Many no excuses charter schools have high test scores, but critics are often skeptical that those scores will translate into outcomes that really matter, like getting through college, writes Matt Barnum on Chalkbeat.

However, he writes, “a new study offers evidence that attending the Chicago-based Noble charter network does help students succeed after high school.”

Authors Matthew Davis and Blake Heller compared students who got a seat at Noble’s original high school through a lottery to those who applied but lost. They find that attending Noble meant a student was 10 percentage points more likely to enroll in college and stay for at least four semesters.

Noble’s students were also much more likely to go to more selective and four-year colleges, where other research has shown students are more likely to ultimately graduate.

The study, by Matthew Davis and Blake Heller, was just published in Education Finance and Policy.

A reader-friendly version of the study, “Raising More Than Test Scores,” is available from Education Next.

— Education Next