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Charter schools
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 and school quality in Massachusetts. Charters are more likely to lose their highest and lowest value-added teachers. Low performers tend to exit public education, while high performers tend… more →
Charter School Growth and the Evolution of Local Teacher Labor Markets
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Charter schoolsSince their introduction in the 1990s, charter schools have grown from a small-scale experiment to a ubiquitous feature of the public education landscape. The current study uses the legislative removal of a cap on the maximum number of charters, and the weakening of regulations on these new… more →
How Increased School Choice Affects Public School Enrollment and School Segregation
Topics: School ChoiceWe investigate the determinants and consequences of increased school choice by analyzing a 22-year school panel matched to county-level demographic, economic, and political data. Using an event-study design exploiting the precise timing of charter school enrollment change, we provide… more →
Public-Sector Leadership and Venture Philanthropy: The Case of Broad Superintendents
Major philanthropic initiatives that incorporate features of venture-capital practices have become increasingly prominent, particularly in K-12 public education. In this study, we provide empirical evidence on the reach, character, and impact of the Broad Superintendents Academy, a prominent and… more →
Effects of Charter School Competition on District School Budgeting Decisions: Experimental Evidence from Texas
Tags: Charter schoolsThe effects of competition from public charter schools on district school budget decisions are theoretically ambiguous. Competitive pressures could increase desired budget autonomy since they give district school leaders more flexibility; however, competition could decrease desired budget… more →
Parental preferences for charter schools in North Carolina: Implications for racial segregation and isolation
Topics: School ChoiceWe use information on the charter school choices made by North Carolina families, separately by race, who switched their child from a traditional public school (TPS) to a charter school in 2015-16 to explore how such choices affect racial segregation between schools and racial isolation within… more →
Nearly three decades into the charter school movement, what has research told us about charter schools?
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Charter schools, School reformWhen charter schools first entered the landscape, the debate was contentious, with both advocates and critics using strong rhetoric. Advocates often sold charter schools as a silver bullet solution for not only the students who attend these schools, but the broader traditional public school… more →
School Sector and Satisfaction: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Sample
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Charter schoolsAccess to private schools and public charter schools might improve parent and student satisfaction through competitive pressures and improved matches between educators and students. Using a nationally representative sample of 13,436 students in the United States in 2016, I find that public… more →
The cost-effectiveness of public charter schools in Texas
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Charter schoolsI compare per pupil revenues, expenditures, and performance levels in public charter schools to district-run public schools in Texas for the 2017-18 school year. After controlling for several school and student characteristics, I find that public charter schools are funded around $1,700 (15… more →
The Impact of Targeted vs. General Education Investments: Evidence from Special Education and English Language Learners in Boston Charter Schools
Topics: Student LearningUsing novel variation in special education and English Language Learner classification from admissions lotteries, I find that students can achieve large academic gains without specialized services. Enrolling in a Boston charter school doubles the likelihood that students lose their special… more →
Social Returns to Private Choice? Effects of Charter Schools on Behavioral Outcomes, Arrests, and Civic Participation
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Charter schools, High schoolsThe vast majority of literature on school choice, and charter schools in particular, focus on attending an elementary or middle school grades and often focus on test scores or other proximal outcomes. Much less is known about the long-term effects of attending a charter school in 9th grade. It… more →
Horizontal Differentiation and the Policy Effect of Charter Schools
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Charter schools, AssessmentWhile school choice may enhance competition, incentives for public schools to raise productivity may be muted if public education is viewed as imperfectly substitutable with alternatives. This paper estimates the aggregate effect of charter school expansion on education quality while accounting… more →
Can Successful Schools Replicate? Scaling Up Boston’s Charter School Sector
Topics: School ChoiceCan schools that boost student outcomes reproduce their success at new campuses? We study a policy reform that allowed effective charter schools in Boston, Massachusetts to replicate their school models at new locations. Estimates based on randomized admission lotteries show that replication… more →
Making a Match: How Successful High-Poverty Schools Hire Teachers
Effective teacher hiring is fundamental to improving schools and yet few studies investigate this process. In this exploratory study of six successful, high-poverty schools (three charter, three district) in one Massachusetts city, we analyze the policy contexts that influenced hiring and… more →
Government Privatization and Political Participation: The Case of Charter Schools
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceGovernments around the world have privatized public services in the name of efficiency and citizen empowerment, but some argue that privatization could also affect citizen participation in democratic governance. We explore this possibility by estimating the impact of charter schools (which are… more →