Do magnet and charter schools exacerbate or ameliorate inequality?

School choice typically refers to opportunities to enroll youth in public and/or private educational alternatives to traditional neighborhood public schools. While these options continue to grow in the United States under the umbrella of school choice, magnet and charter schools are the most common forms of public school choice. In this article, we review the development of school choice and the differing historical and philosophical origins of magnet and charter schools. We then summarize what we know about the extent to which these public choice options exacerbate or ameliorate two forms of inequality—academic achievement and school segregation by race and class. Research suggests that magnet schools often encourage racial and class diversity, while charters contribute to racial and socioeconomic isolation. While low‐income minority students may benefit academically from attending magnet schools, it is unclear whether charter schools have any effect on achievement when comparing charter school students to their counterparts in traditional public school. We expect that continued growth of magnet schools will likely promote school diversity both within and between districts, though some types of magnets may also inadvertently promote segregation. However, expansion of the charter school sector will heighten school segregation and exacerbate racial and socioeconomic isolation.     

SCHOOL SELECTION PREFERENCES OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITY MSW STUDENTS: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

A convenience sample of MSW students responded to an Internet-based survey (N=2,289) retrospectively reporting their reasons for enrolling in a specific social work graduate program. Reponses indicate that MSW students who enroll in private graduate programs are younger and reported reputation-related and employment-related reasons for specific school selection more often than students enrolled in public schools. Students enrolled in public schools reported location-related reasons as more important. Bifurcation of the applicant pool into private and public preference-groups presents a recruitment challenge. Other findings include that enrollment rates are substantially higher than previously anticipated, which suggests that most applicants to graduate social work programs are likely to be admitted if they apply to multiple programs.     

Middle‐Class Parents and Urban Public Schools: Current Research and Future Directions

Middle‐class flight from urban public schools to suburban districts or private schools is a key source of educational inequality. Recently, however, a number of studies have focused on middle‐class and upper‐middle‐class families who have made a different choice, opting to remain in the city and send their children to neighborhood public schools. While the movement of advantaged families into urban public schools has received positive attention in the media, this growing body of research tells a more complicated story. Middle‐class families – with their economic, cultural, and social capital – can bring important resources to schools, resulting in widespread benefits. However, their engagement in urban public schools can also lead to marginalization and exclusion. We review the emergent literature on this topic, highlighting four themes: (i) parent preferences, identities, and values; (ii) the role of marketing campaigns and informal networks in attracting the middle class; (iii) the nature and consequences of middle‐class parent engagement in urban schooling; and (iv) the relationship between neighborhood change and school change. We conclude by outlining a research agenda aimed at deepening our understanding of the mechanisms by which middle‐class parent engagement in urban schooling may serve to mitigate, reproduce, or exacerbate educational inequalities.     

Private school competition and public school teacher salaries

Teacher unions have fiercely fought public policy measures (e.g., vouchers, tuition tax credits) that might increase the proportion of students attending private schools. Yet increased competition in the educational service market should also lead to greater labor market competition, reducing any quasi-monopsony tendencies depressing teacher salaries. Using detailed data on over 600 Ohio school districts, we find that increased private school competition leads to higher salaries for public school teachers. It may be that union leaders disregard the interests of their members in trying to maximizing union size and power. An alternative interpretation is that unions sacrifice shortrun income gains for their members in order to maintain longterm economic rents associated with substantial political power.     

VOUCHERS,PUBLIC SCHOOL RESPONSE,AND THE ROLE OF INCENTIVES: EVIDENCE FROM FLORIDA

This paper analyzes the incentives and responses of public schools in the context of an educational reform. Much of the literature studying the effect of voucher programs on public schools has looked at the effect on student and mean school scores. This paper tries to go inside the black box to investigate some of the ways in which schools facing the Florida accountability‐tied voucher program behaved. Schools getting an “F” grade for the first time were exposed to the threat of vouchers, but did not face vouchers unless and until they got a second “F” within the next 3 years. In addition, “F,” being the lowest grade, exposed the threatened schools to stigma. Exploiting the institutional details of this program, I analyze the incentives built into the system and investigate the behavior of the threatened public schools facing these incentives. There is strong evidence that they did respond to incentives. Using highly disaggregated school‐level data, a difference‐in‐differences estimation strategy as well as a regression discontinuity (RD) analysis, I find that the threatened schools tended to focus more on students below the minimum criteria cutoffs rather than equally on all. Second, consistent with incentives, the threatened school improvements were, by far, the largest in writing. These results are robust to controlling for differential preprogram trends, changes in demographic compositions, mean reversion, and sorting. These findings have important policy implications. (JEL H4, I21, I28)     

School Choice

Abstract

In recent years voucher programs that permit the use of publicly funded monies to pay for private schools have emerged as a proposed solution to perceived problems within the public school system. Lost in this debate are the implications of choice based proposals for children with disabilities. In this article the authors examine the legal basis for special education services and explore the extent to which the rights of children in a private choice based system would be protected. The authors conclude that serious questions of equity exist, with the dis-enfranchisement of children with special needs a likely consequence if vouchers are adopted on a broad scale.     

The mouse that roared? Article publishing in undergraduate sociology programs

This paper explores article production by the entire population of US undergraduate sociology departments. The available literature suggests that undergraduate programs publish little, that this is concentrated among relatively few—mainly liberal arts—departments, and that publication rates are increasing. We argue There are reasons to expect that social/economic presence, reward policies, student quality, and faculty quality, size, and workload will affect productivity. Tracing publication of articles across the 1990s, few undergraduate departments are represented in 30 journals deemed important on the bases of reputation and citation rates. Liberal arts schools do not predominate. Ceteris paribus, public schools outpublished private schools. Publication rates have not increased. Social/economic presence, and student and faculty quality affect publishing, but salary, tenure structure, and workload do not. Finally, faculty size suppresses per capita publication.     

Supplemental Retirement Savings Plans in the Public Sector: Participation and Contribution Decisions by School Personnel

Virtually all full-time state and local government employees are covered by a retirement plan, typically a defined benefit plan, in which they are required to participate. In addition, most school employees have the option of choosing to contribute to a voluntary retirement savings plan offered by their school district. Relative to private sector workers, public employees face an expanded choice of retirement savings plans. Federal tax policies allow state and local governments the opportunity to offer both 401(k) plans and 457 plans to their employees. In addition to these plans, public schools and certain other organizations can offer 403(b) plans to their employees. This paper examines the decision to participate in a voluntary savings plan and the level of contributions for those that enroll in at least one of the plans. The analysis begins by describing the savings options available to public school employees and how these plans differ. The findings indicate that the same economic and demographic factors that influence saving decisions by private workers also drive the decisions of school employees. The three savings plans offered to public employees have many similar characteristics; however, several differences in the plans imply that certain workers may prefer one plan type over the others. Probit and Tobit models of participation in any plan and total annual contributions are estimated. Finally, we estimate the determinants of the decision to choose any one or a combination of savings plans.     

BUYING THEIR VOTES? A STUDY OF LOCAL TAX‐PRICE DISCRIMINATION

A population's demographic composition may affect political support for various public services. This article examines whether the aging‐in‐place of local residents decreases financial support for public schools in the United States. I expand on previous empirical work by examining whether tax‐price reductions offered to elderly homeowners moderate their effect on local school revenues. The results reveal that an aging population structure substantially decreases school revenues, unless elderly homeowners receive state‐financed reductions in their local tax‐prices. Sizable differences hold even when comparing school districts located near each other but on opposite sides of state borders. Given the imminent aging of the population structure in the United States and many other developed countries, governments' targeted tax reduction policies could have important effects on equilibrium school revenues. (JEL I22, J14, H71)     

The Relationship between High School Sector and Educational Success: Focusing on the Social Background of Private High School Students

This study investigates the influence of high school sector on educational success in Japan. A range of previous research on disparities among high schools has revealed that high school rank (based on the academic ability of pupils, etc.) originated from the democratization of high school. However, given that the democratization of high school is supported by private high schools, high school sector may become a factor for high school ranking. The data used for the analysis are the 2005 National Survey of Social Stratification and Social Mobility (SSM) in Japan. The results indicate that students who enter private high schools have lower academic ability than students who enter public high schools. By contrast, private high school students have greater educational success than public high school students. Moreover, this study reveals that private high school students are generally from a higher social class than public high school students. Given that the use of entrance examinations for private junior high schools has been increasing since the 1990s, in the future, the effect of private schools on educational success may become stronger in not only high schools but also junior high schools. This study thus emphasizes the importance of paying greater attention to the relationship between educational success and the private and public school sectors.     

STUDENTS WHO CHOOSE AND THE SCHOOLS THEY LEAVE: Examining Participation in Intradistrict Transfers

Data from one urban school district is analyzed to examine equity‐based arguments about school choice as they pertain to intradistrict transfer policies. We specifically examine which factors influence the propensity for parents to participate in choice, and how choice schools differ from the schools that students are zoned to attend. We find that advantaged and disadvantaged parents make similar choices in that they are both likely to choose more affluent schools with better academic records than the schools they are zoned to attend. However, these choices operate in different spheres, as advantaged parents choose the most affluent schools with the best academic records, and disadvantaged parents choose away from the least affluent schools with the worst academic records to schools that are slightly better.     

PREP SCHOOL AND PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADUATES: WHO ATTENDS COLLEGE REUNIONS,WHO DONATES,WHO DOESN'T,AND WHY

As early as the 1920s, studies at various elite colleges revealed that public school graduates outperformed private school graduates academically, and more recent research indicates various differences in life patterns between these two groups 25 years after graduation. The two new studies presented here, which look at attendance at college reunions and donations to one's college, extend that earlier work. At a New England college, public school graduates were more likely than the private school graduates to attend their 30th, 35th, and 40th year college reunions. Donations to the school showed that public school graduates were somewhat more likely to make contributions than private school graduates, and graduates of the most socially elite boarding schools were especially unlikely to have made contributions. These findings are discussed in terms of the varying roles that prep schools and colleges play in one's identity.     

A Different Kind of Discipline: Social Reproduction and the Transmission of Non‐cognitive Skills at an Urban Charter School

A key component of recent school reform policies has been the authorization of public charter schools. A subset of public charter schools, often termed “no excuses” schools, have received national attention for their students’ academic success; however, scholars have recently begun to question the role of the schools’ authoritarian discipline systems in the process of social reproduction. This study examines the extent to which authoritarian discipline systems are necessary for success at “no excuses” schools, drawing upon qualitative research at a strategic site: a school that adopts many of the practices of “no excuses” schools while also pursuing a relational approach to discipline. Qualitative analysis of classroom observation and interview data finds that a relational approach to discipline cultivates non‐cognitive skills more closely aligned with the evaluative standards of middle‐class institutions, such as skills in self‐expression, self‐regulation, problem‐solving, and conflict resolution. A comparison of academic achievement data also suggests that “no excuses” schools may be able to implement relational discipline approaches without sacrificing academic success on a key predictor of future academic performance.     

Gay‐Straight Alliances,Inclusive Policy,and School Climate: LGBTQ Youths’ Experiences of Social Support and Bullying

Gay‐Straight Alliances (GSA) and school policies focused on support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning youth may reduce bias‐based bullying and enhance social supports in schools. Using multivariate regression, we tested the relationship between youth reports of the presence of GSAs and LGBTQ‐focused policies, independently and mutually, with experiences bullying and perceived support (n = 1,061). Youth reported higher classmate support in the presence of GSAs and higher teacher support in the presence of LGBTQ‐focused policies; the presence of both GSAs and LGBTQ‐focused policies was associated with less bullying and higher perceived classmate and teacher support. The findings indicate that GSAs and LGBTQ‐focused policies are distinctly and mutually important for fostering safer and more supportive school climates for youth.     

Disclosure of Student Status to Clients

A survey was sent to 163 MSW programs in the United States and Canada that asked directors of fieldwork to respond to questions related to their school’s policies on disclosure of student status in the field. With a response rate of 66.3% (N = 108), most of the schools (68.5%, n = 74) reported policies requiring disclosure and most directors supported this position. The authors review the ethical and legal reasons in favor of disclosure. They strongly suggest that a pro-disclosure policy be written and adopted by social work programs and the discipline’s professional organizations.     

High School Social Climate and Antisocial Behavior: A 10 Year Longitudinal and Multilevel Study

A longitudinal and multilevel approach is used to examine the relationship between antisocial behavior during adolescence and high school social climate. The data are taken from a longitudinal study of 1,233 boys and girls who attended 217 public and private high schools. Students' disruptive behaviors were assessed yearly from 6 to 12 years of age. High school social climate was assessed by teachers, and students reported on their violent and nonviolent antisocial behavior while in high school. The multilevel analyses revealed (1) a large difference between the percentage of variance explained within schools (97%), compared with between schools (3%), and (2) teachers' reports of classroom behavior problems explain between‐school differences in student reported antisocial behavior, after controlling for students' family adversity and history of behavior problems during elementary school. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are examined and future directions for research are discussed.     

Charter School Authorizations as Disputes: How School Board Members Justify Their Votes in a Neoliberal Context1

For charter schools to open they must gain the approval of an authorizing body, most commonly a local school board. When deciding whether or not to authorize a particular charter, school board members often engage in public disputes that entail clashes between multiple and conflicting conceptualizations of the goals of education. Drawing on insights from pragmatic sociology and institutional theory, this paper examines videos of 119 public meetings to document how members of a large, urban school board drew on competing ways of conceptualizing the common good to justify their votes on charter school authorizations. Moreover, it also shows how the neoliberal context of contemporary education limited the range of justifications used. Even school board members who argued against charter school authorizations did with justifications draped in neoliberal language. Neoliberalism thus impacted decisions not by becoming cognitively taken‐for‐granted but rather by shaping the range of arguments made for or against the choice to authorize particular schools.     

Inequality and education decisions in developing countries

In this paper we analyze the effect of inequality on school enrollment, preferred tax rate and expenditure per student in developing countries; when parents can choose between child labor, public schooling or private schooling. We present a model in which parents make schooling decisions for their children, weighing the utility benefit of having a child with formal public or private education versus the forgone income from child labor or household work. Parents vote over the preferred tax rate to finance freely provided public education. The utility benefit of an educated child is proportional to expenditure per student, so that there is congestion in public school. We find that when parents can send their children to work or to private school, high inequality leads to exit from public education at both ends of the income distribution. Thus high inequality reduces the support for public education, leading to a low tax rate and expenditure per student. Exit from public education results in both high child labor and a large fraction of students attending private school. In fact there is a threshold level of inequality above which there is no longer support for public education. In addition we explore the implications for the design of foreign aid. The results suggest that foreign aid policies should focus on promoting school attendance rather than increasing school resources, as the later policy might be offset by a reduction in the recipient country’s fiscal effort, with little impact on outcomes.      

College smoking policies and smoking cessation programs: results of a survey of college health center directors

College students' cigarette smoking rose dramatically during the 1990s. Little is known about what colleges do to address the problem. Health center directors at 393 4-year US colleges provided information (response rate: 65.1%) about college policies addressing smoking and the availability of smoking cessations programs. Of the health center directors surveyed, 85% considered students' smoking a problem; yet only 81% of colleges prohibit smoking in all public areas and only 27% ban smoking in all indoor areas, including students' rooms in dormitories and in private offices. More than 40% of the respondents reported that their schools did not offer smoking cessation programs and that the demand for existing program was low. Colleges need to do more to discourage student tobacco use. Recommended actions include campus-wide no-smoking policies that apply to student residences and identification of new ways of providing smoking prevention and cessation services.     

REDUCING PUBLIC‐PRIVATE SECTOR PAY DIFFERENTIALS: THE SINGLE SPINE PAY POLICY AS A NATURAL EXPERIMENT IN GHANA

Empirical studies have documented the existence of the public‐private pay differentials in both developed and developing countries. The implementation of policies aiming to reduce this gap has however been mitigated or inconclusive. This paper exploits the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) in Ghana as a natural experiment to examine the effectiveness of wage policies in developing countries. The SSPP was implemented in 2010 by the Government of Ghana to address the public‐private sector wage gap and improve productivity in the public sector. Using a quantile treatment effect approach based on a difference‐in‐difference estimation, we show that the SSPP has yet to reduce the wage gap between the public and private sectors across the entire distribution of earnings in Ghana. The improvement observed is only at the lower tail of the distribution of earnings. However, the SSPP has a larger effect on the earnings of female workers than that of males in the education and health services sectors while male workers have benefited more in the administration sector, suggesting that the policy was successful in reducing the gender wage gap in the education and health services sectors but has widened this gap in the administration sector. Moreover, the SSPP has decreased the productivity of workers across the distribution of earnings, mainly due to a decrease in the effort of female public sector workers in the education and health sectors and male workers in the administration sector. (JEL C31, G15, J24, J31, J45)