To Switch or Not to Switch? The Influence of School Choice and Labor Market Segmentation on Teachers’ Job Searches

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-399
Author(s):  
Huriya Jabbar ◽  
Andrene Castro ◽  
Emily Germain
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Institutional Barriers ◽  
Labor Market Segmentation ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Job Searches ◽  
Different Types

Informal and institutional barriers may limit teacher movement between charter schools and traditional public schools (TPSs). However, we know little about how teachers choose schools in areas with a robust charter school sector. This study uses qualitative data from 123 teachers to examine teachers’ job decisions in three cities with varying charter densities: San Antonio, Detroit, and New Orleans. Our findings illuminate different types of segmentation and factors that facilitate and limit mobility between sectors. We find that structural policies within each sector can create barriers to mobility across charter schools and TPSs and that teachers’ ideological beliefs and values serve as informal, personal barriers that reinforce divides between sectors. This study offers implications for policy in districts with school choice.

The Next Frontier in Public Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 255-269
Author(s):  
Belinda M. Cambre
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Traditional Schools ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Accountability Measures ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
K 12

Publicly funded alternatives to traditional public schools have taken place in the form of charter schools and, most recently, cyber charter schools. Cyber charter schools are fully online K-12 public schools and they “look” like traditional schools since students learn traditional subjects and are still subject to the same public accountability measures as their traditional brick and mortar counterparts. This chapter examines cyber charter schools in practice and summarizes the most controversial issues surrounding this form of school choice. Issues such as the legality of cyber charters under state charter laws; the allocation of per pupil funding; the use of for-profit companies in school management; ensuring access to cyber charters; and fulfilling state mandates top the list of salient issues with respect to cyber charter schools.

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.

The Next Frontier in Public Education

2013 ◽  
pp. 1715-1729
Author(s):  
Belinda M. Cambre
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Traditional Schools ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Accountability Measures ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
K 12

Publicly funded alternatives to traditional public schools have taken place in the form of charter schools and, most recently, cyber charter schools. Cyber charter schools are fully online K-12 public schools and they “look” like traditional schools since students learn traditional subjects and are still subject to the same public accountability measures as their traditional brick and mortar counterparts. This chapter examines cyber charter schools in practice and summarizes the most controversial issues surrounding this form of school choice. Issues such as the legality of cyber charters under state charter laws; the allocation of per pupil funding; the use of for-profit companies in school management; ensuring access to cyber charters; and fulfilling state mandates top the list of salient issues with respect to cyber charter schools.

A Descriptive Analysis of Cream Skimming and Pushout in Choice versus Traditional Public Schools

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-65
Author(s):  
Adam Kho ◽  
Ron Zimmer ◽  
Andrew McEachin
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Probability Models ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Selective Admissions ◽  
Cream Skimming ◽  
Linear Probability

One of the controversies surrounding charter schools is whether these schools may either “cream skim” high-performing students from traditional public schools or “pushout” low-achieving students or students with discipline histories, leaving traditional public schools to educate the most challenging students. In this study, we use longitudinal statewide data from Tennessee and North Carolina and linear probability models to examine whether there is evidence consistent with these selective enrollment practices. Because school choice programs managed by districts (magnet and open enrollment programs) have a similar ability to cream skim and pushout students, we also examine these outcomes for these programs. Across the various school choice programs, magnet schools have the most evidence of cream skimming, but this might be expected as they often have selective admissions. For charter schools, we do not find patterns in the data consistent with cream skimming, but we do find evidence consistent with pushout behaviors based on discipline records. Finally, some have raised concerns that students may be pushed out near accountability test dates, but our results suggest no evidence consistent with this claim.

Misrepresenting Brown: Are Ohio Schools Lost in the Free Market? General Implications for Urban Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 1203-1223
Author(s):  
Jane Beese ◽  
Jennifer Martin
Keyword(s):  
Urban Education ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Minority Student ◽  
Virtual Schools ◽  
Community Schools ◽  
Virtual School ◽  
Traditional Public Schools

The privatization of public funds for education through school choice programs has fueled the expansion of virtual online charter schools. This redirection of funds contributes to the idea that virtual school success is comparable or even superior to the performance of traditional public schools. The schools most adversely affected are the schools with the highest need, those serving children living in poverty and already underserved minority student populations: urban public schools. The purpose of this article is to investigate the performance of virtual schools and the redistribution of public monies from public to online community schools in Ohio.

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. 

A Look Back: Taking stock of public school choice in Kappan

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-7
Author(s):  
Teresa Preston
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public School ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Alternative Schools ◽  
Private School ◽  
Magnet Schools ◽  
Public School Choice ◽  
Look Back

In this monthly column, Kappan managing editor Teresa Preston explores how the magazine has covered the questions and controversies about school choice. Although many authors across the decades objected to the use of vouchers to pay private school tuition, those same authors lent support to the idea of choice among public schools. Advocates of public school choice have endorsed various models for providing choices, from alternative schools, to magnet schools, to charter schools.

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.

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