Tailoring the Charter School Population
Students with behavior problems, low achievement or special needs are sometimes not encouraged to apply to charter schools.
CHARTER SCHOOLS AND public schools of choice – those in school districts that allow students to choose from any number of schools instead of zoning them to just one – are less likely to encourage students with a history of poor behavior, low academic achievement or special needs to apply.
Charter schools, in particular, were less likely to encourage students with a potentially significant special need to apply.
That's the latest research published Thursday by Peter Bergman, an assistant professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, and Isaac McFarlin Jr., assistant professor at University of Florida's College of Education.
The researchers sent emails from fictitious parents to nearly 6,500 schools in 29 states and the District of Columbia, asking whether any student is eligible to apply to the school and how to do so. Each email signaled either a disability status, poor behavior, high or low prior academic achievement, or no characteristic at all. The researchers also varied students' implied race, household structure and gender.
"We find that schools respond less often to messages regarding students whom schools may perceive as more challenging to educate," the researchers concluded.
The baseline response rate was 53 percent. But emails signaling a student with a potentially restrictive special need were 5 percentage points less likely to receive a response; emails signaling a behavior problem were 7 percentage points less likely to receive a response; and emails signaling prior low academic achievement were 2 percentage points less likely to receive a response.
Notably, emails indicating good grades and attendance were neither more nor less likely to receive a response.
In one sub-analysis, the researchers compared the responses of charter schools directly to the nearby traditional public schools. Overall, they found the response rates similar with one major exception: If an email signaled a child had a significant special need, charter schools were 7 percentage points less likely to respond while traditional public schools were not more or less likely to respond. CONTINUE READING: Certain Students Not Encouraged to Apply to Charter Schools | Education News | US News
