Do charter schools work? The best studies suggest they are doing no better than traditional public schools-and are increasing racial segregation.
References
1.
LanceD. FusarelliJamesR. Crawford, eds. “Charter Schools and the Accountability Puzzle.” Education and Urban Society (special issue) 33 (2001): 107–215. Eight articles examine different models of charter school accountability.
2.
JeffreyR. Hening.Rethinking School Choice: Limits of the Market Metaphor (Princeton University Press, 1994). In this early work on school choice, Hening discusses market-oriented choice programs, suggesting they may not work and are likely to make education worse in terms of segregation and outcomes.
3.
CarolineHoxbyJonahRockoff. “Impact of Charter Schools on Student Achievement.” Unpublished manuscript, 2004. Available online at http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/hoxbyrockoff.pdf. Hoxby and Rockoff analyze the achievement of charter school students in Chicago and Illinois compared to the achievement of students who do not attend charter schools.
4.
Howard NelsonF.BellaRosenbergNancy VanMeter.Charter School Achievement on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (American Federation of Teachers, 2004). The authors compare the math and reading scores of charter school and noncharter school students.
5.
LindaA. RenzulliLorraineEvans. “School Choice, Charter Schools, and White Flight.” Social Problems52 (2005): 398–418. Renzulli and Evans show that integration in public school leads to increased proportions of white students in local charter schools.
6.
SandraVergari.The Charter School Landscape (Pittsburgh University Press, 2002). Vergari examines charter school politics and policies in eleven states and the province of Alberta to show how charter schools are affecting public education.
