Mapping the Profit Motive: A Comparative Analysis of For-­Profit and Non-­Profit Charter Schools

Authors

  • William Brett Robertson Washington University in St. Louis

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1864

Keywords:

School choice, urban education, educational policy, social stratification

Abstract

For-profit charter schools represent a controversial new market-based education reform (Garcia, Barber, & Molnar, 2009; Conn, 2002). This essay explores how schools operated by for-profit corporations differ from those operated by non-profit organizations. Specifically, do for-profit charter schools locate in demographically distinct areas and serve different student populations than similar schools operated by non-profit providers? Research suggests that charter school operators in some districts appear to strategically locate their schools in an effort to exclude certain student populations (Lubienski, Gulosino, & Weitzel, 2009). If charter schools seek to exclude certain students, as these schools proliferate in a district or region there may be an intensifying stratification effect detrimental to the most disadvantaged students (Bifulco, Ladd, & Ross, 2009). This essay undertakes a broad comparative analysis of the neighborhood demographic and student population characteristics of charter schools operated by for-profit corporations and nonprofit organizations, using multilevel modeling and geographic information systems, to compare the two school types across dissimilar state contexts. In so doing, the study seeks to isolate the impact of a school being operated by a for-profit corporation and illuminate what impact the proliferation of for-profit schools might have on the distribution of student populations across regions.

 

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Author Biography

William Brett Robertson, Washington University in St. Louis

W. Brett Robertson is a doctoral candidate in Education and Lynne Cooper Harvey Fellow in American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. His research examines the impacts of school choice on racial and socio-economic stratification at multiple spatial scales. He is interested in using advanced statistical methodologies such as hierarchical linear modeling, longitudinal modeling and spatial statistics to describe these effects in space and time. Current research explores  the geographic distribution, student population characteristics and possible stratificatory effects of the proliferation of for-profit educational management organizations.

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Published

2015-07-26

How to Cite

Robertson, W. B. (2015). Mapping the Profit Motive: A Comparative Analysis of For-­Profit and Non-­Profit Charter Schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23, 69. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1864

Issue

Section

Articles