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Charter school policies have focused on improving three aspects of schools—autonomy, innovation, and accountability—with the intention of promoting advances in curriculum, instruction, and learning that lead to better student outcomes. However, most research on charter schools tends to neglect school organizational and instructional conditions. Overall, reviews show that charter schools have inconsistent effects on student achievement scores, a finding that masks heterogeneous effects among different types of charter schools, operators of charter schools, and authorizers of charter schools and the organizational and instructional conditions under which they operate. This systematic review of the literature focuses on what we know about the organization of charter schools and the resources—material, human, and social as well as professional development and teaching practices—within them. We end by identifying gaps where more research is needed.

Over the last 30 years, the school choice movement has been one of the most prominent large-scale reform efforts in American education. In recent years, charter schools and voucher programs, in particular, have been a focus of policy makers and philanthropists. Mark Berends presents an overview of these two models, their prevalence, and what research says about their effectiveness.

As researchers continue to examine the growing number of charter schools in the United States, they have focused attention on the significant heterogeneity of charter effects on student achievement. Our article contributes to this agenda by examining the achievement effects of virtual charter schools vis-à-vis brick-and-mortar charters and traditional public schools and whether characteristics of teachers and classrooms explain the observed impacts. We found that students who switched to virtual charter schools experienced large, negative effects on mathematics and English/language arts achievement that persisted over time and that these effects could not be explained by observed teacher or classroom characteristics.

We estimate the longitudinal effects of charter schools authorized by different authorizing bodies on student achievement by using student-level data from Indiana. The results of our analysis point to substantial variation, especially between the state’s two largest authorizers: Ball State University and the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office. Some of the variation is driven by the types of operators these bodies authorize to run charter schools. However, operator effects are not consistent across authorizers, suggesting a more complex story about how authorization affects student achievement. These results point to the ways that public and private interests in charter schools may complicate the work of authorizers and suggest a need for policymakers to offer more guidance in how authorizers carry out their various accountability mandates.

Recent evidence from international comparisons reveals that students in the United States (US) tend to compete well with those in other countries at younger ages, but as US students age, their academic achievement scores lag behind those of their international contemporaries. Federal policies have provided support for school choice over the past two decades. The rigorous study of issues related to school choice is both timely and important for policy makers, practitioners, scholars, and families to understand what choice options are effective or not and the social context and conditions that promote or inhibit the effectiveness of school choice alternatives. Charter schools are public schools funded by the government, but they have a different governance structure compared with traditional public schools in that they are established under a charter by parents, educators, community groups, or private organizations to encourage school autonomy and innovation.

Existing research examines whether studying with teachers of the same race/ethnicity affects student achievement, but little is known about whether those effects vary by timing and frequency. We use 7 years of administrative data from third through eighth graders in Indiana to estimate the heterogenous links between same race/ethnicity teachers and achievement by school level (i.e., elementary vs. middle schools) and self-contained classroom (i.e., self-contained vs. departmentalized classrooms). We find that the positive links between same race/ethnicity teachers and improved achievement are stronger for elementary school students and students in self-contained classrooms, particularly for Black students. Our findings highlight the importance of timing and frequent exposure to same race/ethnicity teachers in academic trajectories.

This paper examines the impact of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program on student achievement for low‐income students in upper elementary and middle school who used a voucher to transfer from public to private schools during the first four years of the program. We analyzed student‐level longitudinal data from public and private schools taking the same statewide standardized assessment. Overall, voucher students experienced an average achievement loss of 0.15 SDs in mathematics during their first year of attending a private school compared with matched students who remained in a public school. This loss persisted regardless of the length of time spent in a private school. In English/Language Arts, we did not observe statistically meaningful effects. Although school vouchers aim to provide greater educational opportunities for students, the goal of improving the academic performance of low‐income students who use a voucher to move to a private school has not yet been realized in Indiana.

School choice researchers are often limited to comparing one type of choice with another (e.g., charter schools vs. traditional public schools). One area researchers have not examined is the effects of different school types within the same urban region. We fill this gap by analyzing longitudinal data for students (grades 3–8) in Indianapolis, using student fixed effects models to estimate the impacts of students switching from a traditional public school to a charter, magnet, Catholic, or other private school. We find that students experience no differences in their achievement gains after transferring from a traditional public school to a charter school. However, students switching to magnet schools experience modest annual losses of −0.09 standard deviation (SD) in mathematics and −0.11 SD in English Language Arts. Students switching to Catholic schools also experience annual losses of −0.18 SD in mathematics. These findings are robust to a series of alternative model specifications. Additionally, we find some variability in the mean school type impacts by students’ race/ethnicity, English language learner status, and number of years enrolled in a choice school. We discuss our results in the context of the variability of choice school effects across an entire urban area, something future research needs to examine.

BackgroundAlthough we have learned a good deal from lottery-based and quasi-experimental studies of charter schools, much of what goes on inside of charter schools remains a “black box” to be unpacked. Grounding our work in neoclassical market theory and institutional theory, we examine differences in the social organization of schools and classrooms to enrich our understanding of school choice, school organizational and instructional conditions, and student learning.Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of StudyOur study examines differences in students’ mathematics achievement gains between charter and traditional public schools, focusing on the distribution and organization of students into ability groups. In short, we ask: (1) How does the distribution of ability grouping differ between charter and traditional public schools? And (2) What are the relationships between ability group placement and students’ mathematics achievement gains in charter and traditional public schools?Research DesignWith a matched sample of charter and traditional public schools in six states (Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio), we use regression analyses to estimate the relationship between student achievement gains and school sector. We analyze how ability grouping mediates this main effect, controlling for various student, classroom, and school characteristics.FindingsWe find significant differences in the distribution of students across ability groups, with a more even distribution in charter compared to traditional public schools, which appear to have more selective placements for high groups. Consistent with prior research on tracking, we also find low-grouped students to be at a significant disadvantage when compared with high- and mixed-group peers in both sectors.ConclusionsAlthough we find some significant differences between ability group placement and student achievement gains in mathematics, these relationships do not differ as much by sector as market theory (with its emphasis on innovation and autonomy) would predict. Consistent with institutional theory, both sectors still group students by ability and have similar relationships between gains and grouping.

For several decades, researchers have examined sector effects on student outcomes. Several argue the presence of a Catholic school advantage (CSA), an effect that shows improvement of educational outcomes upon attendance at a Catholic school. The magnitude of this effect, however, is often debated, particularly in the era of educational reform. In this study, we analyze nationally representative data to examine whether attending a Catholic school consistently promotes educational attainment. On net, we find that students who attend Catholic high schools are more likely to continue in education although this advantage is not persistent across measures of institutional selectivity.

Charter schools have been on the educational reform landscape for over twenty years. In the last ten years, a number of rigorous studies have examined the effects of these schools on student achievement and educational attainment. Findings reveal mixed results where student achievement is concerned (i.e., some positive, some negative, some neutral) and positive results in terms of educational attainment (i.e., high school graduation and college attendance). The article places this research within a framework that draws on both market and institutional theories, and concludes that additional research on the social organization of charter schools and traditional public schools is needed to better understand the conditions under which school choice is or is not effective.

School choice has expanded significantly in the past couple of decades and is likely to continue doing so. Rigorous research has informed our understanding of the impact of school choice options on student achievement, attainment, and family satisfaction. It has also shed light on the effects of different school governance structures, residential location and access, segregation patterns, parents’ stated and actual preferences, information flows, and the attributes of effective choice schools. Further research is needed to address the variability in effects of school choice options, both between and within sectors (e.g., charter, voucher, and private schools). Such research will allow sociologists to broaden their focus from the “horse race” of comparing one school sector to another (e.g., public and private, charter, and traditional public) to considering new waves of questions that can benefit today’s increasing number of partnerships between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. This in turn will lead researchers to additional theorizing, moving them beyond market and institutional theories to developing new ones that depict current empirical conditions.

This chapter looks at charter school research on student achievement and assesses the reviews of charter school studies. It argues that research is at a point where authors can begin to outline a more systematic, rigorous meta-analysis of charter school studies for a clearer understanding of their effects on student achievement. The debate about charter school effects on student achievement rages on. It seems every study released to the public and picked up by the media fuels the fire of proponents and critics alike. A report on charter schools by Henry Braun, Frank Jenkins, and Wendy Grigg of the Educational Testing Service for the US Department of Education provides more debate fodder for charter school critics and advocates. The report examines fourth grade math and reading achievement differences between charter and traditional public schools in the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Market reforms in education are part of the educational policy landscape in many countries. Central to arguments for market reforms is the idea that competition and choice will spur changes in schools to be more innovative, which in turn will lead to better student outcomes. We define innovation in terms of a practice's relative prevalence in a local district context. A charter school is innovative in its use of a practice if the traditional public schools in its local school district are not using that practice. We explore factors based on arguments for charter schools that may affect a charter schools’ propensity toward innovation to explain variation in levels of innovation across charter schools. We find that, on the whole, charter schools do not fulfill their promise of innovation. Teacher tenure is the most notable exception. Parental involvement is the only characteristic of charter schools that significantly predicts variation in levels of organizational innovativeness.

Analysts have regarded education transitions research as revealing late stage educational egalitarianism in the United States (e.g., Stolzenberg, 1994 ) and as sufficiently robust to guide policymakers (e.g., Hout, 2007 ). However, critics suggest parameter estimates are contaminated by selection bias (e.g., De Graaf & Ganzeboom, 1993 ), key parameter differences are unidentified (e.g., Cameron & Heckman, 1998 ), cross-transition comparisons are faulty, and the data are inappropriate. Useful modifications have been offered, (e.g., Breen and Jonsson, 2000 , Hauser and Andrew, 2006 , Lucas, 2001 ), but analysts have yet to comprehensively address the challenges critics pose. In response, we propose a neo-classical education transitions approach that uses fuller sets of data and models that explicitly address the primary threats to proper inference. Using this approach we re-assess the educational attainment process for a baby boomer cohort, a Generation X cohort, and a Generation Y cohort. All cohorts fail to replicate the waning coefficients pattern. Methodologically, the study responds to criticisms in a way that offers methods for continued cross-national comparative research. Substantively, the study undermines confidence that standard education transitions research can provide policy guidance and the claim of late stage egalitarianism in the United States educational attainment process.

This article examines the pathways that students can follow within the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program and the associations with their math and English language arts achievement in upper elementary and middle school. We analyze student-level longitudinal data by matching voucher and nonvoucher students to estimate the role of participating in the voucher program, taking advantage of the uniqueness of Indiana public and private schools taking the same standardized assessment over time. The different student pathways for using vouchers are related to student achievement with significant achievement losses for students who switch from a public to a private school with a voucher. Students who have always attended a private school, both before and after receiving a voucher, experience no significant changes in achievement.

Since charter school research on student achievement is mixed, many researchers and policy makers advocate looking inside the “black box” of schools to better understand the conditions under which schools of choice may be effective. We begin to address this issue with data from charter schools and a comparison group of traditional public schools. We also conduct propensity score matching at the student level to further understand achievement gains. In our analyses of these data, we find no charter school effects on students’ achievement gains. Instructional conditions, such as teachers’ focus on academic achievement, are related to mathematics gains. However, we find that our innovation measure is negatively associated with gains (when other conditions are controlled for), which suggests that innovation for innovation’s sake should not be the sole focus of schools, whether charter or not.

Background/Context Although there has been progress in closing the test score gaps among student groups over past decades, that progress has stalled. Many researchers have speculated why the test score gaps closed between the early 1970s and the early 1990s, but only a few have been able to empirically study how changes in school factors and social background characteristics relate to that convergence. The main reason for this is the lack of data for multiple student cohorts—information necessary for the examination of such relationships. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We analyzed nationally representative data from 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2004, examining the mathematics achievement of four high school senior cohorts, and several school and family background characteristics. We examined how changes in these measures (in terms of means and coefficients) relate to the black-white and Latino-white test score gaps and to changes in school minority composition. Population/Participants/Subjects For our analysis, we used the following nationally representative data sets, which are part of the Longitudinal Studies (LS) program at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72); High School and Beyond senior cohort of 1982 (HSB-82); National Education Longitudinal Study senior cohort of 1992 (NELS-92); and Educational Longitudinal Study senior cohort of 2004 (ELS-04). Research Design Conducting secondary data analyses of these nationally representative data, we estimated a series of regressions for each senior cohort, entering the race dummy variables to estimate the unadjusted predicted mathematics test score difference between black and white students and between Latino and white students. Next, we estimated a series of multilevel regressions for each cohort to analyze how trends in school and social background measures are related to trends in the black-white and Latino-white mathematics test score gaps. Finally, we used the pooled coefficients in the decomposition of the difference between the predicted means of white and black test scores. Findings/Results Our estimates revealed that between 1972 and 2004, increases in school segregation corresponded to significant increases in the black-white and Latino-white test score gaps, outweighing the positive changes in family background measures for these minority groups. Conclusions/Recommendations Understanding how our society can address these countervailing forces—the improving socioeconomic conditions for black and Latino families on the one hand, and the increasing racial isolation of these students in schools on the other— necessitates innovative ideas and experimentation.

Successful implementation of evidence-based educational practices at scale is of great importance but has presented significant challenges. In this article, the authors address the following questions: How does the level of on-site technical assistance affect student outcomes? Do teachers’ fidelity of treatment implementation and their perceptions of school climate mediate effects on student performance? Using a randomized control trial at scale, the authors examine Kindergarten Peer Assisted Learning Strategies, which previously has been shown to be effective in increasing student reading achievement. Analyzing data from 2 years and three sites, the analyses show that the level of on-site technical support has significant effects on reading achievement gains, are robust across multiple sites, and are mediated by fidelity of implementation within teachers’ classrooms.

Through several decades of research, a great deal has been written about trends in black-white test scores and the factors that may explain the gaps in different subject areas. Only a few studies have examined the changing relationships between gaps in students' test scores and family and school measures in nationally representative data over several periods. This article builds on this previous work and addresses some of its limitations by analyzing nationally representative data in 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2004 that provide consistent measures of high school seniors' mathematics achievement and several school and family measures. Together, these databases for four cohorts of high school seniors provide the opportunity to analyze associations between the gaps in black-white test scores and changes in family background and school characteristics (in terms of both changes in means and coefficients). The analyses reveal positive changes for black students relative to white students between 1972 and 2004, such as improvement in some socioeconomic family background characteristics. Yet, some school conditions (racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition) did not improve for black students, and despite some beneficial changes, inequalities persist.

Scholars continue to debate whether persistent racial inequality flows primarily from differences in measured achievement [e.g., Cancio, A. S., Evans, T. D., & Maume, D. J., Jr. (1996). Reconsidering the declining significance of race: Racial differences in early career wages. American Sociological Review, 61, 541–556; Farkas, G., & Vicknair, K. (1996). Appropriate tests of racial wage discrimination require controls for cognitive skill: Comment on Cancio, Evans, and Maume. American Sociological Review, 61, 557–560], a debate pointing scholars toward the school. Yet, a look inside schools reveals conflicting evidence concerning students’ opportunities. Notably, analyses of race and track location have found Whites and Asians advantaged when compared to Blacks and Latino/as [e.g., Mickelson, R. A. (2001). Subverting swann: First- and second-generation segregation in Charlotte–Mecklenberg schools. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 215–252], Black–White–Latino/a equality [e.g., Lucas, S. R., & Gamoran, A. (2002). Tracking and the achievement gap, In J. E. Chubb, & T. Loveless (Eds.), Bridging the gap (pp. 171–198). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press], and Whites disadvantaged when compared to Blacks and Asians [e.g., Garet, M. S., & DeLany, B. (1988). Students, courses, and stratification. Sociology of Education, 61, 61–77]. Upon investigating whether schools actually vary in their racial/ethnic gaps in track location, we find important school-level differences. This variation is not random; the more racially diverse the school, the better Whites’ chances and the worse Blacks’ chances of college prep course-taking. Provocatively, predicted probabilities of college-prep course-taking are consistent with one-to-one substitution of Whites for Blacks as one moves from less to more diverse schools. The results suggest analysts must explore cross-school variation to discern when, where, and why comparable students have different placements. Further, the findings imply that pursuing diversity, the sole remaining acceptable justification for race-conscious desegregation efforts, may actually hinder Blacks’ access to demanding curricula.

Since its publication in 1983, A Nation at Risk has caused several waves and ripples of educational reform. This article puts that report in the context of earlier responses to perceived education crises. One such important response was from the private sector: the New American Schools Development Corporation (NAS). NAS attempted to create, develop, and widely disseminate "break the mold" whole-school designs to improve student achievement in the nation's schools. Despite a history of mixed results, NAS was influential in changing federal policy to support the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program (CSRD). Now embedded in the No Child Left Behind legislation, CSRD has private and public sector support for the nation's continuing attempts to create effective schools. However, the effectiveness of comprehensive school reform at scale in the nation's highest poverty schools remains an open question.

Two types of inquiry have been at the heart of recent discussions of systematic evidence in educational policy and practice: randomized field trials (RFTs) and nationally representative surveys. We argue that integrating these 2 modes of inquiry has the potential to strengthen the evidence base for school reform. In particular, national surveys can help determine the focus of RFTs, by identifying factors that place schools at risk of poor achievement or buffer schools from risk. In addition, surveys can provide data on the prevalence of interventions identified as effective in RFTs and the conditions under which the interventions are being implemented. Finally, RFTs and surveys, taken together, can provide information on ways of improving the coherence of the set of interventions used at the school level.

Federal and state policy makers need to think critically about their current stance of simultaneously promoting high-stakes testing, comprehensive school reforms that center on innovative curriculum and instructional strategies, and the adoption of multiple additional reforms, the authors warn. WHEN THE New American Schools (NAS) launched its efforts on behalf of whole-school reform in 1991, at least part of the motivation was that the piecemeal approach to school reform had produced little change in the nation's test scores. A private, nonprofit organization, NAS was charged with helping schools and districts raise significantly the achievement of large numbers of students by implementing whole-school reforms and by taking advantage of the assistance offered by the design teams. The core premise of NAS was that all high-quality schools possess a unifying design that allows all staff members to perform to the best of their abilities and that integrates research-based practices into a coherent and mutually reinforcing set of effective approaches to teaching and learning for the entire school. The best way to ensure that lower- performing schools adopted successful designs was to fund design teams to develop "break the mold" school designs that could be readily adopted by communities around the nation. After developing the design, teams would go on to implement their designs in schools across the country. This adoption would lead to the fulfillment of NAS's primary goal of improving the performance of large numbers of students. This whole-school approach to educational improvement was a dramatically different way of initiating and disseminating large-scale changes. It was a unique combination of 1) private-sector involvement, using a venture capitalist approach; 2) the choice of whole-school designs as a vehicle for reform; and 3) the ambitious goal of scaling up across the country. Moreover, the experimental approach adopted by NAS required careful development and demonstration of designs prior to moving to the scale-up efforts. Thus it had a phased approach including: * competition and selection phases (1992); * a development phase of one year (1992-93); * a demonstration phase of two years (1993-95); and * a scale-up phase of three years (1995-98). This approach to educational improvement offered an unprecedented opportunity to study and understand a unique attempt at school reform from its beginnings to its completion. RAND's Role NAS approached RAND to provide analytic support to its school reform efforts. This support took many forms, but it was primarily intended to document and analyze the conditions under which NAS made progress toward its goals of widespread use and implementation of the designs and improved student performance associated with that use. The support included the following analytic tasks: * to document the efforts of NAS to assess its contributions to education reform; * to describe the designs and analyze changes in them over time; * to assess the level of implementation in design-based schools during the demonstration and scale-up phases; * to identify factors that impede or encourage implementation in the demonstration and scale-up phases; and * to measure whether adopting the designs resulted in the outcomes desired by NAS and its partnering districts in the scale-up phase. These tasks were conducted over the first seven years of the NAS initiative, from the demonstration phase through the scale-up phase. The results have been documented in a series of RAND reports. Over these years, RAND's program of studies has included: * a longitudinal sample of more than 100 NAS schools that began implementation early in the scale-up phase, including data on implementation and performance from principals, teachers, and districts; * case studies in 40 schools to analyze implementation and the role that districts play in impeding or enabling comprehensive school reform; * a description of how designs have evolved from the initial proposal stage to implementation "at scale" in schools across the nation; * analyses in one urban school district of how designs promote changes in classroom instruction, in teaching and learning, and in individual-level student achievement scores; * an analysis of performance differences in high-implementing NAS sites; and * ongoing discussions with NAS staff and design team leaders. …

Teacher supply and demand issues are of critical importance as our society enters the 21st century. Over the next decade, there will be an increasing demand for new teachers––about two million––due in part to a dramatic increase in enrollments and high attrition rates as an aging teacher workforce becomes eligible for retirement. Where these teachers will come from and where they will teach is important to understand as our society faces increasing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity. Amid this diversity is a continuing concern that some racial-ethnic groups are disproportionately placed at risk. Thus, this article focuses on the supply and demand patterns of minority teachers, with special attention to teachers of students in high-risk districts. We analyze data on teachers from Texas between 1979 and 1996. We provide a variety of descriptive results––both univariate and multivariate––showing that while Texas has been successful in attracting minority teachers, it has a long way to go in attaining the goal of the Texas State Board of Education: to have a teacher workforce that reflects the racial-ethnic composition of the state.