Recent work has shown that Boston charter schools raise standardized test scores more than their traditional school counterparts. Critics of charter schools argue that charter schools create those achievement gains by focusing exclusively on test preparation, at the expense of deeper learning. In this paper, I test that critique by estimating the impact of charter school attendance on subscales of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System and examining them for evidence of score inflation. If charter schools are teaching to the test to a greater extent than their counterparts, one would expect to see higher scores on commonly tested standards, higher-stakes subjects, and frequently tested topics. Despite incentives to reallocate effort away from less frequently tested content to highly tested content, and to coach to item type, I find no evidence of this type of test preparation. Boston charter middle schools perform consistently across all standardized test subscales.

Strategic Performance Indicators (SPIs) are summary measures derived from parallel, descriptive analyses conducted across educational agencies. The SPIs are designed to inform agency management and efforts to improve student outcomes. We developed the SPIs to reveal patterns common across partner agencies, to highlight exceptions to those patterns, and to provide tools for educational agencies to understand their own successes and challenges. We present two examples of SPI briefs and highlight specific steps partner agencies have taken in response to such analyses. Our goal is that, with data, the SPIs will catalyze educational agencies to engage in deep investigation. If educational systems must rely on academic researchers to make progress on core management challenges, progress will be slow. The ability to use and analyze administrative data must be integrated into the everyday management of educational systems, much as it has been in many other sectors of the modern economy.