Indiana Charter School Performance During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted schooling nationwide and contributed to substantial declines in student achievement. At the same time, enrollment patterns shifted and charter school sectors expanded in several states, raising questions about whether charter schools were better positioned to support student learning during and after the pandemic. This study estimates the effect of attending a charter school on student achievement growth in Indiana during and after the pandemic using statewide longitudinal administrative data from 2017-18 through 2023–24. We compare charter school students with observationally similar traditional public school students using regression models with inverse probability weighting based on propensity scores and controls for prior achievement and student characteristics. During the 2020–21 school year, charter school students performed similarly to traditional public school peers in mathematics and modestly outperformed them in English/language arts. In post-pandemic years, charter school students experienced greater achievement growth in both subjects, with moderate effect sizes. These gains were concentrated among Black, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged, and lower-performing students. Differences in chronic absenteeism or instructional modality do not explain these patterns. The results are similar in magnitude to a companion study in Tennessee, suggesting charter schools may have contributed to stronger post-pandemic academic recovery.