School Context and Charter School Achievement: A Framework for Understanding the Performance “Black Box”

Scott, Janelle; Villavicencio, Adriana

doi:10.1080/01619560902810161

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Our findings also raise the perpetual question about charter schools, school effectiveness, and student sorting (Hamlin, 2018;Scott & Villavicencio, 2009). Rates of chronic absenteeism were systematically lower in charter schools than in traditional public schools, and we found that attending a charter school in Detroit was strongly associated with lower odds of chronic absence while controlling for the student, neighborhood, and other school variables included in our model.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Advancing an Ecological Approach to Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit

Singer

Pogodzinski

Lenhoff

et al. 2021

Teachers College Record

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Background/Context Chronic absenteeism has received increased attention from educational leaders and policy makers, in part because of the association between attendance and important student outcomes. Student attendance is influenced by a range of student-, school-, and community-level characteristics, suggesting that a comprehensive and multilayered approach to addressing chronic absenteeism is warranted, particularly in high-poverty urban districts. Given the complexity of factors associated with chronic absenteeism, we draw from ecological systems theory to study absenteeism in Detroit, which has the highest rate of chronic absence of major cities in the country. Purpose/Research Questions We use administrative and public data to advance the ecological approach to chronic absenteeism. In particular, we ask: (1) How are student, neighborhood, and school characteristics associated with individual absenteeism? (2) How are structural and environmental conditions associated with citywide rates of absenteeism? Our study helps to fill a gap in the research on absenteeism by moving beyond a siloed focus on student, family, or school factors, instead placing them in relationship to one another and in their broader socioeconomic context. It also illustrates how researchers, policy makers, and administrators can take a theoretically informed approach to chronic absenteeism and use administrative data to conceptualize the problem and the potential routes to improving it. Research Design Using student-level administrative data on all students living and going to school in Detroit in the 2015–2016 school year, we estimate a series of multilevel logistic regressions that measure the association between student-, neighborhood-, and school-level factors and the likelihood of a Detroit student being chronically absent. We also use publicly available data to examine how macrosystemic conditions (e.g., health, crime, poverty, racial segregation, weather) are correlated with citywide rates of absenteeism in the 2015–2016 school year, and we compare Detroit with other large cities based on those conditions. Findings/Results Student-, neighborhood-, and school-level factors were significant predictors of chronic absenteeism in Detroit. Students were more likely to be chronically absent if they were economically disadvantaged, received special education services, moved schools or residences during the year, lived in neighborhoods with more crime and residential blight, and went to schools with more economically disadvantaged students and less stable student populations. Macro-level factors were also significantly correlated with citywide rates of absenteeism, highlighting Detroit's uniquely challenging context for attendance. Conclusions/Recommendations Our ecological understanding of absenteeism suggests that school-based efforts are necessary but not sufficient to substantially decrease rates of chronic absenteeism in Detroit and other high-absenteeism contexts. Policies that provide short-term relief from economic hardship and aim to reduce inequalities in the long-run must be understood as part of, rather than separate from, a policy agenda for reducing chronic absenteeism.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Advancing an Ecological Approach to Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit

Singer

Pogodzinski

Lenhoff

et al. 2021

Teachers College Record

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“…Cultural and social processes and contexts : These studies have examined the influence of the local socio-cultural contexts in which school choice programs are implemented (Wells, 2009), the relationships between schools and families or regulatory agencies, and the processes and networks through which organizations influence school choice policies (e.g., Ball, 2012; Edwards, DeMatthews, & Hartley, 2017; Edwards, Klees, & Wildish, 2017; Fabricant & Fine, 2012; Lubienski, Brewer, & La Londe, 2015; Nambissan & Ball, 2010; Potterton, 2018a, 2018b, 2018c, 2019; Scott & Villavicencio, 2009; Sucharita, 2014; Taylor, 2001). These organizations include, but are not limited to, non-governmental organizations, charter management organizations, philanthropies, and think tanks.…”

Section: Sociology Of Education and School Choice Policies And Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociological Contributions to School Choice Policy and Politics Around the Globe: Introduction to the 2020 PEA Yearbook

et al. 2019

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The introduction to the Yearbook provides an overview of the global context of school choice policies and practices, trends in research and reform, and extant knowledge about research on school choice that draw upon the sociology of education. The article also highlights the contributions of the papers included in the Yearbook. The co-editors explain how the studies engage, complement, and extend existing streams of literature by bringing together a collection of contemporary sociological studies from the United States and other countries that illuminate understudied aspects of school choice reform policies, practices, and politics from across the globe. The Yearbook aims to raise the international profile of sociological research on school choice, and document how school choice policies and programs can be understood through a sociological lens, with a focus on how stakeholders perceive, experience, and respond to these reforms in local settings. This Yearbook also offers directions for future studies.

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“…Even for those seeking to use school choice to further integration, policies have often been crafted in ways that stifle integration. Nationally, there is a “lack of meaningful incentives or enforced regulations to create or maintain diverse charter schools” (Scott & Villavicencio, 2009, p. 222). In the case of New Orleans, varying approaches to recruitment, application, transportation, and strong accountability policies complicate the notion that there is a true free market of school choice.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Demographic Paradox: How Public School Students in New Orleans Have Become More Racially Integrated and Isolated Since Hurricane Katrina

Kotok

Beabout

Nelson

et al. 2017

Education and Urban Society

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Following the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans public schools underwent a variety of changes including a mass influx of charter schools as well as a demographic shift in the racial composition of the district. Using school-level data from the Louisiana Department of Education, this study examines the extent that New Orleans public schools are more or less racially integrated, racially segregated, and concentrated by poverty almost a decade after Katrina. The study utilizes exposure indices, inferential statistics, and geospatial analysis to examine how levels of school integration and segregation have changed over time. Our findings indicate that though a greater share of New Orleans schools are considered racially diverse than prior to Katrina, a greater share of minority students are now attending

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School Context and Charter School Achievement: A Framework for Understanding the Performance “Black Box”

Cited by 9 publications

References 26 publications

Advancing an Ecological Approach to Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit

Advancing an Ecological Approach to Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit

Sociological Contributions to School Choice Policy and Politics Around the Globe: Introduction to the 2020 PEA Yearbook

A Demographic Paradox: How Public School Students in New Orleans Have Become More Racially Integrated and Isolated Since Hurricane Katrina

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