The Impact of Increasing Funding for High-Performing Ohio Charter Schools: The Quality Community School Support Fund, 2019–23

The analysis employs a statistical method that enables one to assess the causal impact of public policies. Specifically, it employs a “regression discontinuity” (RD) design that compares the outcomes of schools that narrowly met QCSSF program requirements to the outcomes of schools that narrowly failed to meet those requirements. The RD design’s assumption, which this analysis tests, is that schools near the performance cutoff were nearly identical except that some went on to receive extra funding and others did not. The study’s reliance on school-level outcome data available for only two post-program years (2021–22 and 2022–23) limits its scope and the precision of the impact estimates. The RD method’s focus on charter schools near the program’s cutoff (schools with approximately average achievement among charters) also means the results may not generalize to all charter schools. Nevertheless, this study’s estimates are plausibly causal and the best evidence available of the QCSSF program’s effects.