| Natalie Lacireno-Paquet
George Washington University
Charter school responses to policy regimes and markets: The effect on service to disadvantaged students
FINAL REPORT:
Using school level data from two national surveys and data on state charter school policies, I use OLS regression, with balanced repeated replication based standard errors and cluster analysis, to identify the important policy characteristics, such as the lack of transportation, the funding structures, or the availability of multiple chartering authorities, that influence charter schools to serve (or not serve) low income, minority, and special needs students. Additionally, I explore whether and how the influence of state policies differs across charter schools that are operated by management firms and those that are independent. I take a multidisciplinary perspective and draw upon economic theories (i.e. theories about competition and how markets behave, along with privatization theory) and organizational theory (theories about differences between for-profit and non-profit organizations and others). All of this is considered within broader theories of education (about the purposes of schoolsÑcommon schools, localized control; equity in education).
The findings suggest that both organizational design choices made by charter school leaders and individual policy characteristics have important implications for who gets served by charter schools. The effects of particular design choices, such as partnership with an Educational Management Organization or having multiple authorizers, have differential effects on low-income, minority and special education students. Policymakers need to balance the public values of choice and equity in crafting charter schools policy. School leaders need to be cognizant about the possible effects of their organizational design choices on various groups of disadvantaged students. These findings are of significance to policymakers considering enacting or modifying charter school legislation and to charter school authorizers and leaders in deciding what types of schools to charter. The research also contributes to an understanding of privatization in education (or the introduction of quasi-markets) and the role and impact of private, for-profit firms in education.
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