Although charter schools are frequently afforded flexibility from many state laws that govern traditional public schools, a growing number of charter school teachers have now unionized and introduced collective bargaining to the charter sector. Using data from a detailed content analysis of teacher CBAs from California, we compare the…

Despite government interest in expanding charter schools within Virginia, very little is known about how these charter schools are led (Balow, 2022; Lehnen, 2016; Tyler, 2022; Youngkin, 2022). Research supports that leadership is a significant influence on the success of a school and, therefore, a critical component to understanding how to create…

The meteoric rise in charter schools has several implications for traditional public schools and their students. One understudied implication is the geographic competition for students. Given traditional public school boundaries are often fixed while charter school boundaries are more flexible, charter schools can draw students away from existing…

In this article, the authors study family preferences in one of the most competitive school markets ever developed in the United States: New Orleans, where virtually all district students attend a charter school. The vast majority provide transportation from anywhere in the city, and none can charge tuition. Admission is based on parental…

The American School District Panel (ASDP) is the newest addition to RAND's American Educator Panels (AEP) and was designed to survey district leaders two times each school year. RAND recruits ASDP members using probabilistic sampling methods, which allow researchers to weight survey results to generalize to the national population of school…

This is the latest report in the State of the Superintendent series, an annual report intended to provide a reliable, recurring snapshot of the U.S. public school superintendency. Since the American School District Panel began in fall 2020, researchers have periodically surveyed superintendents about their job, focusing on job-related stressors,…

We describe the levels, trends, and patterns of school closure and restructuring in the United States from 1991 to 2019 across all sectors using a near census of K-12 schools. Focusing on the years with the best available data, 2014-18, we find that the annual closure rate of charter, private, and traditional public schools (TPSs) were 5.1, 2.9,…

The American School District Panel (ASDP) is a nationally representative set of more than 1,000 school district leaders who agree to take surveys over time. RAND recruits ASDP members using probabilistic sampling methods, which allow researchers to weight survey results to generalize to the national population of school districts and charter…

The purpose of this causal-comparative, ex post facto quantitative study was to determine "What are the differences in third-grade reading at the college and career readiness level in charter schools compared to traditional public schools?" The study took place in North Carolina charter and traditional public schools. The sample…

The American School District Panel (ASDP) is the newest addition to the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels (AEP) and was designed to survey district leaders several times each school year. RAND recruits ASDP members using probabilistic sampling methods, which allow researchers to weight survey results to generalize to the national…

Ample research has explored the nature and efficacy of urban charter schools since the turn of the century. However, much less attention has been given to the rural charter school sector. Using data obtained from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools from the 2018-2019 school year, we describe rural charter schools nationally in terms…

The American School District Panel (ASDP) is the newest addition to the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels (AEP), which are designed to survey educators several times each year. RAND recruits ASDP members using probabilistic sampling methods, which allow researchers to weight survey results to generalize to the national population of…

This paper estimates the causal effects of enrollment in one of five oversubscribed high-quality Los Angeles charter schools using a lottery design. Enrolling in a charter school increased eleventh-grade standardized test scores and enrollment and persistence in four-year colleges substantially, but had no effect on high school GPA. Charter…

A growing number of charter schools are serving rural communities. More than 320,000 students are enrolled in rural charter schools across the United States. Due to a smaller population and geographic isolation, charter schools in rural areas face many challenges. The autonomy and flexibility of the charter school model can help mitigate some of…

Purpose: As responsibilities of high school principals continue to expand, their workweeks become longer, and their attention is stretched in multiple directions. How principals from various school types use their time is influenced by their organizational structures and external policies. To gain deeper insights into the workload, priorities and…