Charter School Practices and Student Selection: An Equilibrium Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Epple ◽  
Francisco Martinez-Mora ◽  
Richard Romano
Keyword(s):  
Charter School ◽  
Equilibrium Analysis ◽  
Student Selection ◽  
School Practices

Understanding Charter School Leaders’ Perceptions of Competition in Arizona

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013161X2110373
Author(s):  
Benjamin Creed ◽  
Huriya Jabbar ◽  
Michael Scott
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
State Level ◽  
Local Market ◽  
School Practices ◽  
Logistic Regression Models

Purpose: School choice policies are expected to generate competition leading to improvement in school practices. However, little is known about how competition operates in public education—particularly in charter schools. This paper examines charter-school leaders’ competitive perception formation and the actions taken in response to competition. Research Methods: Using Arizona charter-school leaders’ responses to an original survey, Arizona Department of Education data, and the Common Core of Data, we examined the factors predicting the labeling of a school as a competitor. We estimated fixed effects logistic regression models which examine factors predicting the labeling of competitor schools and of top competitors. We used logistic regression models to understand charter-school leaders’ responses to competition. Findings: We find charter-school leaders in Arizona perceived at least some competition with other schools, and their perceptions vary by urbanicity. While distance between schools mattered generally for labeling a school as a competitor, distance did not factor into labeling “top competitor” schools. Student outcomes did not predict competition between schools, but student demographics were associated with labeling a school a competitor. Charter-school leaders responded to competition through changes in outreach and advertising rather than curriculum and instruction. Competitive responses were related to the respondent school’s quality and the level of perceived competition. Implications for Research and Practice: We found charter-school leaders perceive competition and respond by changing school practices. Responses typically focus on marketing activities over productive responses. The novel state-level analysis allows us to test the effects of local market conditions typically absent in the literature.

scholarly journals What Can We Learn from Charter School Lotteries?

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Chabrier ◽  
Sarah Cohodes ◽  
Philip Oreopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Charter School ◽  
English Language ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Performance Levels ◽  
School Practices ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Standard Deviations ◽  
The Relationship

We take a closer look at what can be learned about charter schools by pooling data from lottery-based impact estimates of the effect of charter school attendance at 113 schools. On average, each year enrolled at one of these schools increases math scores by 0.08 standard deviations and English/language arts scores by 0.04 standard deviations relative to attending a counterfactual public school. There is wide variation in impact estimates. To glean what drives this variation, we link these effects to school practices, inputs, and characteristics of fallback schools. In line with the earlier literature, we find that schools that adopt an intensive "No Excuses” attitude towards students are correlated with large positive effects on academic performance, with traditional inputs like class size playing no role in explaining charter school effects. However, we highlight that No Excuses schools are also located among the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the country. After accounting for performance levels at fallback schools, the relationship between the remaining variation in school performance and the entire No Excuses package of practices weakens. No Excuses schools are effective at raising performance in neighborhoods with very poor performing schools, but the available data have less to say on whether the No Excuses approach could help in nonurban settings or whether other practices would similarly raise achievement in areas with low-performing schools. We find that intensive tutoring is the only No Excuses characteristic that remains significant (even for nonurban schools) once the performance levels of fallback schools are taken into account.

Citizenship Development and the Market’s Impact: Examining Democratic Learning in Charter Schools in Two Regions

2020 ◽  
pp. 089590482090148
Author(s):  
Laura E. Hernández ◽  
Elise Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Organizational Survival ◽  
School Practices ◽  
Democratic Engagement ◽  
Democratic Learning ◽  
Market Pressures

The marketization of U.S. schools has increasingly complicated and even undermined the democratic aims of education, causing many to argue that democratic and market ideologies are fundamentally opposed. This meta-ethnographic study uses conceptual tools from democratic theory and the research on civic education to investigate how leaders in one market-based organization—charter schools—grapple with tensions between the market and democracy in fostering the democratic orientations of their students and parents. Findings reveal that charter leaders primarily facilitate democratic learning opportunities that advance their organizational interests and promote a narrow and more individualistic conceptualization of democracy at the expense of a communitarian, justice-oriented one. The bounded vision of democracy observed in charter school practices suggests that market pressures may drive charters to focus their democratic engagement on the instrumental aims of ensuring their organizational survival in a competitive educational marketplace, despite espoused commitments to broader democratic aims.

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