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Quasi-markets and innovation in education: Charter schools in the United States

Explore how charter schools drive innovation in education with new teaching methods, accountability measures, and opportunities for students and teachers. Analyzing the impact of quasi-markets and legislation on educational outcomes.

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Quasi-markets and innovation in education: Charter schools in the United States

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  1. Quasi-markets and innovationin education:Charter schools in the United States Christopher Lubienski University of Illinois OECD Conference, Bad Honnef, Nov. 2008

  2. Policy Objectives & Legislation • learning opportunities for students • greater learning gains for students • different & innovative teaching methods • different & innovative forms of measuring outcomes • new forms of accountability for schools • professional opportunities for teachers

  3. Policy Objectives & Legislation • learning opportunities for students • greater learning gains for students • different & innovative teaching methods • different & innovative forms of measuring outcomes • new forms of accountability for schools • professional opportunities for teachers

  4. Expectations • Competition will “induce a more rapid rate of innovation into curriculum and teaching.” • …“oases of innovation in a larger desert of monopolistic and cookie-cutter schools.” • …“break-the-mold” … “engines of innovation” • “This R & D potential is an important part of any policy-oriented appraisal of the charter phenomenon.”

  5. Expectations … “the real issue is whether what goes on in the classroom has substantially changed” … “you have to go beyond advertising and outreach and get down to the classroom level”

  6. Charter School Logic Model INPUTS: • Structural reforms of governance (autonomy, choice, competition)  • Opportunities and incentives (market-like environment)  OUTCOMES: • Innovation in educational practice not possible in state classrooms  • Greater & more equitable student achievement. (Miron & Nelson, 2002)

  7. Analytical Framework • At what level within institutions does the practice represent change? • To what extent is the practice established and familiar, or original and unique? • To what extent is this true within and across educational sectors?

  8. Patterns • Organizational/Administrative innovations are quite common in areas such as marketing, governance, employment, contracting • Charter schools are diversifying programmatic options in local contexts • Educational practices are largely familiar at the technical core

  9. Logic (revisited) INPUTS: • Structural reforms of governance (autonomy, choice, competition)  • Opportunities and incentives (market-like environment)  OUTCOMES • Organizational innovations • failure of incentives for innovation in practices not present in district classrooms

  10. Issues Regarding Innovation • Parents as inherently cautious proxy-consumers • Asymmetries in information for consumers • Consumer information on a common metric • Perverse incentives in public education • Mimetic and competitive isomorphism • Corporate penetration and standardization • Levels of competition, costs and risks

  11. Further Considerations • Research and development, competition, and cooperation/collusion • Shift from independent and for-profit to (scaled-up) non-profit model driven by social entrepreneurs • Potential of CMOs (Charter School Management Organizations)

  12. Re-Conceiving Expectations for Charter School Innovations • R & D Centers / Laboratories • Greenhouses • Showrooms

  13. Theory of “Second Best” Markets and Correctives • Certain “markets” necessarily deviate from idealized pure market > • sub-optimal outcomes • Moral hazards • However, partial remedies to approximate a “purer” (1st best) market > • perverted incentives, and unknowable / unintended (3rd best) outcomes (see Lipsey & Lancaster, 1956; Kuttner, 1999)

  14. Practices Reported as Innovations

  15. Administrative / Organization-Level Practices in Charter Schools

  16. Educational Practices in Charter Schools

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