scholarly journals Circles of influence: An analysis of charter school location and racial patterns at varying geographic scales

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charisse Gulosino ◽  
Chad DEntremont
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
New Jersey ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Dynamic Mapping ◽  
Student Sorting ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
Block Groups

This paper uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and dynamic mapping to examine student enrollments in New Jersey charter schools. Consistent with previous research, we find evidence of increased racial segregation. Greater percentages of African-Americans attend charter schools than reside in surrounding areas. We add to the existing charter school literature by more fully considering the importance of charter school supply and examining student enrollments across three geographic scales: school districts, census tracts and block groups. We demonstrate that racial segregation is most severe within charter schools’ immediate neighborhoods (i.e. block groups), suggesting that analyses comparing charter schools to larger school districts or nearby public schools may misrepresent student sorting. This finding appears to result from the tendency of charter schools in New Jersey to cluster just outside predominately African-American neighborhoods, encircling the residential locations of the students they are most likely to enroll.

Fiscal Impacts of Charter Schools: Lessons from New York

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bifulco ◽  
Randall Reback
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Financing Policies ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Excess Costs ◽  
Fiscal Impacts ◽  
School Financing

This brief argues that charter school programs can have direct fiscal impacts on school districts for two reasons. First, operating two systems of public schools under separate governance arrangements can create excess costs. Second, charter school financing policies can distribute resources to or away from districts. Using the city school districts of Albany and Buffalo in New York, we demonstrate how fiscal impacts on local school districts can be estimated. We find that charter schools have had fiscal impacts on these two school districts. Finally, we argue that charter schools policies should seek to minimize any avoidable excess costs created by charter schools and ensure that the burden of any unavoidable excess costs is equitably distributed across traditional public schools, charter schools, and the state. We offer concrete policy recommendations that may help to achieve these objectives.

scholarly journals The Fiscal Externalities of Charter Schools: Evidence from North Carolina

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen F. Ladd ◽  
John D. Singleton
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Detailed Balance ◽  
Balance Sheet ◽  
School Pupil ◽  
Fiscal Externalities ◽  
State And Local

A significant criticism of the charter school movement is that funding for charter schools diverts money away from traditional public schools. The magnitude of such adverse fiscal externalities depends in part on the nature of state and local funding policies. In this paper, we examine the fiscal effects of charter schools on both urban and nonurban school districts in North Carolina. We base our analysis on detailed balance sheet information for a sample of school districts that experienced substantial charter growth since the statewide cap on charters was raised in 2011. We find a large and negative fiscal impact in excess of $500 per traditional public school pupil in our one urban school district, which translates into an average fiscal cost of about $3,600 for each student enrolled in charter schools. We estimate comparable to somewhat larger fiscal externalities per charter school pupil for two nonurban districts.

The Sorting Effect of Charter Schools on Student Composition in Traditional Public Schools

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongmei Ni
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Disadvantaged Students ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Charter School Policy ◽  
Student Sorting

This article investigates how Michigan’s charter school policy influences the composition of students by race and socioeconomic status in urban traditional public schools. Using 2 years of student-level data in Michigan’s urban elementary and middle schools, the dynamic student transfers between charter schools and TPSs are analyzed through a series of hierarchical generalized linear models. The two-way transfer analysis shows that the student sorting under the charter school program tends to intensify the isolation of disadvantaged students in less effective urban schools serving a high concentration of similarly disadvantaged students. The findings imply that a challenge for the state policy makers is to help disadvantaged students who are left behind in the most disadvantaged schools, without significantly reducing the benefits to students who take advantage of school choice.

scholarly journals Integrating Schools by Family Income: A Promising Education Reform or Unattainable Dream?

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Robin Kane
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Equity In Education ◽  
Income Levels ◽  
Concentrated Poverty ◽  
Key Policy ◽  
Reform Debate

Integrating public schools by family income is a relatively new proposal in the education reform debate. To enhance equity in education, advocates have sought approaches that will not meet the judicial resistance that race has met when used to integrate schools. This paper provides a review of the proposal to integrate public schools by family income. It examines research on achievement by students of all income levels in schools with concentrated poverty, trends in racial segregation, and the case in support of plans to balance schools by family income. The paper also provides a summary of the plans in place in two school districts, the response of key policy players to these plans, and the possible challenges to wider implementation.

Do charter schools alleviate the negative effect of teacher turnover?

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlerik Naslund ◽  
Branco Ponomariov
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
Public School Districts ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Using Data

Using data on charter and public school districts in Texas, we test the hypothesis that the labor practices in charter schools, in particular their ability to easily dismiss poorly performing teachers, diminishes the negative effect of teacher turnover on student achievement and graduation rates in comparison to public schools. We find some support for this hypothesis, and discuss implications for theory and practice.

Crossroads: Integration and segregation in suburban school districts

2020 ◽  
Vol 101 (5) ◽  
pp. 44-49
Author(s):  
Iris C. Rotberg
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Suburban Schools ◽  
Asian Students ◽  
Montgomery County ◽  
Demographic Diversity ◽  
Suburban School Districts ◽  
Large Numbers

As U.S. suburbs become more racially and ethnically diverse, they have the opportunity to make their schools similarly diverse. But integration is not assured, even in districts with significant demographic diversity. Iris Rotberg draws on Montgomery County Public Schools, a suburban Maryland district, to illustrate the opportunities and risks present in many other suburban districts. While large numbers of Montgomery County students attend diverse schools, segregation is a growing problem in the higher-poverty schools, and Black and Latinx students attending these schools have become more segregated in recent years. At the same time, White and Asian students attending low-poverty schools are in more diverse environments. Rotberg considers how policies related to school boundaries, housing, charter schools, and district secession have affected the integration of suburban schools.

scholarly journals Charter School Authorization: A Gateway to Excellence and Equity

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Karen Stansberry Beard ◽  
Omotayo Adeeko
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
School Governance ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Governance Models

The lack of quality education many charter schools offer disproportionately and adversely impacts communities of color. This article considered two models of charter school governance in use by California and Ohio. The first model posits that a fundamental tenet of charter schools is freedom from the burdensome bureaucracy traditional public schools bear. Based on the argument that deregulation enables charter schools to employ more innovative instructional and management practices, it assumes higher achievement scores would follow. The second model proposes to address educational inequality by increasing accountability on charter school authorizers by increasing regulatory practices. These models example the variety of governance models extant. In addition, arguments supporting each model are presented. The authors conclude with a discussion that supports the position that while autonomy is essential to maintaining the original objectives of charter schools, states must hold authorizers accountable for student achievement.

scholarly journals The Accountability Bind

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Bulkley
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Educational Performance ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Performance Accountability ◽  
Future Work

Charter schools involve a trading of autonomy for accountability. This accountability comes through two forces—markets through the choices of parents and students, and accountability to government through the writing of contracts that must be renewed for schools to continue to operate. Charter schools are supposed to be more accountable for educational performance than traditional public schools because authorizers have the ability to revoke charter contracts. Here, I focus on one central component of accountability to government: performance accountability or accountability for educational outcomes to charter school authorizers through the revocation or non-renewal of charter contracts. In this paper, I suggest that contract-based accountability for educational performance in charter schools may not be working as proponents argued it would. This article explores some explanations for why there are very few examples of charter schools that have been closed primarily because of failure to demonstrate educational performance or improvement. Future work will need to test if these challenges for authorizers hold in a variety of contexts. The conclusion examines the implications of these findings for the future of charter school accountability.

Religiously Affiliated Charter Schools

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan C. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Federal Courts ◽  
State Law ◽  
Religiously Affiliated ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Charter School Movement ◽  
School Movement

Charter schools have grown significantly since 1991, when Minnesota became the first state to enact charter school legislation. Charter schools are public schools, as defined by federal and state law. Thus, when it comes to issues of religion and education, charter schools are bound by the same laws and legal precedents as public schools. As a result, local developers and state chartering agencies that seek to establish religious or faith-based charter schools are likely to fail in state and federal courts. This chapter examines this legal framework in the larger charter school movement.

Within-District Racial Segregation and the Elusiveness of White Student Return to Urban Public Schools

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chase M. Billingham
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Urban Schools ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
School Segregation ◽  
White Families ◽  
The Past ◽  
Urban Public Schools

Recent research has determined that racial segregation within school districts has decreased, on average, over the past two decades, even as segregation between school districts has persisted. Although case studies have documented White families’ return to urban public schools, with potential implications for segregation patterns, quantitative data on the scope of this trend are lacking. In this article, I examine enrollment and segregation within 97 urban districts from 1990 through 2010. The trend of White return to urban schools is quite limited; in most cities, White enrollment declines have persisted. Meanwhile, urban school segregation has increased modestly in recent decades.

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