differences autonomy included “efficiency” outcomes better generate

More documents

Recommendations

Info

These results are supportive of our hypothesis that independent and non-instrumentality charters are better stewards of taxpayer money. Of the top 15 schools in WKCE efficiency, 9 are independent or non-instrumentality charters. Public schools perform somewhat more competitively on the Badger Exam, but independent and non-instrumentalities still hold a disproportionate share of the top fifteen spots. Despite representing less than 15% of schools in our sample, independent charter and non-instrumentality charters hold down 53% of the top 15 spots on the Badger Exam. Recognizing that poverty is an important predictor of educational outcomes, Table 2 presents the top 15 schools in Milwaukee where more than 80% of students receive free-or-reduced lunch. 19 This sample is a bit more MPS dominated, with few instrumentality charters and slightly fewer independent charters. Figure 2 provides a pie-chart of this smaller sample. Similar to the pattern identified in Table 2, we see that instrumentality and non-instrumentality schools represent a much larger share of the top 15 than their share of schools in our sample. 73% of the top 15 on the WKCE and 53% of the top 15 on the Badger Exam are independent or non-instrumentality charter schools. That said, several public schools, such as Curtin Elementary, rank relatively high on the list, and ALBA is a strong representative for instrumentality charters. Bang for the Buck 11
Table 3. Most Efficient Schools with more than 80% Free-or Reduced Lunch WKCE Science Badger Math 1. CARMEN HS (Non-Instr) 1. SEEDS OF HEALTH ELEMENTARY (Indp) 2. VERITAS HS (Indp) 2. CENTRAL CITY CYBERSCHOOL (Indp) 3. SEEDS OF HEALTH (Indp) 3. CURTIN ELEMENTARY (Trad) 4. CENTRAL CITY CYBERSCHOOL (Indp) 4. MIL. COLLEGE PREP-38TH ST (Non-Instr) 5. TENOR HS (Indp) 5. LOWELL ELEMENTARY (Trad) 6. ALBA (Instr) 6. WEDGEWOOD PARK (Trad) 7. LA CAUSA CHARTER (Non-Instr) 7. N POINT LIGHTHOUSE CHARTER (Indp) 8. WEDGEWOOD PARK (Trad) 8. ALBA (Instr) 9. MIL COLLEGE PREP-LLOYD ST (Non-Instr) 9. MIL. COLL. PREP-LLYOD ST (Non-Instr) 10. MIL. ENVIRON SCIENCE ACAD (Non-Instr) 10. GREENFIELD BILLINGUAL (Trad) 11. UNIVERSAL ACAD/COLL BND (Non-Instr) 11. MIL ENVIRON SCI ACAD (Non-Instr) 12. MIL COLLEGE PREP-38TH ST (Non-Instr) 12. VIEAU ELEMENTARY (Trad) 13. MIL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE (Non-Instr) 13. LA CAUSA CHARTER (Non-Instr) 14. CURTIN ELEMENTARY (Trad) 14. VICTORY ELEMENTARY (Trad) 15. LOWELL ELEMENTARY (Trad) 15. MIL MATH AND SCIENCE ACAD (Indp) These rankings strongly suggest that independent and non-instrumentality charters are better stewards of taxpayer money. While there are a number of public schools in both lists, independent and non-instrumentality charters represent a far higher share of this top 15 list than their share of all Milwaukee schools. But, to check these findings, we must simultaneously account for a number of other important factors that might effect school performance, such as school demographics. To do this, we turn to econometric analysis. d. Analysis #2: School Type i. Stage 1: Test Score Regression Step 1 of our process is to regress the average test score for the school on school type and several other control variables. These are not the efficiency results, as taking account of expenditure at this stage of the analysis would result in potential bias because it would create dependencies between school type and the outcome measure. Though these results are not the major point of this research, they are informative in making comparisons between Milwaukee’s varying types of public schools. These results are shown in Table 4 below. At this stage, we find similar results to previous analyses 20 that have shown independent charter schools to produce better educational outcomes than the baseline group, traditional public schools. The effects on test scores in independent charters are quite dramatic, representing a 6% increase in average test scores on the Badger exam. That said, this preliminary analysis shows small or non-existent effects for other types of charter schools. Non-Instrumentality charter schools appear to be approximately equal in performance to the baseline group, and instrumentality charters are better to a very small extent (p
Page 2 and 3: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background: Not a
Page 4 and 5: 2. The most inefficient schools wit
Page 6 and 7: I. Introduction Although the public
Page 8 and 9: All charter schools in Milwaukee ar
Page 10 and 11: schools. These coefficient estimate
Page 14 and 15: Table 4. Effect of School Type and
Page 16 and 17: IV. Limitations A few limitations o
Page 18 and 19: Endnotes 1. New legislation has exp
Page 20 and 21: TENOR HS (Indp) 0.287191 IDEAL (Ins
Page 22 and 23: BUSINESS AND ECON ACAD OF MIL. (Non
Page 24 and 25: WHS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 0.167557
Page 26 and 27: VIEAU ELEMENTARY 0.24841 MIL. ACADE
Page 28: METCALF ELEMENTARY 0.192206 TOWSEND

differences autonomy included “efficiency” outcomes better generate

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?