Traditional Public Schools Research Articles

Charter Schools and the Segregation of Students by Income

The share of students attending charter schools has been rising. There is evidence that charter school growth has increased socioeconomic segregation of students between schools. In this paper, we assess whether charter school growth affects how students are organized within nearby traditional public schools (TPS). We use administrative data from North Carolina to estimate the impact of charter school openings on segregation by income within nearby TPS. Our models exploit variation in the presence and location of charter schools over time between 2007 and 2014 for students in Grades 3 to 8. We find limited evidence that the segregation of students by income at the classroom level increases when charters open nearby. We find some evidence of increasing segregation in third grade and fourth grade math and third grade ELA classrooms at TPS within 2 miles of new charters in large urban districts schools. Our results vary somewhat depending on how we control for underlying trends and measure segregation. We find no effect of charter school growth on income segregation in higher grades.

U.S. Traditional Public School Principals’ Sensemaking of Their Role as School Marketers

The purpose of this study was to report how principals describe their role as marketers for their school and examine how these perceptions influence the ways in which principals engage in their daily work. To investigate this phenomenon I conducted 30 interviews with 10 traditional public school principals in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Specifically, I asked: How, if at all, do principals report acting as marketers for their school? and (2) How do marketing-related activities influence principals’ traditionally thought of work? The findings of this work indicate principals believe one of their most pressing responsibilities as school leader is to market their school to parents/guardians and the local community. As a result of this belief, principals spend a significant amount of time engaging in marketing-related tasks such as promoting their school and building a brand that is recognizable to the community.

Self-Contained Special Educators’ Perceptions toward Including Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in General Education Classes

ABSTRACT Teachers’ perceptions play a critical role in defining and giving meaning to new initiatives and policies in schools. However, very little is known about the perceptions of self-contained special educators responsible for students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD) pertaining to the inclusion of students with SCD in general education classes and how those perceptions impact educational programming. In this qualitative study, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 special educators responsible for students with SCD who taught in self-contained classes within traditional public schools. The interview was designed to explore special educators’ perceptions pertaining to including students with SCD in general education classes and possible personal and environmental factors that may influence their perceptions. The findings suggest that self-contained special educators responsible for students with SCD are tentatively supportive of including their students in general education classes. However, several factors (e.g., lack of support, student abilities and skills, general educator attitudes) and reservations appeared to impact special educators’ decision-making pertaining to including their students with SCD in general education classes.

The forces underlying the public school enrollment drop

Recent headlines describing the national drop in public school enrollment suggest that this is a shocking crisis brought on or worsened by the pandemic. However, Abbie Cohen argues that the current enrollment decline should not be a surprise. The underlying causes have festered for decades. Among these causes is the tension between the different purposes of public schools. Those who see schools primarily as a means of social mobility have promoted a variety of school choice initiatives. These efforts have pulled resources out of traditional public schools, making it more difficult to reduce inequality and prepare all young people for participation in a democratic society. The shortcomings of public schools, particularly in urban communities, have fed a growing mistrust of schools, which leads more families to seek other options. These trends put at risk public schools’ ability to serve the public good.

The effects of charter schools on neighborhood and school segregation: Evidence from New York City

ABSTRACT This paper estimates the effect of charter schools on the diversity of nearby traditional public schools (TPSs) and neighborhoods in New York City. We employ a difference-in-differences approach that exploits the variation in the expansion of the charter sector between grades in the same school. This approach allows us to isolate the effect of charter schools from other neighborhood demographic changes. Our results show small positive effects of charter school expansion on TPS diversity as measured by the entropy score. This change is explained by small increases in the number of White students attending nearby TPSs and larger reductions in the number of Black and Hispanic students in these schools. We also find descriptive evidence that while both neighborhoods and TPSs are slightly more diverse following charter school expansion, schools are changing faster than their surrounding neighborhoods.

Systematic Review of Enrollment of Students With Disabilities in Charters Compared to Traditional Public Schools

There is a perception that charter schools in the United States enroll students with disabilities at a lower rate than traditional public schools despite federal laws that require charter schools to provide the same services as traditional public schools. This systematic review answers the question: What research exists that explores the representation of students with disabilities in charter schools and the proportionality of that representation in comparison to traditional public schools? The methodology for this review was based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analyses) statement for reporting systematic reviews. Conclusions from this review include the limited amount of research on the topic, the difficulty of comparing enrollment percentages between state systems, and the difficulty in determining factors affecting the enrollment of students with disabilities in charter schools.

The Boundaries of Competition: Examining Charter Schools’ Impact on Traditional Schools

For decades, charter schools have been promoted as a panacea for increasing competition in the educational marketplace. Supporters argue that increased choice forces neighboring schools to innovate, while opponents contend that charters “skim” students and funds away from traditional public schools (TPS). We test the two differing views by comparing academic achievement and school segregation in TPS in South Florida facing competition from charter schools compared to TPS with no competition. We find that when a charter school moves into the community, it fails to substantively change test scores or diversity of the nearby TPS, even 10 years after a charter is established.

Blending in and standing out: College-going rates across charter and traditional public high schools

Schools provide theoretical and methodological puzzles around complex stratification and organizational dynamics. Using organizational field theory, and the Schools and Staffing Survey, we study characteristics of charter and traditional high schools that are correlated with school rates of college-going. We first use Oaxaca-Blinder (OXB) models to decompose shifts in characteristics between charter and traditional public high schools. We find that charters have come to look more like traditional schools which may account for some of charters’ increase in college-going rates. Then we use Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to examine how the combination of certain characteristics may create unique “recipes” that help some charters outpace traditional schools. Without both methods, we would have drawn incomplete conclusions, because the OXB results highlight isomorphism while QCA emphasizes variation in school characteristics. We contribute to the literature by showing how conformity and variation simultaneously yield legitimacy in an organizational population.

Student Mobility between Charter and Traditional Public School Sectors: Assessing Enrollment Patterns among Major Charter Management Organizations in Texas

Student enrollment and transfer patterns between the traditional public and charter school sectors help shape the role of charter schools in the broader educational ecosystem, especially as related to the enrollment and segregation of low-income students, English learners, students of color, and students in special education. We examine patterns of student transfer between traditional public schools and charter schools among four of Texas’s largest charter networks, which cumulatively make up over one-third of Texas charter students. We find that these schools serve fewer special education students than traditional public schools, but a greater share of low-income and English learners. Transfers between sectors contribute to enrollment gaps in special education and other classifications, but the findings do not apply uniformly across charter districts, student enrollment classifications, or grade levels. These findings highlight nuanced enrollment patterns between the charter sector and traditional public schools, suggesting that differences in student characteristics between sectors likely stem from a range of sources. Policymakers should acknowledge this nuance, consider alternatives to blanket enrollment regulation policies, and conduct similar analyses of enrollment patterns among charter districts.

Assessing the Accessibility of Bergen County Charter Schools

Charter schools are a relatively new and controversial form of public education. They are publicly funded but operated by independent groups; so, despite being held to the same standards as traditional public schools, they have more autonomy over curriculum and design as they do not operate within local school districts. One of the key requirements of public schools is that they are open and accessible to all students. Some worry that in the case of charter schools, selectivity in their enrollment processes means this requirement is not adequately met. In an effort to add to the existing research on charter school accessibility and publicness, this study seeks to understand if inequitable accessibility is an inherent issue to the charter school model. Using a convergent (QUAN+QUAL) mixed method study I examine Bergen County’s three charter schools by coding for a possible presence of enrollment shaping in their student demographics and approaches to access in school operations. This study adds to the existing understanding of charter school accessibility by providing a local and in-depth analysis of the charter schools located in one county. The findings of this study suggest that charter schools are inherently inequitably accessible, however that this issue can potentially be mitigated through intentional steps to broaden access to disadvantaged student groups. As these results are confined to Bergen County, I suggest that future studies be conducted between different states, assessing for correlation between state charter school policy and individual school approaches to equity and access.

Efforts to Dismantle Traditional Public Schools: Literacy Consequences for Students

AbstractAmerica's traditional public schools are facing challenges that may ultimately lead to their extinction. From their beginnings, some criticized them for being secular schools when much of the country was religious and wary of government. Today, the Internet has amplified conservative voices, swaying public opinion against government‐run schools, and citizens' opinions of them are extremely divided. School choice options have increased for homeschooling and private schools, and public charter enrollment has exploded, all competing with and siphoning funds from traditional public schools often accused of indoctrinating students in liberal ideology. These developments, spurred by the COVID‐19 pandemic and culture wars, damage traditional public schools and hurt literacy goals. Funding reductions mean fewer resources for struggling readers and difficulties retaining small class sizes in early grades that would contribute immensely to literacy development. Teachers are deeply dissatisfied, and states report difficulty in hiring qualified teachers for language arts and reading. Students' literacy development suffers. It is only when we better understand how literacy instruction and students' literacy achievements in traditional public schools are affected by efforts to dismantle these schools that we can begin to advocate for policies and constructive solutions for rebuilding them so they will serve all children well.

The Impact of Teacher Labor Market Reforms on Student Achievement: Evidence from Michigan

Abstract Over the past decade, many states enacted substantial reforms to teacher-related laws and policies. In Michigan, the state legislature implemented requirements for teacher evaluation based partly on student achievement, reduced tenure protections, and restricted the scope of teacher collective bargaining. Some teacher advocates view such reform as a “war on teachers,” but proponents argue these policies may have enabled personnel decisions that positively impact student performance. Evidence on this debate remains limited. In this study, we use detailed administrative data from all Michigan traditional public schools from 2005–06 to 2014–15. We estimate event study models exploiting the plausibly exogenous timing of collective bargaining agreement expirations. Across a variety of samples and specification checks, we find these reforms had generally null results, with some evidence of heterogeneity by cohort. We investigate several possible mechanisms and conclude that districts with more restrictive teacher contracts prior to reform and districts with more rigorous use of teacher evaluations experienced more positive impacts after reform exposure.

Regulatory arbitrage in teacher hiring and retention: Evidence from Massachusetts Charter Schools

We study personnel flexibility in charter schools by exploring how teacher retention varies with teacher quality in Massachusetts. We propose a model in which educators with high fixed-costs use charter schools to explore teaching careers before obtaining licenses required for higher paying public sector jobs. A key implication of the theoretical model is that charter schools create positive externalities for traditional public schools by increasing the average quality of available teacher labor. Empirical results show patterns consistent with the model. In particular, we show that charters are more likely to lose their highest and lowest value-added teachers. Low performers tend to exit public education, while high performers tend to switch to traditional public schools.

Music Teachers in U.S. Charter Schools: A Multistate Profile

This descriptive survey study aimed to investigate the professional experiences of music educators teaching at charter schools in the United States. In the spring of 2020, a total of 113 charter school music teachers across six states responded to an online questionnaire soliciting information regarding their licensure status, background and training, details of their teaching assignment, and reasons for accepting a teaching position in the charter school setting. At the time of data collection, approximately two thirds of participants held an active music teaching license. Others either held licensure in other content areas or held no active teaching license at all. Among study participants, approximately one third left positions at traditional public schools to teach music in the charter school system, citing the appeal of curricular autonomy and job flexibility. The discussion includes considerations for music teacher preparation programs.

Incoming! Spatial Enrollment Competition between Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools

The meteoric rise in charter schools has several implications for traditional public schools and their students. One understudied implication is the geographic competition for students. Given traditional public school boundaries are often fixed while charter school boundaries are more flexible, charter schools can draw students away from existing traditional public schools, and we have very little information about how distance matters in the competition for students. Because of this, traditional public schools and school districts have little ability to plan for enrollment changes in the face of charter school growth. Our paper uses data on enrollments and demographics in all charter and traditional public schools in Los Angeles from 2000 to 2013 to better understand these dynamics. We find that traditional public school enrollments clearly decline with competition from nearby charter schools. However, we also observe that charter schools tend to locate where traditional public school enrollments are on the decline. Competition is more relevant for elementary schools at short distances—within about 1 mi appears to be where the associations between charter school enrollments and TPS enrollment declines are the strongest. For middle and high schools, those connections are apparent within 2 to 6 mi in some models.

The Future of Public Education: Exploring the Role of Charter Schools and its Impact on Students

As charter schools continue to increase their presence throughout the U.S., there remains a considerable debate over charter schools’ impact on student achievement. Appearing at the end of the 20th century, the push for this new form of education has largely arisen from families who are unsatisfied with their traditional school districts and demand for more school options to accommodate their student’s own unique needs. Charter schools, granted greater autonomy over their curriculums, have been promoted as a better alternative to the traditional district school, particularly in promoting access to higher quality education for students in economically depressed communities. But whether they truly do so is quite nuanced – as well as their impacts on remaining traditional public schools. After juxtaposing the funding structures of charters and district schools to establish background for the debate, this research dives into numerous empirical studies detailing charter school effectiveness on student achievement by comparing the English and Math test scores of students from charter schools against their traditional district school peers. While the results are quite mixed, there does seem to be consistent improvement among “effective” urban charter school and specific charter school networks. If circumstances were to remain, there also arises questions over what policies should be implemented to help expand student access to these effective charter schools. In response, this article considers three recommendations, some already being tested in select cities, for policymakers to consider as the search to promote education equity and access for every student in American cities continues.

Describing Rural Charter Schools in the United States

ABSTRACT Ample research has explored the nature and efficacy of urban charter schools since the turn of the century. However, much less attention has been given to the rural charter school sector. Using data obtained from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools from the 2018–2019 school year, we describe rural charter schools nationally in terms of the students they serve, school-level characteristics, and how innovative they are in their curricula, pedagogical foci, and the student populations they enroll. We then compare states in terms of the statewide policies that have been enacted. Compared to their rural traditional public school counterparts, rural charters enroll more nonwhite students and fewer students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Almost half of all rural charters are located in five states, and rural charters are more likely to have non-traditional grade configurations compared to schools in other geographic settings. Most rural charter schools are not affiliated with a CMO or EMO. Hawaii has the largest market share of rural charter school students and also has the greatest proportion of its charter schools located in rural areas. States that do not place caps on the number of charter schools that open were found to have more of their charter schools located in rural areas.

Development of the Charter School Teacher Development Inventory

The aim of the present study was to develop and examine the initial psychometrics of an instrument, the Charter School Teacher Development Inventory (CSTDI), designed to measure the professional development opportunities available in U.S. charter schools. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that the CSTDI was comprised of five factors: traditional, content, coherence, duration, and collaboration. Confirmatory factor analysis also supported a five-factor structure of the CSTDI. This study provides promising support for a five-factor instrument that assesses professional development practices in charter schools and further research is warranted to determine its relevance for use in traditional public schools.

Choice, Mobility, and Classification: Disaggregating the Charter School Special Education Gap

Growing numbers of students are educated in charter schools, including students with disabilities (SWD). Prior research suggests that charter schools educate a smaller percentage of SWD than traditional public schools, leading to a special education gap between sectors. We used data from a large urban district to examine how choice, mobility, and special education classification influenced the special education gap with descriptive statistics, gap decomposition, and causal analyses relying on a randomized component of school assignment. The driver of the gap was parental choice, with parents of SWD less often choosing charter schools. Enrolling in a charter school had no effect on the probability that a student was newly identified for special education services, but increased the probability that a student was deidentified for special education services. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these results, with attention to factors that shape parental choice, and future research needed to understand parental choices.

Racialized Organizations in Racialized Space: How Socio-spatial Divisions Activate Symbolic Boundaries in a Charter School and a Public School

Much research documents the systems of racism that undergird the rise of school choice policies and charter schools, racialized organizations that reproduce racial logics. While school choice policy gets enacted at the structural level to enable the formation of charter schools, policy also interacts with a localized neighborhood context where space must be allocated to the charter school. As race scholars show, space is itself racialized. How does this localized allocation of racial space shape intra-group dynamics in a predominantly Latinx neighborhood? Evidence for this study comes from two years of ethnographic participant-observation and informal conversations with parents in a traditional public school and a charter school in a large Northeastern city. Findings show how threats to the material boundaries of school space activate symbolic boundaries between parents from each school, drawing from racialized organizational identities of traditional public schools as representing neighborhood loyalty and anti-gentrification resistance positioned against charter schools as representing dominant whiteness, superiority, and social mobility. I conclude with a discussion of implications for broader studies of racialized space and organizations, culture, and collective action.