The first article I reviewed for my thesis was “Examining
charter school achievement effects across seven states” by Zimmer et al (2012).
This study was very complex and technical and at times quite difficult to
follow. That being said, it was also one of the most comprehensive studies I have
seen that attempts to answer the question of charter school effectiveness. While his study did not look at specific
factors that may account for the effective school, it was a large study that
looked critically at its own data in terms of the accuracy of the assumptions
associated with conducting a fixed effect model of student testing data. I
found this study very interesting as a baseline for the research that is
available to date but will focus more on the individual factors that have an
influence of the effectiveness of
charter school as I conduct more research.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Thesis topic
The
academic effectiveness of charter schools is something that has interested me
for a long time. I knew very little about what a charter school even was before
I began working at one several years ago. Charter schools were
designed to allow innovation in the classroom and give parents and students
some choice in their education. This
ultimately would help improve the local public schools by providing competition
and choice. Unfortunately is largely unclear if charter schools are having the
desired effect on the regional public schools. Originally, I tried to focus my inquiry
on the simple question, “Are charter schools effective?” This question is almost
impossible to answer because of the immense variability among charter schools. Reading an article by Stephen Lawson has
helped me focus my research question on “What factors account
for the varying degree of effectiveness seen among charter schools in the
United States?". As I do more research, it will be able to determine if this question leads to a more reliable answer about charter school effectiveness.
Lawton, S.
(2009). Effective Charter Schools and Charter School Systems. Planning and Changing, 40(1/2), 35-60.
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