EducationNews.org

An Interview with Marcus Winters: The Current Status of Charter Schools

 

Michael F. Shaughnessy - 10.29.09
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, New Mexico

 

1)      Marcus, I understand that you are about to release a major report about charter schools. What’s the story?

 

       In the paper I measure the effect that competition from charter schools has on the academic proficiency of students who remain in New York City's public schools. New York City is the nation's largest public school district and home of a rapidly growing charter school sector. A recent study by Caroline Hoxby found that students who attend a charter school in New York City benefit academically. In my paper, I'm looking at the effect that charter schools have on the 98 percent of New York's students who do not attend a charter school. Consistent with prior research in other areas, I find that students in traditional public schools make some mild academic gains when their school faces increased competition from charter schools.

 

2)      How many charter schools did you study and where ?

 

        I used student-level data for the universe of test-taking public school students in New York City from 2006 through 2009. Currently, there are about 100 charter schools in New  York City.

 

3)      How many students?

 

       The analysis includes more than 944,000 student-year observations.

 

4)      What evaluation instruments did you use?

 

        I measure the amount of competition that a public school faces from charter schools as the percentage of its students who left for a charter school at the end of the previous year. That is, a school faces more competition from charter schools if they are losing more students to them. My analysis also holds constant both observed and unobserved school and student-level factors that explain a student's proficiency by incorporating a student-school "spell" fixed-effect.

 

5)      In your mind, what is this telling us about charter schools and their effect on public schools in urban areas?

 

        In the specific case of New York City, the results are very clear: we can now say with high confidence that the expansion of charter schools is helping all students in the city and is not harming public school students. This should inform the debate over whether the state should remove the cap on the number of charter schools allowed in New York. At the national level, the results suggest that charter schools do not harm public schools and can help them. The results provide further confirmation that school choice programs do not harm public schools.

 

6)      Marcus, research nowadays is somewhat problematic due to the increasing number of students with exceptionalities. How did you control for this factor?

 

        My analysis controls for factors such as disabilities by using a student-school fixed-effect. In essence, the analysis controls for the student himself, including whether or not he has a disability.

 

7)      What is the story on teacher turnover in urban areas and does this have an impact?

 

       It's well known that teacher turnover is high everywhere, and particularly high in urban areas. My study doesn't speak directly to that issue. However, a very interesting question to be addressed by future research is the ways that turnover differ in public and charter schools.

 

8)      Will your report be posted on line and was anyone else involved in the research?

 

       The report can be found online at the Manhattan Institute's website. I am the sole author on the paper.

            The site is : http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_60.htm