Suchergebnisse

Growing political pressure for increased efficiency in government has led many to support the use of performance measurement schemes. Such schemes are never neutral and frequently influence the allocation of resources and power. The increased use of performance measures in the public sector raises questions regarding the fairness of the measures and the justness of the accompanying sanctions and rewards. Focusing on public schools, this study demonstrates the need to assess governmental performance measurement schemes for their impact on equity. Three measurement schemes (No Child Left Behind, value added, and adjusted performance measures) are evaluated and compared regarding their impact on majority African American public schools in the state of Arkansas.

In the last few decades, there has been considerable debate over whether or not charter schools are beneficial to the American education system. Charter schools are given government funding, but they have independence from the established educational system. Charter school supporters argue that increased autonomy and innovation in teaching, as well as competition between schools, improves the quality of education. Opponents of charter schools argue that charter schools are not more effective than public schools. However, the research is mixed: some studies suggest charter schools perform better, some suggest they perform similarly, and some suggest that they perform worse than traditional public schools. There are many underlying factors surrounding charter schools that interfere with the research being done, such as variation in teaching methods, location, and selection of students. It is necessary to determine whether or not charter schools are effective in order to learn from the successes and failures of charter school approaches. In this paper, I examine the performance of 164 elementary and 60 middle schools in RI to see if, when controlling for relevant factors, charter schools improve student outcomes. In this sample, 19 were charter schools. All student data was collected from the RI Department of Education's Infoworks website, and included the percent of students meeting proficiency criteria on standardized tests, attendance rates, chronic absenteeism rates, and student stability and mobility. I also take into account school level, racial and ethnic diversity, percent of students eligible for free and reduced lunch, percent of students eligible for ESL (English as a second language) services, and percent of students eligible for Individualized Learning Programs. There were small (6-10 percentage point) differences in the percent proficient in charter schools versus non-charters. My data suggests that in Rhode Island, charter schools perform significantly better than public schools in 4th grade Math, Science, and ELA assessments, and they perform the same or slightly worse (but not significantly) in 8th grade. More research in this area can contribute to a better understanding of charter school performance in Rhode Island, and potentially, nationwide.

AbstractThe literature on racial "peer effects" suggests that diversity improves at least some students' school performance. However, a literature in economic development posits that diversity may negatively affect school performance by undermining the efficient provision of education. This article empirically tests this claim, which we call the "public goods channel," by examining the relationship between racial diversity and student performance in Ohio's school districts. We find that moving from a completely homogenous school district to one in which two racial groups have equal population shares is associated with a 7–17.5 percentage point decline in the passage rate on the state math exam, holding per pupil spending across districts constant. These results suggest that racial diversity is negatively associated with school performance but that the public goods channel is not responsible for this relationship.

Suggests that public education should provide improved instruction to students where they face competition from the private sector; based on North Carolina data.