Typology of Oregon Charter High Schools: Differences That Make a Difference
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Date
2022-10-26
Authors
Zeller, Karen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Two decades after Oregon authorized public charter schools, effects of this policy need evaluation. Comparison of performance of public charter school students to performance of other students is complicated by systematic differences expected between families that choose to leave traditional schools and families that accept default school assignment. Some researchers have used natural experiments in places where charter schools use lotteries to select students. Other researchers have used composite virtual control records as control groups in matched-pairs designs. Results of these studies have shown few statistically significant results, generally of small magnitude; as whole groups, public charter schools and other public schools produce similar results on students’ academic tests. Patterns of dispersion in those studies suggest that isolation of types and comparison within types of charter school could be productive. Moreover, change in Oregon state policy has resulted in fewer public charter school students participating in state testing. Comparison within types using outcomes other than test scores might lead to clearer understanding of the effects of public charter school policy in Oregon. A typology could facilitate productive research.
This study produced a descriptive typology of schools through an ideal-type analysis of Oregon public charter schools that serve 9th-12th grades, as the first stage in a concurrent-triangulation mixed-methods study. The second stage included comparison of schools, by type, to changes in Oregon law from 1999-2019 and to school locales identified by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The three types are Innovations in Instruction, founded to attempt innovation in curriculum, instruction, or target student group; Heritage School Conversions; and Facilitated Instruction programs, which include subtypes of Homeschool Support, Virtual, and Early College programs.
Comparison to changes in law demonstrated that legislative action enabled emergence of types of schools other than those that dominated in early years of charter school policy. Comparison by locale demonstrated that the array of charter schools in Oregon differs by locale. These differences suggest value in further research comparing effects of schools within types.
Description
Keywords
Charter school types, Charter schools, Descriptive typology, Ideal-type analysis, Mixed-methods design, Oregon school law