On Saturday, March 15, 2014, Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) released a new report finding that the typical student in a Los Angeles charter school gains more learning in a year than his or her district school peer, amounting to about 50 more days of learning in reading and an additional 79 days of learning in math.

We are delighted that CREDO’s research confirms our own findings – Los Angeles charter schools are performing incredibly well, especially with historically underserved students, and are improving over time. We are particularly encouraged to see that the Los Angeles charter school sector is recognized to be one of the strongest, if not the strongest charter school sector anywhere in the nation.

Charter schools in Los Angeles are generating learning equivalent to an extra 4 months in math and 2.5 months in English language arts. For low income students, the story is even better with Latino students in poverty experiencing an additional 6 months of learning in math and an extra 3 months in English Language arts for every year enrolled in a charter school. This explains a great deal about why parent demand for charter schools has led to enrollment tripling over the past six years.

Furthermore, the report finds that the performance of charter management organizations (CMOs) are helping students learn at rates far faster than within traditional public schools (an additional 3 months of learning in reading and an astounding 6 months in math). This finding increases our confidence that the charter school sector will continue to strengthen as it grows.

CREDO at Stanford University is the nation’s foremost independent analyst of charter school effectiveness. This report provides the first in-depth examination of the results for charter schools in Los Angeles by CREDO.

To download a copy of the report visit: http://credo.stanford.edu.