IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/edfpol/v9y2014i1p59-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Charter School Authorizers and Student Achievement

Author

Listed:
  • Ron Zimmer

    (Peabody College, Vanderbilt University)

  • Brian Gill

    (Mathematica Policy Research, Cambridge, MA)

  • Jonathon Attridge

    (Peabody College, Vanderbilt University)

  • Kaitlin Obenauf

    (College of Education, Michigan State University)

Abstract

In the academic and policy debates over the merits of charter schools, two things are clear: First, they are here to stay and, second, their quality varies widely. Policy makers therefore need to understand how to design charter laws that promote the creation of high-performing schools. Crucial to this discussion is the charter authorizing process, which varies across the nation. In some states, authorizing power is held exclusively by local school districts, whereas other states allow a range of authorizers that may include not only local districts, but also nonprofit organizations, counties, higher educational institutions, or a state agency. In this paper we use individual student-level data from Ohio, which permits a wide range of organizations to authorize charter schools, to examine the relationship between type of authorizer and charter-school effectiveness as measured by students’ achievement trajectories. © 2014 Association for Education Finance and Policy

Suggested Citation

  • Ron Zimmer & Brian Gill & Jonathon Attridge & Kaitlin Obenauf, 2014. "Charter School Authorizers and Student Achievement," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 9(1), pages 59-85, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:9:y:2014:i:1:p:59-85
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_00120
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanushek, Eric A. & Kain, John F. & Rivkin, Steven G. & Branch, Gregory F., 2007. "Charter school quality and parental decision making with school choice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 823-848, June.
    2. Christina Clark Tuttle & Bing-ru Teh & Ira Nichols-Barrer & Brian P. Gill & Philip Gleason, "undated". "Student Characteristics and Achievement in 22 KIPP Middle Schools," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 69064a347d534ffa8947d7b6e, Mathematica Policy Research.
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:7380 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Richard Buddin & Ron Zimmer, 2005. "Student achievement in charter schools: A complex picture," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 351-371.
    5. Zimmer, Ron & Gill, Brian & Booker, Kevin & Lavertu, Stéphane & Witte, John, 2012. "Examining charter student achievement effects across seven states," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 213-224.
    6. Philip Gleason & Melissa Clark & Christina Clark Tuttle & Emily Dwoyer, "undated". "The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 3066da11915a4b04a77b38848, Mathematica Policy Research.
    7. Petra E. Todd & Jeffrey A. Smith, 2001. "Reconciling Conflicting Evidence on the Performance of Propensity-Score Matching Methods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 112-118, May.
    8. Joshua D. Angrist & Susan M. Dynarski & Thomas J. Kane & Parag A. Pathak & Christopher R. Walters, 2012. "Who Benefits from KIPP?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 837-860, September.
    9. Zimmer, Ron & Buddin, Richard, 2006. "Charter school performance in two large urban districts," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 307-326, September.
    10. Carlson, Deven & Lavery, Lesley & Witte, John F., 2012. "Charter school authorizers and student achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 254-267.
    11. John Witte & David Weimer & Arnold Shober & Paul Schlomer, 2007. "The performance of charter schools in Wisconsin," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 557-573.
    12. Kevin Booker & Tim R. Sass & Brian Gill & Ron Zimmer, 2011. "The Effects of Charter High Schools on Educational Attainment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(2), pages 377-415.
    13. repec:mpr:mprres:6676 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. repec:mpr:mprres:6210 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Tim R. Sass, 2006. "Charter Schools and Student Achievement in Florida," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 91-122, January.
    16. Ron Zimmer & Brian Gill & Kevin Booker & Stephane Lavertu & Tim Sass & John Witte, "undated". "Charter Schools in Eight States: Effects on Achievement, Attainment, Integration, and Competition," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 6f5b31366ca2499e87ac2c1d0, Mathematica Policy Research.
    17. Donald B. Rubin, 1977. "Assignment to Treatment Group on the Basis of a Covariate," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 2(1), pages 1-26, March.
    18. Robert Bifulco & Helen F. Ladd, 2006. "The Impacts of Charter Schools on Student Achievement: Evidence from North Carolina," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 50-90, January.
    19. repec:mpr:mprres:7293 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Booker, Kevin & Gilpatric, Scott M. & Gronberg, Timothy & Jansen, Dennis, 2007. "The impact of charter school attendance on student performance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 849-876, June.
    21. repec:mpr:mprres:6930 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Doyle, William R., 2009. "The effect of community college enrollment on bachelor's degree completion," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 199-206, April.
    23. repec:mpr:mprres:6720 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. repec:mpr:mprres:6673 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Hanushek, Eric A. & Kain, John F. & Rivkin, Steven G., 2004. "Disruption versus Tiebout improvement: the costs and benefits of switching schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1721-1746, August.
    26. Robert Bifulco, 2010. "Can Propensity Score Analysis Replicate Estimates Based on Random Assignment in Evaluations of School Choice? A Within-Study Comparison," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 124, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    27. Philip Gleason & Melissa Clark & Christina Clark Tuttle & Emily Dwoyer, 2010. "The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts (Presentation)," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 770e250b2ef343a3b1ec8c932, Mathematica Policy Research.
    28. Thomas D. Cook & William R. Shadish & Vivian C. Wong, 2008. "Three conditions under which experiments and observational studies produce comparable causal estimates: New findings from within-study comparisons," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 724-750.
    29. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra Todd, 1998. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 65(2), pages 261-294.
    30. Scott A. Imberman, 2011. "Achievement and Behavior in Charter Schools: Drawing a More Complete Picture," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 416-435, May.
    31. Ho, Daniel E. & Imai, Kosuke & King, Gary & Stuart, Elizabeth A., 2007. "Matching as Nonparametric Preprocessing for Reducing Model Dependence in Parametric Causal Inference," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 199-236, July.
    32. Caroline M. Hoxby & Sonali Murarka, 2009. "Charter Schools in New York City: Who Enrolls and How They Affect Their Students' Achievement," NBER Working Papers 14852, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    2. Carlson, Deven & Lavertu, Stéphane, 2016. "Charter school closure and student achievement: Evidence from Ohio," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 31-48.
    3. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Ron Zimmer, 2015. "Charter Schools: A Survey of Research on Their Characteristics and Effectiveness," NBER Working Papers 21256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Brian P. Gill & Jennifer S. Lerner & Paul Meosky, "undated". "Re-Imagining Accountability in K-12 Education: A Behavioral Science Perspective," Mathematica Policy Research Reports d0c19d0709b641259fe391b2e, Mathematica Policy Research.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ron Zimmer & Brian Gill & Jonathon Attridge & Kaitlin Obenauf, "undated". "Charter School Authorizers and Student Achievement (Journal Article)," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 6e4664294f7341868c9a78142, Mathematica Policy Research.
    2. repec:mpr:mprres:7808 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Joshua M. Cowen & Marcus A. Winters, 2013. "Do Charters Retain Teachers Differently? Evidence from Elementary Schools in Florida," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 8(1), pages 14-42, January.
    4. Léonard Moulin, 2023. "Do private schools increase academic achievement? Evidence from France," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 247-274, March.
    5. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Ron Zimmer, 2015. "Charter Schools: A Survey of Research on Their Characteristics and Effectiveness," NBER Working Papers 21256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Kevin Booker & Brian Gill & Tim Sass & Ron Zimmer, "undated". "Charter High Schools' Effects on Long-Term Attainment and Earnings (Working Paper)," Mathematica Policy Research Reports cfe561a4b1924b7eafb64f918, Mathematica Policy Research.
    7. Carlson, Deven & Lavertu, Stéphane, 2016. "Charter school closure and student achievement: Evidence from Ohio," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 31-48.
    8. Margaret Brehm & Scott A. Imberman & Michael Naretta, 2017. "Capitalization of Charter Schools into Residential Property Values," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, Winter.
    9. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    10. Yusuke Jinnai, 2015. "How Does School Choice Improve Student Achievement? Estimating School-level Competitive Effects and Student-level Peer Effects," Working Papers EMS_2016_09, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    11. Carruthers, Celeste K., 2012. "New schools, new students, new teachers: Evaluating the effectiveness of charter schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 280-292.
    12. repec:mpr:mprres:8005 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Patrick L. Baude & Marcus Casey & Eric A. Hanushek & Gregory R. Phelan & Steven G. Rivkin, 2020. "The Evolution of Charter School Quality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(345), pages 158-189, January.
    14. Ni, Yongmei & Rorrer, Andrea K., 2012. "Twice considered: Charter schools and student achievement in Utah," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 835-849.
    15. Imberman, Scott A., 2011. "The effect of charter schools on achievement and behavior of public school students," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 850-863.
    16. Chakrabarti, Rajashri & Roy, Joydeep, 2016. "Do charter schools crowd out private school enrollment? Evidence from Michigan," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 88-103.
    17. Rossella Verzulli & Rowena Jacobs & Maria Goddard, 2018. "Autonomy and performance in the public sector: the experience of English NHS hospitals," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(4), pages 607-626, May.
    18. Zimmer, Ron & Gill, Brian & Booker, Kevin & Lavertu, Stéphane & Witte, John, 2012. "Examining charter student achievement effects across seven states," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 213-224.
    19. John D. Singleton, 2019. "Incentives and the Supply of Effective Charter Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2568-2612, July.
    20. Philip M. Gleason & Christina Clark Tuttle & Brian Gill & Ira Nichols-Barrer & Bing-ru Teh, 2014. "Do KIPP Schools Boost Student Achievement?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 9(1), pages 36-58, January.
    21. Scott A. Imberman, 2011. "Achievement and Behavior in Charter Schools: Drawing a More Complete Picture," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 416-435, May.
    22. Sorensen, Lucy C. & Holt, Stephen B., 2021. "Sorting it Out: The Effects of Charter Expansion on Teacher and Student Composition at Traditional Public Schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    charter schools; student achievement; authorizing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:9:y:2014:i:1:p:59-85. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kelly McDougall (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.