As open enrollment charter districts have continued to grow in Texas, researchers and policymakers have continued to investigate how charter districts market themselves to the public in an effort to recruit students, teachers, and finances. Although a wealth of research has examined how charter districts recruit students, teachers, and finances…

This study examined the high schools' state tests performances in mathematics, reading, and science of an open-enrollment STEM-focused charter school system,Harmony Public Schools(HPS), between 2010 and 2013, and compared them with the performance of matched traditional public schools (TPS) in Texas. After propensity score matching, 12 HPS schools…

In Senate Bill (SB) 2 (83rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2013), the Texas Legislature added Texas Education Code (TEC) § 12.1013 (a)-(d). This legislation required that charter school performance to be compared to comparable traditional public schools. This report responds to that mandate, using Texas' P-20/Workforce Repository data for the…

The purpose of this study was to examine two types of school organizational structures: elementary open-enrollment charter schools and elementary traditional public schools. The study examined the degree to which attendance rates (based upon the prior school year's data), class size and average number of years of teaching experience were related…

The Obama administration's recurring policy emphasis on high-performing charter schools begs the obvious question: how do you identify a high-performing charter school? That is a crucially important policy question because any evaluation strategy that incorrectly identifies charter school performance could have negative effects on the economically…

The research sought to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of Texas standard AP open-enrollment charter school campuses and to discover independent variables that may be utilized to predict effective charter school campuses. The data items used in the analyses were downloaded from the 2007-2008 Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS), which…

Open enrollment charter schools are monitored and accredited under the statewide testing and accountability system, just like traditional public schools. Accountability is critical for charter schools because if these schools do not improve student achievement they are at risk of having their charter terminated. As of the most recent publication…

This study assesses funding differences, and the sources of those differences, between charter schools and traditional districts in Texas. The need for this research stems from conflicting reports on charter school revenues and growing concern over the quality of charter school financial data reported through Texas' Public Education Information…