Most school districts across the country continue to research how to help their students become better prepared to enter the workforce and higher education. As a result, the extent to which dynamic teaching techniques affect the success of classroom-taught material currently is not known. Much of the current literature reveals studies on teaching…

This study provides the first systematic analysis of the composition of charter school governing boards. We assemble a dataset of charter school boards in Massachusetts from 2001 to 2013 and investigate the consequences of donor and founder representation on governing boards. We find that the presence of donors on the charter school boards is…

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…

This investigation examined whether teacher practices, as measured by the Classroom Strategies Assessment System (CSAS), were associated with students' proficiency and gain scores, as measured by the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP), in 13 high-poverty charter schools in New Jersey. Results from two-level hierarchical linear models, fitted to a…

Substantial research has already examined how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected in-person schooling, but no prior work has explored its effects on cyber schools. Here, Robert Maranto, Dennis Beck, Tom Clark, Bich Tran, and Feng Liu compare the students entering a large national cyber charter school network in spring 2020, during the pandemic,…

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…

This paper presents a mixed method study examining the relationship between teacher advanced degree attainment and student achievement. This study utilizes teacher demographic data along with standardized test scores from 702 public schools in south central Texas. First, OLS regression analyses were employed to measure the relationship between the…

Few researchers have investigated what occurs inside charter schools with respect to teaching and learning. To address this gap in the literature, the researcher conducted a descriptive, single-case study to examine how teachers at charter schools use research-based instructional methods to increase student achievement. The site for this study is…

Charter schools and four other types of school organization were compared on (a) student crime at school, (b) academic performance indices, and (c) short-term student suspensions. The data originated with all the public schools in one state during the 2015-2016 school year: charter schools (n = 157), traditional schools (n =1,838), and public…

Enrollment in dual credit classes has increased over the last 10 years benefiting K-20 education and high school students in providing an opportunity to obtain college credits and increasing postsecondary education enrollment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictors of achievement through the lens of Social Cognitive Theory by…

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…

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is the nation's largest network of public charter schools. KIPP began as a network of charter middle schools designed to serve underserved communities, with the goal of closing achievement gaps and preparing students to succeed in college. KIPP has since expanded its model to include elementary and high…

"No Excuses" charter schools are at the center of many debates in education policy. First, what accounts for their test success, excellent learning environments or merely test preparation? Second, are strict behavior policies necessary to create efficient learning environments or are they harmful to students and their ability to navigate…

Background and Purpose: Each school year, in the state of Texas, students unexpectedly change schools almost 450,000 times. In the Houston region alone, students change schools more than 60,000 times. These school changes are not random, tend to be geographically contained though not within school districts, and carry significant ramifications in…

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…