We survey 137 charter school administrators and 129 board members and find that U.S. charter school internal controls are perceived to be relatively strong overall. However, board independence, board communication of internal control responsibilities to school personnel, lines of communication between the board and school personnel, and reporting…

Recent studies of charter school effectiveness have questioned whether charter school networks can produce a lasting impact on students' long-term outcomes. Our study is the first to examine this issue at the network of Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools, which primarily serve disadvantaged students of color and constitute the nation's…

This article conducts a fiscal analysis of 10 tax-credit programs in seven states. In total, the 10 programs in the present study represent 90% of all scholarships awarded in tax-credit scholarship programs today. The analysis employs a set of cautious assumptions about switcher rates and students who receive multiple scholarships to generate a…

Homeschooling has witnessed an upsurge in the United States since the movement for school choice gained momentum in the 1990s. Most research on homeschooling has been on non-representative samples of median-income white Americans, making it difficult for policymakers to accept its reliability. In addition, homeschoolers now include other ethnic…

This pilot qualitative study explored K-8 pre-service teachers' (PSTs') learning experience in a Statistics and Probability course and their ability to make connections between mathematics and their everyday lives when given opportunities to investigate mathematics through a social issue. Data from student surveys, assessments, and written…

Although state-run school districts and gubernatorial school takeover have become popular turnaround strategies among some states, little is known about how district and school leaders perceive and respond to these changes in educational governance. Using Georgia as a case study, this paper employs sensemaking and exit, voice, and loyalty as…

Despite the growing call for local autonomy and flexibility, few scholars have examined the role of school district-level flexibility on resource allocation and staffing patterns. Leveraging the charter system law within the State of Georgia, we utilize a generalized difference-in-differences approach to estimate the impact of flexibility of…

Georgia's 2012 Charter Schools Amendment was the first successful statewide school choice referendum in the United States. This amendment permitted the state to authorize new charter schools, thereby creating a way for charter creators to bypass local school boards. This study analyzes voting on this state constitutional amendment and finds that…

This study examined middle-class mothers' engagement in urban school selection as residents of two gentrifying neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia. Gentrifiers levy social capital when activating or exercising agency and create social networks that valorize child-rearing concerns through exchange of information. Thirty mothers with children under…

Georgia's General Assembly passed the 1961 "Tuition Grants Act" as a method for avoiding school desegregation. In 1993, an Atlanta attorney attempted to use the Act to provide private school vouchers. This study compares and contrasts arguments for and against the Act, and public support for the Act, in 1961 and 1993, using Robinson's…

Trends suggest that homeschooling continues to increase among black families. Yet, research on contemporary Black homeschooling remains scarce. Given black educational history, the phenomena of Black families choosing homeschooling over public and private schools in the post-Desegregation era is worthy of investigation. Further, documenting the…

Creating private school vouchers for special education students--programs that are largely unchallenged in court, unlike other publicly financed tuition vouchers--can be the perfect way to clear a path for other students to get school options, according to school choice proponents. At least seven states--Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio,…

The latest wave of reform in urban schools, led by the venture philanthropists, has made a great deal of change, without much progress. Foundations with a venture philanthropy bent, like the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Broad Foundation, say market principles, such as choice and competition, will improve schools. If…

The big battles over school vouchers in American education have focused on programs serving low-income children who live in urban areas. Milwaukee's program, begun in 1990, is the biggest and oldest in the country, and the District of Columbia effort, funded by the federal government, has been the most carefully studied. Both have been focal…

The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001 brought new urgency to the task of turning around low-performing schools. While many schools have been identified as needing improvement under NCLB, only a small percentage have failed to make progress for long enough--six years--to be subject to restructuring, the most serious consequence…