance and Policy and the Journal of School Choice. He is the editor of New and Better Schools (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015), the author of Education and Opportunity (AEI Press, 2014), and coeditor of Teacher Quality 2.0 (Harvard Education Press, 2014) and Common Core Meets Education Reform (Teachers College Press, 2013).

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