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 Are California’s Charter Schools the New Separate-But-Equal “Schools of Excellence,” or Are They Worse Than Plessy?

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph O. Oluwole ◽  
Preston C. Green
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.

The Closing Door

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 747-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Paino ◽  
Rebecca L. Boylan ◽  
Linda A. Renzulli
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Black Students ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Traditional Schools ◽  
Racial Equity ◽  
Traditional Public Schools

Charter schools are promoted by policy makers and advocates as a way to reduce educational inequality. Charter schools tend to enroll higher proportions of black students than do traditional public schools. However, the accountability function of charter schools means that these schools are also more likely to close than traditional public schools. A high incidence of closure can lead to educational instability with students moving in and out of charter schools and traditional schools. We use critical race theory to build on prior work, examining the factors that may promote or constrain charter school closure. Specifically, we ask, how do the racial demographics of a charter school affect its likelihood of closure? Our findings reveal that as the proportion of black students in a charter school increases, so too does its likelihood of closings. Our work suggests that the promotion of charter schools as avenues of racial equity may be misleading.

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 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.

scholarly journals Charter Schools and Mathematics Achievement in the State of Georgia

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Raymond D. Mooring
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
Math Achievement ◽  
Analysis Of Covariance ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Mathematics

This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and factorial analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to investigate the relationship between a school’s charter status and Math achievement. After accounting for school gender and ethnicity effects, charter school status is associated with Math achievement. Specifically, the initial status of Math achievement varies depending on ethnicity and gender, but the growth rate does not. Furthermore, district characteristics help to explain the charter school effect on Math achievement. Charter schools outperform traditional public schools when they receive an average amount of instructional funds. To this end, the charter gap in Math achievement decreases over time in districts that spend on instruction and have a substantial amount of minorities. When compared to traditional public schools with similar characteristics, charter schools with high percentages of Black students and/or low percentages of females outperformed their matched traditional public school counterparts. 

scholarly journals Teacher community in elementary charter schools.

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Cannata
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Teacher Community ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Traditional Public School ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Charter School Teachers

The organizational context of charter schools may facilitate the formation of a strong teacher community. In particular, a focused school mission and increased control over teacher hiring may lead to stronger teacher professional communities. This paper uses the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey to compare the level of teacher community in charter public and traditional public schools. It also estimates the effect of various charter policy variables and domains of school autonomy on teacher community. Charter school teachers report higher levels of teacher community than traditional public school teachers do, although this effect is less than one-tenth of a standard deviation and is dwarfed by the effect of a supportive principal, teacher decision-making influence, and school size. Charter public schools authorized by universities showed lower levels of teacher community than those authorized by local school districts. Teachers in charter schools that have flexibility over tenure requirements and the school budget report higher levels of teacher community. This study reveals that charter schools do facilitate the formation of strong teacher communities, although the effect is small. The analysis also suggests that the institutional origin of the charter school and specific areas of policy flexibility may influence teacher community.

scholarly journals Choice without Equity: Charter School Segregation

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Frankenberg ◽  
Genevieve Siegel-Hawley ◽  
Jia Wang
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
White Students ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
School Enrollment ◽  
School Level ◽  
School Segregation ◽  
School Students ◽  
Traditional Public Schools

The political popularity of charter schools is unmistakable. This article explores the relationship between charter schools and segregation across the country, in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students in 2007-08. The descriptive analysis of the charter school enrollment is aimed at understanding the enrollment and characteristics of charter school students and the extent to which charter school students are segregated, including how charter school segregation compare to students in traditional public schools.  This article examines these questions at different levels, aggregating school-level enrollment to explore patterns among metropolitan areas, states, and the nation using three national datasets.  Our findings suggest that charters currently isolate students by race and class. This analysis of recent data finds that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the nation.  In some regions, white students are over-represented in charter schools while in other charter schools, minority students have little exposure to white students.  Data about the extent to which charter schools serve low-income and English learner students is incomplete, but suggest that a substantial share of charter schools may not enroll such students. As charters represent an increasing share of our public schools, they influence the level of segregation experienced by all of our nation’s school children. After two decades, the promise of charter schools to use choice to foster integration and equality in American education has not yet been realized.

Teacher Working Conditions in Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools: A Comparative Study

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongmei Ni
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
School Type ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Teacher Working Conditions ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
K 12

Background/Context Teachers affect student performance through their interaction with students in the context of the classrooms and schools where teaching and learning take place. Although it is widely assumed that supportive working conditions improve the quality of instruction and teachers’ willingness to remain in a school, little is known about whether or how the organizational structure of charter schools influences teacher working conditions. Purpose/Research Question This article compares teacher working conditions in charter and traditional public schools and among various types of charter schools. In doing so, it seeks to understand whether the different working conditions are influenced by the intrinsic institutional features of charter schools such as autonomy and competition, or by the extraneous factors such as measureable school and teacher characteristics. Research Design This study utilized data from the 2003–2004 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), the nation's most extensive survey of K–12 schools and teachers, both for charter schools and traditional public schools (TPSs). This article is a quantitative analysis that involves three main steps. First, based on the responses to the SASS teacher questionnaire, confirmatory factor analysis was performed to generate multiple factors corresponding to key dimensions of teacher working conditions. Second, propensity score matching was used to pair charter schools with TPSs that are similar in terms of school location, educational level, school type, and student demographics. This matching process mitigates the confounding effects of these extraneous factors on teachers’ perceptions of working conditions. Finally, a series of weighted Hierarchical Linear Models were utilized to compare teachers’ perceptions of working conditions between charter and traditional public schools, controlling for teacher and school characteristics. Conclusions/Recommendations The results show that charter and traditional public school teachers perceive their working conditions to be similar in many regards, including principal leadership, sense of community and collegiality, classroom autonomy, opportunities for professional development, and adequacy of instructional supplies. However, charter school teachers perceive that they have significantly more influence over school policies, but a heavier workload than traditional school teachers. Among charter schools, district-granted charter schools show consistently more supportive working environments than charters granted by other organizations. This implies that state policy can have some indirect influence over charter school working conditions by providing substantial administrative support and oversight to charter schools authorized by independent organizations other than the established structure of school 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 Do charter schools receive their fair share of funding? School finance equity for charter and traditional public schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
David S. Knight ◽  
Laurence A. Toenjes
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public School ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
School Finance ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Traditional Public School ◽  
Finance Policy ◽  
Cost Factors

U.S. charter schools are publicly funded through state school finance formulas that often mirror the traditional public school finance systems. While charter school advocates and critics disagree over whether charters receive an equitable share of funding, few discussions are based on rigorous analyses of funding and expenditures. Most prior analyses, especially those presented in policy briefs or white papers, examine average funding differences without exploring underlying cost factors between the two sectors. Our purpose is to demonstrate how careful analysis of charter school funding with appropriate methodological approaches can shed light on disagreements about charter school finance policy. Using detailed school finance data from Texas as a case study, we find that after accounting for differences in accounting structures and cost factors, charter schools receive significantly more state and local funding compared to traditional public schools with similar structural characteristics and student demographics. However, many small charter schools are actually underfunded relative to their traditional public school counterparts. Policy simulations demonstrate that on average, each student who transfers to a charter school increases the cost to the state by $1,500. We discuss the implications of these findings for both school finance policy in Texas and nationally. 

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