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…

This paper expands on previous work on charter school typology and presents disparities in standardized test outcomes across models by using standardized Z-Scores weighted by NAEP performance. Analyses indicate that in ELA, Classical schools have the highest relative performance, followed by Montessori and Art schools. In math, Classical schools…

Despite several charter schools specifically targeting improving students' noncognitive skills, the majority of charter school literature focuses on cognitive learning outcomes. Using behavioral measures as proxies for noncognitive outcomes, I find that North Carolina charter schools have no effect on tardiness or unexcused absences but are…

Safety-seeking has fueled the growth of charter schools. Descriptive evidence suggests different possible factors underlying safety in charter schools. This study investigates characteristics mediating the relationship between safety and charter schools by linking five waves of the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS: 2003-04; 2005-06;…

We seek to build a framework with which researchers can track the trends in charter school specialization and parents can better understand their options. This report examines the entire charter school population operating in the 2018-19 school year and calculates the rate of specialization among charter schools based on key terms found on their…

Access to public charter schools could theoretically reduce school safety problems by increasing competitive pressures, improving matches between schools and students, enhancing discipline policies, and allowing students to relocate to peer groups and cultures that discourage risky behaviors. Using publicly available data from the Pennsylvania…

Most studies have focused on whether charter schools perform better than TPS. However, for the vast majority of students who remain in TPS, a more relevant question is whether charter schools have a positive or negative impact on their schools. This study uses national, district-level panel data to examine how charter school prevalence influences…

Using data on incoming freshmen from 2018-2020 at the University of California, Davis, we analyze whether California students from private or charter high schools, compared to students from traditional public schools, arrive at college with a higher sense of expected belonging, more positive feelings, or higher expectations about adopting positive…

As open enrollment public charter school districts have continued to grow in Texas, researchers and policymakers have continued to question how these public charter school districts spend public taxpayer dollars. Although extensive research has addressed how public charter school districts spend money to recruit teachers, complete capital…

Research has found that fall 2020 school district reopening decisions appear to be driven more by politics and teachers unions than by the local presence of COVID-19. But what are the implications of those decisions for enrollment trends? Using recently released enrollment data from the state of Wisconsin, this study goes further to show whether…

There are two competing understandings on how school organizations behave when faced with competition. One is they respond to competitive pressure with innovation. The other is they pursue strategies of isomorphism, copying practices and avoiding innovation. This study examines competitive response patterns related to cyber charter schools in…

In recent years, policymakers in many states have enacted reforms to teacher evaluation, tenure, and collective bargaining in the traditional public school (TPS) sector. The implications for such changes across the broader labor market for K-12 teachers, however, are often left undiscussed. In this article, we use microdata from 2005-2016 to…

With the expansion of charter schools, astoundingly limited empirical research has considered issues related to the dimensions of civic learning in these settings. This article, seeks to augment the literature by addressing the civic efficacy of charter schools. Specifically, we employ key elements of the Octagon Model to conceptualize how charter…

While prior research has examined teachers in rural schools and teachers in charter schools, there has been little research into the intersection of rural and charter schools. Using nationally representative data, we examine the extent to which teacher characteristics, school characteristics, and teacher mobility vary based on the urbanicity of…

This paper examines the characteristics that influence the number of transfers between school districts. Using data on 2018-19 transfers between Indiana's 289 traditional public school districts, we examine observed transfer flows. Model results show that standardized test scores and distance between school districts have the largest impact on the…