No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
School choice and charter schools in review: What have we learned?
Abstract
School choice and charter schools remain divisive policy issues in the United States. We review the literature to determine what researchers have learned about school choice, charter schools, and student outcomes, exploring five propositions that represent key arguments in the debate. We find little consensus in the literature. We suggest that this lack of consensus may be due, in part, to empirical challenges and to the large diversity within school type.
... It is also possible that there may be greater variations within, rather than between, these types of schools. For instance, some important factors that contribute to school performance such as teacher quality, teacher experience, and the availability of after-school programs may vary considerably across individual schools [50]. ...
... The findings may therefore be most relevant for families who are facing decisions and school dynamics relatively similar to this sample, rather than representative of the general U.S. population. Second, while there may be substantial variation within types of schools [50], we were unable to account for characteristics of individual schools due to the lack of data. However, the homogeneous feature of this sample (all participants were the children of nurses) and the sensitivity analyses stratified by multiple sociodemographic characteristics helped reduce such concerns. ...
While past empirical studies have explored associations between types of primary and secondary schools and student academic achievement, outcomes beyond academic performance remain less well-understood. Using longitudinal data from a cohort of children (N = 12,288, mean age = 14.56 years) of nurses, this study examined associations between the types of schools participants attended in adolescence and a wide range of subsequent psychological well-being, social engagement, character strengths, mental health, health behavior and physical health outcomes. Results in this sample suggested little difference between attending private independent schools and public schools across outcomes in young adulthood. There were, however, notable differences in subsequent outcomes comparing homeschooling and public schools, and possibly some evidence comparing religious schools and public schools. Specifically, there was some evidence that attending religious schools versus public schools was associated with a higher likelihood of frequent religious service attendance and becoming registered voters, a lower risk of overweight/obese, fewer lifetime sexual partners, and a higher risk of subsequently being binge drinkers; however, these associations were not robust to correction for multiple testing. Homeschooling compared with public schooling was associated with subsequently more frequent volunteering (ß = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.15, 0.52), greater forgiveness (ß = 0.31, 95% CI = 0.16, 0.46), and more frequent religious service attendance (Risk Ratio [RR] = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.27, 1.80), and possibly also with greater purpose in life, less marijuana use, and fewer lifetime sexual partners, but negatively associated with college degree attainment (RR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.67, 0.88) and possibly with greater risk of posttraumatic stress disorder. These results may encourage education stakeholders to consider a wider range of outcomes beyond academic performance in decision-making.
... Specifically focusing on Michigan, she found that charter schools reflect the diversity of the district where they are housed. Grube and Anderson (2018) compare Milwaukee Public Schools and charter schools within the district. They conclude that charter schools are underfunded, but they do not improve academic outcomes, when compared to the district on state assessments. ...
The performance of public education in Michigan has been significantly below average across the country for decades (US News, 2019). Lawmakers in Michigan sought to remedy this in the 1990’s with the introduction of charter schools into the educational landscape. Throughout the years, there has been significant debate around whether charter schools have been effective. One of the central ideas behind charter schools is that the infusion of competition will raise the level of performance of public education across the board. This has not shown to be true as Michigan still is in the bottom half of performance across the country (Arellano et al., 2016). The possibility exists that while competition was infused into the market, it was never adopted by educators to improve practice. This case study explored how charter school administrators and board members viewed the role competition had on their decision making and how they described their competitive advantage. A single exploratory case study methodology was used to conduct this study. Findings indicated charter school educators and board members of the case school could identify their competitive advantages around three key areas: responsiveness to stakeholders, school safety and security, and school quality. The findings also indicated the pressure to balance academic rigor with student enrollment.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.