Working Papers

In assessing an analysis of the first year of a three-year randomized control study of a public-private partnership called Partnership Schools for Liberia, Steven J. Klees raises important questions about methodology and ideology. The study involves 93 public primary schools managed by eight external contractors. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

In this study of charter school management of teachers and resources in Bogotá, D. Brent Edwards Jr. and Stephanie M. Hall build on research from a 2015 NCSPE working paper by Edwards and Hilary Hartley focused on the authorization and evaluation of charter schools in Colombia’s capital. Among the authors’ salient findings is that teachers in Bogotá’s charter schools must be more credentialed than their counterparts at traditional public schools yet they work longer hours, earn less money, and have no job security. For more on this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

Across the developing world over the past two decades, low-fee private schools have opened their doors and generated controversy. Advocates argue that these schools fill a void created by state failure; deliver better education by making operators dependent on parental satisfaction; and catalyze government-run schools to improve through competition. Opponents contend such schools typically cannot accommodate children with learning disabilities; charge more than many poor families can afford, even though fees may seem nominal; and lack the accountability necessary to curb venal conduct. In “Low-Fee Private Schools in India: The Emerging Fault Lines,” Tamo Chattopadhay and Maya Roy illuminate this controversy by focusing on central challenges. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

In “England Confronts the Limits of School Autonomy,” Helen F. Ladd and Edward B. Fiske provide a detailed analysis of the evolution of school choice in England and address the obstacles in the way of full implementation of Conservative Party ambitions as well as its likely drawbacks. The result is a rich depiction of dramatic change and a cautionary statement about the impact of full school independence on community input and student interests. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

How foundations coalesce and collaborate in particular parts of the country provides telling detail about education policy and its necessary conditions. In "Converging on Choice: The Inter-State Flow of Foundation Dollars to Charter School Organizations," Joseph J. Ferrare and Renee Setari examine this dynamic and in the process reveal unmistakable patterns of coordination and influence. For more about this working papers, see the NCSPE announcement.

In “Perceptions of Prestige: A Comparative Analysis of School Online Media Marketing,” Sarah Butler Jessen and Catherine DiMartino provide a detailed assessment of the marketing tools increasingly employed by charter management organizations (CMOs) to win over philanthropists and politicians as well as parents. For more on this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

In “The Effect of Charter Competition on Unionized District Revenues and Resource Allocation,” Jason B. Cook finds that charter competition has driven down local funding by depressing valuations of residential property and has led school districts to redirect revenue from instructional expenditures (in particular, teacher salaries) to facility improvements. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

For-profit universities like Corinthian, DeVry, Education Management, Strayer, and the University of Phoenix were long Wall Street darlings until revelations several years ago of high student dropout and loan default rates led attorneys general in states across the country to launch fraud investigations. The U.S. Department of Education followed up in 2015 with “gainful employment” requirements, stipulating that the average annual loan payment not exceed 20 percent of discretionary income earned by graduates. Corinthian went bankrupt while DeVry, Education Management, Strayer, the University of Phoenix, and many more for-profit universities saw their revenues shrink and their valuations plummet. For-profit law schools have likewise incurred scrutiny but to a far less degree, as Riaz Tejani explains in this paper. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

Vouchers have recently gained significant ground with the introduction of statewide programs in Indiana in 2011, Louisiana in 2012, and Nevada in 2015. In this paper, Amber Peterson provides a concise, balanced assessment of the state’s voucher program. Peterson explains the evolution of the program, eligibility requirements for both students and schools, distribution of participating private schools throughout the state, outreach efforts by the state, barriers to enrollment, and problems with school assessment. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

With steep behavioral and academic expectations, "No Excuses" charter schools have been praised for raising standards and faulted for excluding students who cannot meet them. What has yet to be determined on a broad basis is their impact on academic achievement. In this paper, Albert Cheng, Collin Hitt, Brian Kisida, and Jonathan N. Mills employ a meta-analysis of experimental evidence and find the gains in math and English language arts for students in these schools to be substantial. For more about this working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.

In 1999, Colombia joined many other countries in amplifying educational options by introducing charter schools. Called Concession Schools (Colegios en Concesión), they have been confined to the capital city, Bogotá, they grew in number by 2003 to 25 and remained at that count through 2014. In this paper, D. Brent Edwards and Hilary Hartley examine the process of authorization, evaluation, and enrollment to determine the degree of accountability and choice. For more about his working paper, see the NCSPE announcement.