Three-sector taxonomy of public schools for city-level performance comparison¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 11 claims (11 for) · 5 studies (3 associational, 2 causal), q2–q3 · 2 of 5 report an effect size · 11 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The City Studies project organizes urban school performance analysis around a sector taxonomy: charter schools (public schools "operated independently from the traditional school district, with autonomy in adapting school designs and held accountable for education results"), selective magnet schools (district-run with academically selective admission), and other district-run schools. Charters are further split into CMO-affiliated (overseeing at least three schools) and independent charters (one or two schools). The taxonomy structures the report's benchmarking of each sector's growth against the state average and against other Austin sectors.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Student-level growth data for each sector and state benchmark data accounting for student characteristics

Constraints¶

• Selective magnet results are redacted in Austin due to the small number of such schools with growth scores

Target Learners¶

• K-12 students in urban public schools

Target Learning Objectives¶

• Annual academic growth in reading and mathematics by school sector

Claims¶

• Austin Cmo Vs Independent Charter Growth [+M]
• Austin Charter Vs District Growth 2018 19 [+M]
• Austin charter ELL students outperformed Austin district ELL students in reading growth [+W]
• Austin charter Hispanic students outperformed Austin district Hispanic students in reading growth [+W]
• Austin charter students in poverty outperformed Austin district students in poverty in reading, with a non-significant math advantage [+W]
• Austin students' one-year growth in 2018-19 exceeded the state average in both reading and math [+W]
• Urban brick-and-mortar charter students in New Mexico outperform their TPS virtual twins in reading, while suburban, town, and rural charter students are on par [+W]
• Fort Worth charter school male students significantly outgrew district-school male students in reading, while female students showed no significant sector difference [+W]
• Black, Hispanic, and poverty students enrolled in charter schools show stronger growth trends than the same subgroups citywide in several cities [+W]
• New Mexico charter school students make similar one-year growth in reading and math as their traditional public school virtual twins [+W]
• Charter sector improvement stems mainly from existing schools improving, and gains appear at elementary, middle, and high school levels but not multi-level schools [+M]

Related Theories¶

Examples¶

• CREDO City Studies Project growth-benchmarking analysis approach
• Use cross-sector collaborative tasks (classroom observation, operations alignment, curriculum development) as vehicles for educator professional development
• District-Charter Collaboration Grants program

Key Sources¶

• CREDO. (2022). City Study 2022: Austin. https://credo.stanford.edu