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 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.

Charter School Teacher Job Satisfaction

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 951-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine H. Roch ◽  
Na Sai
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Education Management ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Charter Management Organizations

We examine whether working conditions in charter schools and traditional public schools lead to different levels of job satisfaction among teachers. We distinguish among charter schools managed by for-profit education management organizations (EMOs) and non-profit charter management organizations (CMOs) and stand-alone charter schools. We investigate our research question using data from the School and Staffing Survey. We find that teachers in charter schools are less satisfied with their jobs than teachers in traditional public schools. We also find that teachers in EMO-managed schools appear less satisfied than those in stand-alone charter schools. Our analyses suggest that lower salaries and limited union memberships help drive these lower levels of satisfaction, particularly among stand-alone charter schools and charter schools managed by EMOs.

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.

scholarly journals Student Enrollment Patterns and Achievement in Ohio’s Online Charter Schools

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
June Ahn ◽  
Andrew McEachin
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Low Income ◽  
School Enrollment ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Enrollment Patterns ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

We utilize state data of nearly 1.7 million students in Ohio to study a specific sector of online education: K–12 schools that deliver most, if not all, education online, lack a brick-and-mortar presence, and enroll students full-time. First, we explore e-school enrollment patterns and how these patterns vary by student subgroups and geography. Second, we evaluate the impact of e-schools on students’ learning, comparing student outcomes in e-schools to outcomes in two other schooling types, traditional charter schools and traditional public schools. Our results show that students and families appear to self-segregate in stark ways where low-income, lower achieving White students are more likely to choose e-schools while low-income, lower achieving minority students are more likely to opt into the traditional charter school sector. Our results also show that students in e-schools are performing worse on standardized assessments than their peers in traditional charter and traditional public schools. We close with policy recommendations and areas for future research.

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 Holistic Model for Blended Learning

2010 ◽  
pp. 200-213
Author(s):  
Alex Stone
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Public School ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Holistic Model ◽  
New Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
K 12

Pennsylvania is at the forefront of the public cyber charter schooling movement in America. As more and more students elect to transfer from traditional public schools into cyber charter schools–and their districts of origin are forced to forfeit their tuition allocations–a need for a public school alternative to cyber charter schools has emerged. Using current practices in Pennsylvania’s public schools as a backdrop, this article presents a new model for district-level cyber schooling, called the holistic model for blended learning, that public schools in Pennsylvania (and elsewhere) can use to compete with cyber charter schools and meet the growing demand for K-12 online learning.

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.

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.

School Choice, Racial Segregation, and Poverty Concentration: Evidence From Pennsylvania Charter School Transfers

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Kotok ◽  
Erica Frankenberg ◽  
Kai A. Schafft ◽  
Bryan A. Mann ◽  
Edward J. Fuller
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Latino Students ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Racial Isolation ◽  
Poverty Concentration ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
Student Transfers

This article examines how student movements between traditional public schools (TPSs) and charters—both brick and mortar and cyber—may be associated with both racial isolation and poverty concentration. Using student-level data from the universe of Pennsylvania public schools, this study builds upon previous research by specifically examining student transfers into charter schools, disaggregating findings by geography. We find that, on average, the transfers of African American and Latino students from TPSs to charter schools were segregative. White students transferring within urban areas transferred to more racially segregated schools. Students from all three racial groups attended urban charters with lower poverty concentration.

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.

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