National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education

Working Paper: Charter Schools and Segregation in North Carolina

Helen F. Ladd and Mavzuna Turaeva use information on the charter school choices made by North Carolina families, separately by race or ethnicity, 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 charter schools. They find that the movement of white, but not minority, switchers to charter schools increases racial segregation between schools. Further, using a conditional logit model to estimate revealed preferences, they find that the value parents place on the racial composition of individual charter schools differs by the race and income of the switchers.

Federal Court Strikes Down DeVos Guidance on CARES Act Funding

Working Paper: Charter Schools and Special Education

Katharine Parham explores the dual institutions of charter schools and special education, and the unique issues that arise when an institution whose organizational structure is grounded in autonomy is forced to comply, by law, with significant regulatory demands.

KIPP Drops "Work Hard. Be Nice." Motto and Provokes Derision from The Wall Street Journal

Working Paper: Examining Variation within the Charter School Sector

Using propensity score matching and virtual control records in examining test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and math for 2009-10 through 2011-12 in California, Charisse Gulosino and Jonah Liebert find that urban charter schools boost results relative to their matched comparison groups of traditional public schools while suburban and rural charter schools post similar results in ELA and inferior results in math relative to their matched comparison groups of traditional public schools.

Florida Vastly Expands Voucher Program

Working Paper: School Autonomy in Denver

Philip Gigliotti analyzes Innovation Schools in Denver from its inception in 2009 through 2014. Gigliotti focuses on student scores on annual state tests in reading, math, and writing to measure the effectiveness of greater managerial authority. He finds that while Innovation Schools on average brought about impressive results by the second year of implementation, these results soon after declined substantially.