Teacher turnover remains considerably higher at Charter Management Organizations (CMOs), despite initially high perceptions of fit at the time of hire. Grounded in an emerging branch-off of job embeddedness theory - teacher embeddedness - this multi-site case study of one urban CMO used interviews of departed teachers and principals and focus…

In this article, the authors discuss a month-long research study where sixth grade students researched three women for the half-century after the U.S. Civil War War that worked to change their respective communities to address public issues: Jane Addams, Clara Lemlich, and Ida B. Wells. The sixth graders read a picture book for each of the three…

School counselors serve students' academic, career, and social/emotional needs through a comprehensive school counseling program, and center their work on concepts of equity, advocacy, social justice, and systemic change, to remove barriers and increase opportunities for all PK-12 students. Charter schools are also unique public school settings as…

This qualitative study investigates factors that influence the persistence of Black female principals of secondary charter schools. It examines the motivators that drive their commitment, the systems challenges that lead to thoughts of exiting their role, and recommendations for strategies that Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) can utilize…

Debugging (or troubleshooting) provides a rich context to foster problem-solving. Yet, while we know much about some problems and strategies that novices face in programming on-screen, we know far less about debugging and troubleshooting in the context of physical computing, where coding issues may overlap with materially embedded problems. In…

Little research addresses the schooling experiences of non-binary students; no prior work explores their experiences in cyber schools. Using unique data from a US multi-state cyber charter school, we compare the factors parents of non-binary students and parents of other students stated as reasons for leaving their prior schools to attend a cyber…

School-based supports, such as LGBTQ+ -themed curriculum, invite opportunities for challenging oppression with respect to gender and its intersections with other identities such as sexuality and race. However, more understanding is needed regarding how literacy educators might leverage these opportunities. This article describes how intimacy,…

Americans with more education vote at higher rates. Some studies have found evidence of a causal relationship, while others have not. The available data also tell us little about why and how education increases voting. The authors looked the educational trajectories and adult voting records of students who attend charter schools in Boston. The…

This dissertation had two purposes: (1) to create and document the development of a new music achievement test entitled the Musical Discrimination and Styles Task (MDAST), and (2) to describe the strength of the evidence supporting the validity and reliability of this new developmentally appropriate music aptitude and achievement instrument. I…

The American School District Panel (ASDP) is the newest addition to RAND's American Educator Panels (AEP) and was designed to survey district leaders two times each school year. RAND recruits ASDP members using probabilistic sampling methods, which allow researchers to weight survey results to generalize to the national population of school…

This is the latest report in the State of the Superintendent series, an annual report intended to provide a reliable, recurring snapshot of the U.S. public school superintendency. Since the American School District Panel began in fall 2020, researchers have periodically surveyed superintendents about their job, focusing on job-related stressors,…

This paper develops and estimates an empirical framework that evaluates the impact of charter school choice on education quality in the aggregate. We estimate the model using student-level data from North Carolina. We find that North Carolina's lifting of its statewide charter school cap raised the average public school's value-added by around…

Adolescent health and well-being are abysmal due to low and declining physical activity rates, increasing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and minimal opportunities to engage in meaningful social experiences. Adolescents who live in communities that are underserved face greater risks for experiencing health disparities…

Despite a strong track record of success and parent demand, charter school growth has slowed considerably in recent years in Massachusetts and nationwide. In the Commonwealth's large urban school districts--especially Boston--this lack of growth is attributable to charter school caps that prevent the state from authorizing new charter school…

Charter schools are privately operated public schools funded by the government with oversight from school districts, state education departments, or other government authorizers. This gives charter schools autonomy from many government rules and regulations, allows them to specialize and innovate in particular types of education, and gives parents…