The share of students attending charter schools has been rising. There is evidence that charter school growth has increased socioeconomic segregation of students between schools. In this paper, we assess whether charter school growth affects how students are organized within nearby traditional public schools (TPS). We use administrative data from…

One of the controversies surrounding charter schools is whether these schools may either "cream skim" high-performing students from traditional public schools or "pushout" low-achieving students or students with discipline histories, leaving traditional public schools to educate the most challenging students. In this study, we…

Gill, Brandi. Student Achievement Comparison between Traditional Schools and Schools of Choice: A Quantitative Study, (under the direction of Theodore Kaniuka, Ed.D) This study provides a detailed review of school choice literature nationally and within the state of North Carolina. The literature revealed limited studies focused on school choice…

The rapid expansion of charter schools has fueled concerns about their impact on traditional public schools. I estimate the effect of charter openings on traditional public schools in Massachusetts and North Carolina by comparing schools near actual charter sites to those near proposed sites that were never occupied. I find charter openings…

This dissertation consists of three essays in the economics of education. The first essay considers the impact of charter school openings on student achievement, behavior, and demographics in the traditional public sector. Using longitudinal school- and student-level data, I estimate the effect of charter school openings on traditional public…

School principals often contend that having the ability to be the instructional leaders that they were trained to be hinges in part upon maximizing their decision making latitude. These leaders assert that policy flexibility allows schools to make necessary changes without the bureaucracy that they believe stifles reform, improvement strategies,…

A defining characteristic of charter schools is that they introduce a strong market element into public education. In this paper, we examine through the lens of a market model the evolution of the charter school sector in North Carolina between 1999 and 2012. We examine trends in the mix of students enrolled in charter schools, the racial…

A defining characteristic of charter schools is that they introduce a strong market element into public education. In this paper, we examine the evolution of the charter school sector in North Carolina between 1999 and 2012 through the lens of a market model. We examine trends in the mix of students enrolled in charter schools, the racial…

There's mounting evidence that, for children of color especially, having one or more teachers of the same race over the course of students' educational careers seems to make a positive difference. But to what extent, if any, do the benefits of having a same-race teacher vary by type of school? Existing "race-match" studies fail to…

Improving academic achievement for students of color has long been the subject of debate among advocates of education reform (Anyon, 2013; Breitborde & Swiniarski, 2006; Payne, 2008). Some scholars have advocated for the Montessori method as an alternative educational approach to address some chronic problems in public education (Lillard,…