Defining and Evaluating Measures of School Competition: Toward a Theoretically Grounded, Empirically Refined Competition Measure

• In Event: 72.065 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 72.065-8 - Thinking Anew About School Choice and Competition: Multiple Perspectives and Emerging Avenues for Research

Abstract

Purpose

Advocates of school choice policies suggest that the quality of schooling will improve for all students via competitive pressures (e.g. Chubb & Moe, 1990; Friedman, 1955; Hoxby, 2003). Despite competition being the lynchpin in this framework, significant variations in the definition of competition exist in the literature. The measures of competition in the extant literature may only represent the presence of school choice options and not the competition felt by school districts (Linick, 2014; Ni & Arsen, 2013). This paper utilizes three methods to systematically evaluate various measures of competition in order to suggest a theoretically grounded, empirically updated measure of competition.

Theoretical Perspective

The current literature typically employs a classical economic conceptualization of competition: measuring the presence of competitors, market share of choice schools, or a function of the two as competition proxies (e.g. Linick, 2014). However, the empirical school competition literature suggests that other characteristics of the choice sector (e.g. Cremata & Raymond, 2014), the perceptions of public school officials (e.g. Loeb, Valant, & Kasman, 2011), and local contextual factors (e.g. Maranto, Milliman, & Stevens, 2000) all influence the extent of competition felt in an education market. By incorporating theoretical insights and existing empirical evidence into a measure of competition, a more accurate representation of competition levels and the competitive effect of school choice can be examined.

Research Questions, Data, and Method

I employ a mixed methods design to address these research questions: 1) how has school competition been conceptualized and measured within various disciplines, such as education and economics? 2) Based on the existing theoretical and empirical evidence and a systematic ranking of the competition frameworks, which framework offers the most promise for the education sector? 3) How does this promising measure of competition compare with the extant measures?
The data come from two primary sources: interviews with a stratified sample of 30 Michigan district superintendents and administrative data obtained from the Michigan Department of Education. The interviews, stratified by level of competition, provide a rich basis for understanding the factors associated with the extent of competition in a school district. I apply a rubric to systematically assess the coverage and applicability of each measure of competition to the education sector. Finally, I operationalize the measures of competition to quantitatively evaluate the measures.

Results and Significance

This paper provides evidence that the extant competition measures capture a key aspect of competition. However, the existing measures do not sufficiently account for the complexity in determining the extent of competition in the school setting. This paper contributes to the current conversation by highlighting the need to think anew the ‘rules of thumb’ used by the current literature to define and measure competition. The systematic comparison of the various conceptualizations and measures of competition will enable a continued refinement in the measurement of competition and, thus, the competitive effects of school choice.

Author

• Benjamin Creed, Michigan State University