In the Netherlands, school choice is free and all schools are equally funded by the government. We measured distance from home to school as a proxy for the selectivity of choice and used characteristics of the nearest school to explain the choice of a school other than the nearest school. Almost 89% of all pupils in the 4 largest cities do not…

Set in the context of a choice-saturated public school system, this study examines the school choice process of low-income parents who participated in Louisiana's 2008 voucher program. Based on semistructured interviews with 16 parents at 1 Catholic school, we report that spirituality, small class and school size, character/values,…

This investigation compared the influence of public and Christian high schools on the spiritual formation and academic achievement of college students. Recent high school graduates who attend a private, liberal arts university in the southeastern United States responded to an online survey and interview questions related to the influence of one's…

This longitudinal case study examines 10 years' worth of annual monitoring reports for two rural Native American Charter Schools. Using data from multiple sources including interviews, site visits, and document analyses, the authors used provisional coding and constant comparison analysis to categorize the accolades and recommendations embedded in…

This article presents the author's critique on Robert Weissberg's book titled "Bad Students, Not Bad Schools". The author argues that Weissberg's readable, controversial "Bad Students, Not Bad Schools" (2010) is funny, acerbic, bold, and slaughters more than a few sacred cows of what Weissberg calls the "failed educational industrial complex." As…

The level of fee remissions offered by private schools bears upon the scope for relying on private schools to provide public benefit. Analyses of education voucher systems have generally ignored the possibility that they will partially crowd out school-financed fee remissions. Moreover, variation in fee remissions between private schools may be…

This article examines the position of charter schools in prospective elementary teachers' job search decisions. Using a labor market segmentation framework, it explores teacher applicants' decisions to apply to charter schools. The data come from a mixed-methods longitudinal study of prospective teachers looking for their first job. This article…

This article is an in-progress examination of the current landscape of school choice in a well-known case of universal decentralization: New Zealand's public school system. Using a supply-side analysis of the implications of a specific policy--school enrollment schemes--this author seeks to test hypotheses about zoning and self-preservation using…

This paper considers whether high schools in competitive environments use grade inflation to attract and retain families, perhaps in addition to more constructive responses. Two measures of grade inflation are used: the cutoffs used by each school to assign a letter grade to a percent score and high school grade point average after controlling for…

This study explored the factors that influenced parental decisions to exit a public school and enroll their children in a private school. It also explored why parents chose the specific private school their child attends and the level of satisfaction they have with their private school choice. The key reasons for leaving public education were: (a)…

Using student achievement data from British Columbia, Canada, this study is an exploration of the differences that lie within the private school sector using hierarchical linear modeling to analyze the data. The analysis showed that when controlling for language, parents' level of educational attainment, and prior achievement, the private school…

The students (n = 117) in this quantitative study were enrolled at a campus housing both an alternative and charter school. Using a survey assessing student perceptions of improvement in three domains--academic, behavioral, and social--this study examined the difference in responses between students with and without disabilities. Compared to the…

Virtually all state charter school legislation addresses teacher rights and working environment. Relationships with teacher unions are either specified in the law, or approval of the charter requires suitable provisions for employee hiring, firing, grievances, etc. Charter school evaluation almost without exception includes some references to…

To date, few studies have quantitatively examined within-group differences among charter schools. This is largely due to the lack of a workable typology with which to describe and classify schools. This study fills that gap with a two dimensional typology constructed from a sample of 1182 charter schools in five states--Arizona, California,…

The reform movement embracing charter schools is based largely on the promise that these autonomous schools will out-perform public schools plagued by bureaucratic administration--an expectation reflected in the federal NCLB law. However, the many state-based reports have been mixed, and previous national studies have suffered from serious…