Charter Schools: Hope or Hype?

Jack Buckley; Mark Schneider

Published by Princeton University Press 2007

Charter Schools

Hope or Hype?

Jack Buckley and Mark Schneider

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400831852

Overview
Contents

About this book

Over the past several years, privately run, publicly funded charter schools have been sold to the American public as an education alternative promising better student achievement, greater parent satisfaction, and more vibrant school communities. But are charter schools delivering on their promise? Or are they just hype as critics contend, a costly experiment that is bleeding tax dollars from public schools? In this book, Jack Buckley and Mark Schneider tackle these questions about one of the thorniest policy reforms in the nation today.

Using an exceptionally rigorous research approach, the authors investigate charter schools in Washington, D.C., carefully examining school data going back more than a decade, interpreting scores of interviews with parents, students, and teachers, and meticulously measuring how charter schools perform compared to traditional public schools. Their conclusions are sobering.

Buckley and Schneider show that charter-school students are not outperforming students in traditional public schools, that the quality of charter-school education varies widely from school to school, and that parent enthusiasm for charter schools starts out strong but fades over time. And they argue that while charter schools may meet the most basic test of sound public policy--they do no harm--the evidence suggests they all too often fall short of advocates' claims.

With the future of charter schools--and perhaps public education as a whole--hanging in the balance, this book supports the case for holding charter schools more accountable and brings us considerably nearer to resolving this contentious debate.

Author / Editor information

Jack Buckley is associate professor of applied statistics at New York University. Mark Schneider is vice president for new educational initiatives at the American Institutes for Research and a distinguished professor of political science at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.

Reviews

"Charter Schools: Hope or Hype? is the most complete study to date of whether charter schools are likely to improve education for inner-city children. Buckley and Schneider look at all sides of the issue in a balanced, exhaustive approach. The arguments are convincing, particularly because they are made on the basis of extensive empirical data in the District of Columbia, where almost one of five students attend charters."—Martin Carnoy, Stanford University

"Buckley and Schneider have produced some of the most provocative research on charter schools. This book links the issue to a broad array of theoretical debates that have resonance beyond the community of scholars fervidly interested in the ins and outs of charter schools. The original datasets that the authors have compiled are totally unique. It took tremendous effort to pull this off."—Jeffrey R. Henig, author of Rethinking School Choice

"This volume is more comprehensive than any on the many facets of charter-school claims and the testing of their validity. The authors provide a balance in interpretation that is rarely found on the subject of charter schools, not taking an extreme position based upon ideology, but letting the findings speak for themselves. This book makes a significant contribution to the field."—Henry M. Levin, editor of Privatizing Education

"This book promises to fill an empirical gap as the charter-school movement begins its third decade. The authors deliver an evenhanded, sophisticated investigation on how parents and students made schooling decisions. The study's statistical analyses will make a solid contribution to the educational-policy research."—Kenneth Wong, Brown University

Charter Schools uses research methodology to examine charters' performance in the District of Columbia.---Sean Cavanagh, Education Week

It is difficult to find a book or study of charter schools these days that does not take sides in the raging argument over whether charter schools are the salvation or the scourge of our nation's schools. But Buckley and Schneider have pulled it off. Their book . . . is a useful indicator of what is going on with charters nationwide.---Jay Mathews, Washington Post

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The Evolution of Charter-School Choice in the District of Columbia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
3. The Panel Study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
4. Are Charter-School Students Harder to Educate than Those in the Traditional Public Schools? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
5. Shopping for Schools on the Internet Using DCSchoolSearch.com Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
6. What Do Parents Want from Schools? It Depends on How You Ask Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
7. School Choice and the Importance of Parental Information Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
8. How Do Parents Access and Process Information about Schools? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
9. Satisfaction with Schools Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
10. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Parental Satisfaction over Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
11. Building Social Capital in the Nation’s Capital: Can School Choice Build a Foundation for Cooperative Behavior? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	220
12. Do Charter Schools Promote Citizenship among Students? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
13. Charter Schools: Hype or Hope? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335

(Deutsch)