Market Reforms and School Innovation: Comparing Traditional Public Schools and Charter Schools

1. Market Reforms and School Innovation: Comparing Traditional Public Schools and Charter Schools

2. Market Approaches: Arguments for School Choice • Attract students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds with similar educational interests –voluntary integration • Provide unique sets of learning opportunities • Encourage innovation through competition • Promote satisfaction • Propel school improvement through competition • Increased parental involvement and commitment

3. Arguments Against School Choice • Social class creaming • Racial segregation • Imperfect information to make choices • Fragments communities • Vouchers are too small to help • Private good versus public good • Draw away resources from other schools • Money, ‘good’ students, faculty • Place of special needs children and other children left out of the choice process

4. What is a Charter School? • Charter schools are publicly funded schools that have an independent board of overseers or directors that receives a contract or ‘charter’ from an authorizer to operate the school. • In exchange for a charter, the charter school receives considerable autonomy from traditional public school regulations. • Recruit and enroll students without the confinement of an encatchment zone, thus providing parent choice. • Hire and fire their personnel independent from the school district where they are located. • Develop their own instructional focus and curriculum.

5. History of Charter Schools • Charter schools have been in existence since 1992. • 39 states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws • There are more than 5,000 charter schools that serve 1.5 million students • Approximately 650 charter schools have closed due to low enrollment, mismanagement, or low academic performance

6. Charter School Authorizers • Charter school laws vary from state to state, and thus there are different charter school authorizers. • Nine states do not even permit charter schools, and some states have extremely restrictive charter school laws that limit the number of charter schools that can open. • Other states have much more liberal laws regarding charter schools. • Arizona has one of the most far-reaching and open laws regarding charter schools in the US. In this state, local school districts even have the power to authorize a charter school located outside of their own geographic boundaries (Dee and Fu, 2004).

7. Charter vs. Traditional Public

8. Charter School Enrollment Source: Lake & Hill (2006), Lake (2007), Lake (2008), Lake (2010)

9. Arguments for Charter Schools • Student achievement • It is assumed that competition will spur traditional public schools to change and innovate, leading to improved student achievement (Chubb and Moe, 1990). • Access, equity and diversity • Theoretically,school choice provides a mechanism whereby low-income students and their families can gain access to higher-quality schools, without moving their place of residence. • Innovation and professional autonomy • School choice may spur innovation and differentiation among schools. • Parent engagement and involvement • Charter schools must enroll students to be viable, and therefore teachers may be more open to working with students and their families and families more open to working with the school • The purpose, or mission of many charter schools may increase the possibility of greater engagement between families and their schools, developing a ‘good fit’ between home and school

10. Key Findings on Charter Schools • Student achievement • There is a tremendous amount of variance in terms of student achievement outcomes. Some charter schools have exhibited clear academic success when compared to traditional public schools in the same area, whereas others have proven to be a disappointment. • There are examples of some charter schools, particularly CMOs that have founded multiple school sites that have a reputation for consistently increasing student achievement. • Access, equity and diversity • Allowing parents to choose where to send their children to school does not automatically create equitable schools, and in some instances, can lead to schools that are more homogenous in terms of race and socioeconomic status.

11. Key Findings on Charter Schools • Innovation and professional autonomy • Charter schools tend to coalesce around the same curricula, instructional techniques and subject areas (Lubienski, 2006). Charter schools have been found to innovate in areas such as staff recruitment and hiring, school calendars and disciplinary policies, which are areas that skirt around instruction. Much less innovation is seen in pedagogy and curricula (Lubienski, 2006). 4. Parent engagement and involvement • Many of the charter school models in the US have instituted formal mechanisms that encourage or even mandate parental involvement through contracts (Becker et al. 1997; Hoxby et al., 2009).

12. What is Innovation? • Definition of innovation varies considerably • Innovation for one may be standard practice for another • In this paper, we draw on Lubienski (2003) • Educational innovation • Practices related to curricular content and instructional strategies with immediate impact at the classroom level • Administrative innovation • School structure and design level, not directly affecting classrooms

13. Innovation in Context • Innovativeness in terms of local structures and dynamics (Traill and Grunert, 1997; Mowery and Rosenberg, 2000). • Practices cannot be deemed innovative in an absolute sense, but innovations must be considered in terms of their relative prevalence in a local and state context.

14. Research Questions • Do levels and types of innovation differ between charter schools and traditional public schools? • What practices constitute innovation in various local and state contexts?

15. School Sampling Frame for 2007-08 Schools tested by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) • 321 schools of choice • 223 charter public schools • 65 magnet public schools • 33 private • 5,864 traditional public schools • 345 after applying matching criteria

16. Matching Criteria for Choice & TPS • School zip codes used to identify list of public schools • Same state • Geographic proximity • Grade level configuration • Percentage of students tested • School-level demographic data • Common Core of Data (CCD) (2005-06) • Private School Survey (PSS) • Free and reduced price lunch • Race/ethnicity

17. School Sampling Frame for 2007-08 • 116 CPS and 118 TPS matched • Same state • Within 20 miles • 300 matched pairs • 59 CPS • 59 TPS

18. School Sampling Frame for 2007-08 • Final Sample: • Logistic regression to predict charter schools • Propensity score calculated for each school • For each CPS chose minimum propensity score differential between its matched TPS • 59 matched pairs • Linked via NCES district identifiers to schools surveyed by the 2007-08 SASS • 13 districts • 20 matched pairs • 72 district public schools

19. Measuring Innovation • In survey development, we reviewed research on innovation, school choice & comprehensive school reforms • Concentrated on those educational innovations aimed at changing the core technology of schools (curriculum & instruction) and administration (stakeholder involvement) • Survey of What Makes Schools Work (WMSW) • Number of items on the teacher (16 items) and principal surveys (36 items) • We present principal responses in this paper.

20. What are Some Educational Innovations Asked of Principals? • Extended learning time • Alternative grouping arrangements • Instructional organization of teachers • Curriculum & course taking • Innovative support for families & communities • School policies

21. Schools and Staffing Survey 2007-08 (SASS) • Nationally representative survey • Focuses on • Teacher and administrator characteristics • School programs • School conditions • Stakeholder Questionnaires • School • 87.8% response rate • Principal • 79.4% response rate • District • 80.4% response rate

22. Innovation in Context

23. Measures of Innovation: Curriculum

24. Measures of Innovation: Academic Programs

25. Measures of Innovation: Academic Support Services

26. Measures of Innovation: Teacher Compensation

27. Measures of Innovation: Instructional Organization

28. Academic Support Services • Summer School • 74% of TPS offer summer school • 76% of CPS offer summer school • After School Tutorials • 82% of TPS offer after school tutorials • 84% of CPS offer after school tutorials

29. Academic Support Services in Local Context

30. Academic Support Services in Local Context • After school tutorials • One charter school is innovative in its local context • Summer school • No charter schools are innovative in their local context

31. Stakeholders’ Influence on Hiring Practices • Teachers • 17% of TPS where teachers have influence • 19% of CPS where teachers have influence • Principals • 100% of TPS where principals have influence • 95% of CPS where principals have influence • Parents • 17% of TPS where parents have influence • 19% of CPS where parents have influence

32. Stakeholders’ Influence on Hiring Practices in Local Context

33. Stakeholders’ Influence on Hiring Practices in Local Context • Teachers’ influence • No charter schools are innovative in their local context • Principals’ influence • No charter schools are innovative in their local context • Parents’ influence • Two charter schools are innovative in their local context

34. Instructional Groupings • Looping • 20% of TPS use looping • 28& of CPS use looping • Houses/ Families • 22% of TPS have houses/families • 27% of CPS have houses/families • Mixed Age/ Multi-Grade Classes • 21% of TPS have mixed age classes • 35% of CPS have mixed age classes • Block Scheduling • 25% of TPS use block scheduling • 46% of CPS use block scheduling

35. Instructional Groupings in Local Context

36. Instructional Groupings in Local Context • Looping • Two charter schools are innovative in their local context • Houses/families • Two charter schools are innovative in their local context • Mixed age/ multi-grade classes • No charter schools are innovative

37. Theoretical Perspectives • Market Theory • Educators in charter schools are given the opportunity and motivation to experiment with and create in-schools processes for improving student achievement • Institutional Theory • There are “powerful institutional rules” held by public opinion, important constituents; laws and regulations contribute to conformity and congruency between schools of choice and regular public schools

38. Conclusions • Little support that charter schools are ‘innovative’. • It may be that the institutional environments of schools are very strong . • Innovations and change move across sectors • More educators are moving across sectors