Poster #5 - How does the expansion of charter and magnet school enrollment affect race/ethnicity test score gaps?

• In Event: 2-001 - Poster Session 1 during Breakfast

Abstract

Over the last decade and a half, school choice has proliferated in the United States, with the percentage of students attending charter schools or magnet schools more than tripling (NCES, 2017). In some school districts, the percentage of children attending schools that are not their traditionally assigned neighborhood schools is over 90 percent. There is mixed research on the implications of expanding school choice, with some districts demonstrating that an influx of charter schools reduces race/ethnicity test score gaps due to increased access to quality schools (Dobbie & Fryer, 2011). Conversely, in some districts an increase in charter school enrollment exacerbates segregation and stratification, therefore widening race/ethnicity test score gaps (Bifulco & Ladd, 2007). Less is known about the effects of magnet school enrollment on test score gaps, despite the fact that public school students attending magnets comprise about 30 percent of those participating in choice (NCES, 2017). The proposed secondary analyses will merge data on school district characteristics, charter school enrollment, and test score gaps from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA; Reardon et al., 2017) with magnet school enrollment data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data (CCD). The analyses will examine 1) the size of school district race/ethnicity test score gaps as a function of charter and magnet enrollment 2) the increase in charter and magnet enrollment as a predictor of change in race/ethnicity test score gaps, and 3) the variance in the association between school choice and race/ethnicity test score gaps as function of grade level (e.g. elementary vs. middle school). Preliminary analyses of SEDA data indicate that between 2009 and 2015 in school districts with charter schools, white-black test score gaps increased by over 4 percent and white-Hispanic test score gaps decreased by about 9 percent; charter school enrollment grew by about 85 percent overall and by over 90 percent in districts with robust race/ethnicity test score gaps. Additionally, districts with higher charter school enrollment tended to have larger race/ethnicity test score gaps, thereby suggesting that charter school enrollment may exacerbate and not attenuate race/ethnic achievement disparities. Subsequent analysis will consider links between the growth in charter school enrollment and changes in race/ethnic test score gaps. It will also use CCD to take into account district level magnet school enrollment for a more comprehensive examination of the relationship between school choice and race/ethnicity test score gaps at the district level.

Authors

• Lorraine Blatt, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh