Are Charter Schools Safer in Deindustrialized Cities With High Rates of Crime? Testing Hypotheses in Detroit

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 725-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hamlin
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Parental Involvement ◽  
School Safety ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Student Surveys ◽  
Testing Hypotheses ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
High Crime

Families in deindustrialized cities with high crime rates report prioritizing school safety when opting for charter schools. Yet, very little research has investigated whether charter schools are safer than traditional public schools. This study compares charter and traditional public schools in Detroit, Michigan, on perceived school safety by linking student surveys to data on school, neighborhood, and parent-related characteristics. Charter schools exhibited higher perceived school safety than traditional public schools. However, controls for student commute distance and parental involvement largely diminished this difference. Neighborhood charter schools were an exception, maintaining higher perceived school safety net of controls. Overall results suggest that differences in perceived school safety between schools become less prominent after the attributes of school choosers are considered.

Practicing Parental Involvement: Heterogeneity in Parent Involvement Structures in Charter and Traditional Public Schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013161X2199043
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Boylan ◽  
Amy Petts ◽  
Linda Renzulli ◽  
Thurston Domina ◽  
Brittany Murray
Keyword(s):  
Parent Involvement ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Parental Involvement ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Private Good ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Nationally Representative

Purpose: This study examines differences in the mechanisms that charter schools and traditional public schools use to facilitate parental school involvement and the degree to which these differences account for the high levels of involvement among charter school parents. Data and Research Methods: We merge data from principals and teachers from the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey and National Teacher and Principal Survey with nonprofit tax data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics. We use ordinary least squares regression to explain how charter and traditional public schools involve parents in communal, public-good activities, and individualistic, private-good activities within schools. Findings: Charters are less likely than traditional public schools to use bureaucratic structures, like parent–teacher organizations, and more likely to use nontraditional and less bureaucratic structures, like parent workshops and compacts. The use of such structures mediates a portion of the charter advantage; however, they only partially explain the association between being a charter and parent involvement. Additionally, we find some of the outreach structures that are most common in charter schools, including compacts, are also more strongly associated with parent involvement in charter schools than in traditional public schools. Implications: While charters have more public-good and private-good parent involvement than traditional public schools, our results suggest that the uncritical adoption of outreach strategies from one sector to another is unlikely to result in equal gains in parental involvement.

scholarly journals Locating Chicago’s charter schools: A socio-spatial analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer C. LaFleur
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
The Body ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
Census Tracts ◽  
The Public ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Per Pupil Expenditures ◽  
Gis Software

This project contributes to the body of research examining the implications of the geographic location of charter schools for student access, especially in high-poverty communities. Using geographic information systems (GIS) software, this paper uses data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey to identify the socioeconomic characteristics of the census tracts in which Chicago’s charter schools tend to locate. Echoing the findings of other researchers who have examined charter school locational patterns, the present analyses found evidence of a “ceiling effect” by which many charter schools appear to locate in Chicago’s higher-needs census tracts, broadly cast, but avoid locating directly within those that are highest-need. The findings suggest that because Chicago’s charter schools face per-pupil expenditures that are often up to 20% less than those of traditional public schools, they may strategically leverage location to help shape student enrollment. By frequently locating near, but not directly within highest-need communities, charter schools may find it easier to attract a quorum of relatively higher achieving students who are less expensive to educate, therefore increasing their chances of meeting academic benchmarks and retaining their charters. By extending the findings of other researchers to the context of Chicago—where charters represent an ever-increasing share of the public school market—the present analyses may inform future revisions to the policies governing the authorization of charter schools in Chicago, with the goal of increasing access for highest-need students. 

Does the Organization of Instruction Differ in Charter Schools? Ability Grouping and Students’ Mathematics Gains

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Mark Berends ◽  
Kristi Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Mathematics Achievement ◽  
Ability Grouping ◽  
Market Theory ◽  
Ability Group ◽  
Achievement Gains ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Ability Groups ◽  
Group Placement

Background Although we have learned a good deal from lottery-based and quasi-experimental studies of charter schools, much of what goes on inside of charter schools remains a “black box” to be unpacked. Grounding our work in neoclassical market theory and institutional theory, we examine differences in the social organization of schools and classrooms to enrich our understanding of school choice, school organizational and instructional conditions, and student learning. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Our study examines differences in students’ mathematics achievement gains between charter and traditional public schools, focusing on the distribution and organization of students into ability groups. In short, we ask: (1) How does the distribution of ability grouping differ between charter and traditional public schools? And (2) What are the relationships between ability group placement and students’ mathematics achievement gains in charter and traditional public schools? Research Design With a matched sample of charter and traditional public schools in six states (Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio), we use regression analyses to estimate the relationship between student achievement gains and school sector. We analyze how ability grouping mediates this main effect, controlling for various student, classroom, and school characteristics. Findings We find significant differences in the distribution of students across ability groups, with a more even distribution in charter compared to traditional public schools, which appear to have more selective placements for high groups. Consistent with prior research on tracking, we also find low-grouped students to be at a significant disadvantage when compared with high- and mixed-group peers in both sectors. Conclusions Although we find some significant differences between ability group placement and student achievement gains in mathematics, these relationships do not differ as much by sector as market theory (with its emphasis on innovation and autonomy) would predict. Consistent with institutional theory, both sectors still group students by ability and have similar relationships between gains and grouping.

scholarly journals Principalship Socialization in Charter Schools

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Marytza A. Gawlik
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Stepping Stone ◽  
School Year ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Building Level

This study explores the ways in which charter schools manage principalship socialization of individuals as they move into principalship roles. The topic is important in the context of increasing concerns about the need for quality educational principalship and the pressure charter schools face to demonstrate higher levels of student achievement than traditional public schools. Data were collected from three charter elementary schools in Florida during the 2012–2013 school year. The results reveal variation among the schools with respect to preparation for principalship transitions and subsequent socialization. This study provides a conceptual/analytic framework that can serve as a foundation for future research, which should (1) highlight the practices associated with using socialization as a stepping stone to building-level principalship and (2) compare network-based and stand-alone charter schools with respect to principalship development.

On Leadership: Meeting charter schools in the middle

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-38
Author(s):  
Joshua P. Starr
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Policy Level ◽  
System Leaders ◽  
Pros And Cons

At the policy level, it’s important to keep debating the pros and cons of charter schools, when and where to permit them, and how best to govern them. But where those schools do exist, argues PDK’s CEO, system leaders can’t afford to take sides. Much more pressing is the need to coordinate among charters and traditional public schools and ensure that they work well for all children.

scholarly journals The Qualifications and Classroom Performance of Teachers Moving to Charter Schools

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celeste K. Carruthers
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Classroom Performance ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Traditional Public Schools

Do charter schools draw good teachers from traditional, mainstream public schools? Using a thirteen-year panel of North Carolina public schoolteachers, I find that less qualified and less effective teachers move to charter schools, particularly if they move to urban schools, low-performing schools, or schools with higher shares of nonwhite students. It is unclear whether these findings reflect lower demand for teachers’ credentials and value added or resource constraints unique to charter schools, but the inability to recruit teachers who are at least as effective as those in traditional public schools will likely hinder charter student achievement.

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