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A working paper of my latest work w/ my brilliant colleague (and friend!) @lucy_sorensen is up at @AnnenbergInst. In it, we wonder how continuous charter school entry shapes the teacher workforce and student body at nearby traditional public schools (TPS).
https://edworkingpapers.com/ai20-263
https://edworkingpapers.com/ai20-263
In North Carolina, the state government lifted the cap on the number of charter schools allowed to operate in the state, leading to a pretty large growth in the number of charters entering the state.
We already know from @KiraboJackson's work that the first charter entry exacerbates recruitment difficulties at hard-to-staff traditional public schools. But what happens when teachers now have 4 or 5 options within commuting distance of a given TPS?
Moreover, we see that in North Carolina, there are quite a few racially homogeneous schools. What happens when predominantly white-serving charter schools open nearby?
Of course, the empirical challenge we face here is that in the post-cap period, charters do not site in locations at random and likely enter where demand for charters exists, so TPSs vary in the likelihood they are exposed to additional charter competition.
We account for this using the number of applications submitted the year the cap was lifted nearby a given TPS, a proxy for latent charter demand, as an instrument for the number of charters the TPS is actually exposed to in the post-cap period. What do we find?
Overall, TPSs experience significant declines in their recruitment of rookie teachers, resulting in a workforce that is, on avg., more experienced and credentialed. Additional charters also leads to increased enrollments at nearby TPSs, perhaps through induced residential demand.
However, predominantly white charter entry has very different effects on nearby TPSs. They lead to nearby TPSs employing a higher share of inexperienced teachers, lower average teacher effectiveness, and less credentialed and experienced teachers, especially near PNW TPSs.
