“The Price of Disaster”: The Charter School Authorization Process in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Charter schools because of their entanglements with privatization remain one of the most publicly contested and controversial educational reform initiatives. Charter schools, in theory, are to balance autonomy and accountability in order to provide students with innovative learning environments and increased achievement on traditional academic measures. The governance of charter schools and the vision espoused in the charter application are central in determining the organization and operation of charter schools. As such, connected to charter schools are the actors that envision them and the processes and policies that enable them. Utilizing the case of post-Katrina New Orleans, I examine the charter authorization process, an understudied aspect of charter school policy. Understood as an objective, colorblind process in mainstream policy articulations, the authorization process regulates entry into educational markets. This paper applies a Critical Race Theory analysis to the authorization process. I argue the charter school authorization process is a foundational gatekeeping mechanism that structures charter markets. In so doing, the charter school authorization process is embedded within and constitutive of on-going processes of racial formation and racialized power solidification. Moreover, I argue mainstream policy articulations situate the charter school authorization process as an accountability mechanism that is neutral, benign, and objective; such articulations distort and distract from the racial antagonisms upon which neoliberal reform projects are built.

Tracing the Historical DNA and Unlikely Alliances of the American Charter School Movement

More than three million children in the United States are currently enrolled in charter schools, with increasing enrollments despite strong evidence of academic gains. This historical analysis moves beyond a focus on academic outcomes and traces the success of the charter school movement, in part, to the foundational premise of restoring agency to educational stakeholders. State-mandated schooling was a counterintuitive feature of American policy that chafed against the founding ideals of the Republic and gradually engendered resentment among mostly white conservatives. Concurrently, in the aftermath ofBrown,factions of African American policymakers began to look for equitable educational alternatives. The unlikely alliance of these two antithetical constituencies resulted in the creation of a unique—albeit fragile—coalition and the passing of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program and paved the way for the nation’s inaugural charter school policy passed in Minnesota in 1991.

Online Stratifcation: How Academic Performance Indicators Relate to Choices between Cyber Charter Schools

Background/Context A primary argument that supports charter school policy assumes students favor schools with high academic performance ratings, leading to systemic school improvement. Previous research challenges this assumption but has limited generalizability because geographic and enrollment constraints limit student choice sets. Purpose/Objective This study examines student enrollment patterns within cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania, a state where elected policymakers tend to view choice as a means for school improvement. Cyber charter schools are advantageous to study in this context because they have fewer enrollment barriers, helping researchers account for constraints found in previous studies. Research Design Using consecutive years of student-level enrollment data, we use descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression analyses to answer the following questions: Is a particular cyber charter school more popular if it displays relatively higher performance on academic indicators? To what extent do enrollments in the highest performing cyber charter school relate to the demographics of students and school environments that they left? Findings/Results The findings suggest that despite the more accessible choice sets inherent in the cyber charter school sector, academic performance indicators still are not linked to popularity within the sector. Enrollment clustering persists along student demographics and feeder district traits. Conclusions/Recommendations These findings suggest that even in the cyber charter school sector where key enrollment restrictions are removed, inequitable enrollment patterns persist. These findings continue to challenge basic assumptions used in school choice policy framing. Policymakers should consider this evidence when and if they design and implement charter school policy, creating policy that accounts for inequitable enrollments that occur under current policy logic.

Proving I’m Right: Charter School Policy and Selective Exposure to Information

Research suggests that individuals may make choices about the information they consume that are influenced by what they already believe. In this study, I investigate this process in a particularly contentious policy arena: charter schools. What kinds of information are important to people as they evaluate charter school policy? Are their choices shaped by their prior beliefs? Overall, I find that indeed people tend to seek out information that aligns with their prior beliefs. Altogether, the results of this study suggest that the dynamics of selective exposure present in the political arena more broadly also exist within education policy.

Examining charter school policy and public school district resource allocation in Ohio

This project focuses on the competitive pressure, or the threat of competitive pressure, generated by charter school policy. This paper uses longitudinal district-level data and multiple quasi-experimental designs to examine the relationship between two Ohio charter school policies and changes in public school district instructional resource allocation. Some believe that the competitive pressure created by charter schools will improve efficiency in district-run public schools; however, the findings from this study do not reliably demonstrate that charter school policy will induce a public school district to increase the level of instructional resource allocation. The findings do provide evidence that some charter policies are linked to changes in resource allocation at certain school districts. This study suggests that additional, multiple method investigations are needed to study how public school districts respond to competition and policies designed to change the levels of competition in the public school system.

Foundations and the Development of the U.S. Charter School Policy-Planning Network: Implications for Democratic Schooling and Civil Rights

This chapter uses the policy-planning network concept to explain why charter school reform has become a prominent reform strategy, especially in urban districts serving primarily poor children of color. It then identifies components of the emerging charter school policy-planning network. Informed by social network and document analysis drawn from foundation financial reports, examinations of boards of directors and advisors, reviews of works cited in advocacy and research reports, speeches, and media reports, the chapter finds that the charter school policy-planning network is made up of at least eight interrelated institutional forms. Specifically, this network is characterized by: (1) local charter schools; (2) charter school management organizations; (3) charter school real estate development corporations; (4) charter school and school choice advocacy organizations; (5) alternative teacher and leadership preparation programs; (6) choice-sympathetic policy makers; (7) independent research units (think tanks, university-affiliated groups, and research corporations); and (8) foundations and venture philanthropies. The chapter discusses the implications of this network for democratic participation in urban schooling.