Publicwashing in Education: Definition, Motives, and Manifestations

This essay coins and conceptualizes the term “publicwashing.” In educational systems and organizations, publicwashing is a symbolic communication that emphasizes organizational publicness for the purpose of a superficial repair of reputation. The essay defines publicwashing and describes its motives and manifestations. Additionally, it illustrates publicwashing by discussing the concept in the context of the U.S. charter school reform. Adopting the lens of symbolic communication in the charter school case illustrates how the discrepancy between the “public” label and private characteristics of charter schools is managed through public relations. Future studies of publicwashing in education can further apply the symbolic communication approach to various cases, contexts, and deceptive strategies.

Bringing the Full Picture into Focus: A Consideration of the Internal and External Validity of Charter School Effects

The authors of this chapter describe an institutional arrangement for education in the United States: the provision of education through “charter schools,” an experiment in liberalization and decentralization begun in the early 1990s. They address whether charter schools raise student achievement on average compared to students in traditional public schools. They report that the authors of small-scale randomized studies report quite positive effects, but that as the sample of schools increases, the reported effects decline in size and significance, from which they conclude that while charter schools do not generally harm student achievement, they do not have significantly positive effects for the average student. They do, however, more positively affect poor and minority students and students in some urban centers. This underlines the importance of examining school effects across different geographies and social groups and the key role external validity plays in drawing policy implications from educational research.

The Movement Spreads

Chapter 7 discusses the spread of the movement across the country. It shows how small, under-resourced groups like Racial Justice NOW! in Dayton, Ohio, won significant victories by combining strong parent organizing with critical support from the national Dignity in Schools Campaign. It charts the efforts of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children to combat the school-to-prison pipeline in a privatized district dominated by charter schools. It examines the work of the Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline outside of Atlanta. It shows how students of color face sharply inequitable discipline despite attending higher performing schools and the challenges of confronting the school-to-prison pipeline in white-dominated districts used to serving majority white populations. The chapter ends in the suburbs surrounding Richmond, Virginia, where local organizers confront a system that has systematically denied educational opportunities to students of color with special needs.

Educating Latinx and African American Students in Charter Schools: A Comparative Study from Chicago

The public school system in U.S. has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Institutionally, neo-liberal reform has created a new educational apparatus known as charter schools. As they admit students without school boundaries, these schools promise to offer great opportunities for disadvantaged students. The enrollment in charter schools is mainly Latinx and Black students, especially in large urban areas. That demographic shift is not reflected in the literature because previous studies have predominately focused on comparisons between Whites and minorities. Using Chicago as a case, this study compares the association between the enrollment of Black and Latinx students with educational resources and academic performance in charter schools. Using Illinois Report Card data representing 119 public schools during the 2016 to 2017 academic year, we aimed to understand which group could more systemically benefit from charter schools. We found that although the enrollment of Black students might be associated with better educational resources (i.e., total number of school days per academic year, and class size), the enrollment of Latinx students predicted stronger school academic performance on the SAT and PARCC. Those findings can contribute to the debate about institutionalized racial inequality in education and the effects of charter schools.

Are federal single audit reports of internal control weaknesses a useful tool for evaluating management? The case of charter schools

PurposeThe authors examine whether reports of internal control weaknesses (ICWs) under federal single audit (FSA) guidelines are a useful tool for evaluating non-profit (NP) management, using a unique nationwide sample of NP charter schools. While prior research focuses on external stakeholder reactions to reported ICWs, little if any research addresses the utility of these reports for internal users. The authors fill this gap in the literature, finding evidence suggesting that NP charter school decision-makers use internal control (IC) reports when setting executive compensation – awarding lower pay increases when deficiencies are reported.Design/methodology/approachThe authors regress executive compensation changes on reported ICWs and likely determinants of NP compensation, including organization size, growth, liquidity and management performance, using a sample of 173 school/year observations representing 113 unique schools for the years 2012–2015.FindingsThe authors find a negative relationship with executive pay increases subsequent to reports of initial and repeated IC deficiencies, indicating that lower than average pay increases are awarded subsequent to reports of ICWs.Research limitations/implicationsInterpretation of the authors' results is subject to several limitations, including the possibility of omitted variable bias and the authors' sample, though it comprises all available data for the sample period, and is relatively small and may be considered exploratory in nature. Further, charter schools represent a unique public/private partnership in the educational sector, and the results may not be generalizable to other NPs. Future research could explore the relationship between reported IC deficiencies and governance in other, broader NP sectors.Practical implicationsThe authors' findings are useful to NP organization boards of directors as they consider what factors to evaluate in their chief executive officer (CEO) compensation decisions. In addition to other criteria, inclusion of IC effectiveness in the CEO reward system is prudent, especially in today's environment of increasingly important information security and IC matters. The results suggest such information is being included. This previously undocumented use is also of particular value to regulators when weighing the costs and benefits of mandating single audits for smaller NPs, who are otherwise unlikely to obtain information on the organization's IC environment.Social implicationsThese findings may help inform the debate regarding NP charter schools, a fast-growing, economically significant and highly controversial sector in public education. Charters are predominantly funded by state and local taxes. As such, the quality of governance in NP charter schools is of interest to a wide range of stakeholders including parents, regulators and the public at large.Originality/valueWhile prior research on ICWs and NPs focuses on external stakeholder reactions to reported ICWs, little if any research addresses the utility of these reports for internal users, especially in relatively smaller organizations. The research leverages the existence of charter schools, which are independent but present nationwide, providing a suitable sample of like organizations. Further, no extant research to the authors' knowledge examines the relationship of NP executive compensation and reported ICWs – a topic previously addressed in the for-profit (FP) literature.

When the Walls Come Down: Evidence on Charter Schools’ Ability to Keep Their Best Teachers Without Unions and Certification Rules

Theories of market-based school reform suggest that teacher labor markets may be inefficient because schools lack autonomy to incentivize performance in hiring, retention, and compensation. We test this empirically by comparing teacher exits in the deregulated market of New Orleans with neighboring traditional school districts. We find that the relationship between teacher performance and retention is stronger in the deregulated market. We also find positive associations between salary and performance, but only when teachers transfer from one charter school to another. While teacher retention is more closely tied to performance in New Orleans, this did not yield a net gain in teacher quality, because new teachers in New Orleans were of lower average quality than their peers in neighboring districts.