IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoedu/v31y2012i2p302-317.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The relative efficiency of charter schools: A cost frontier approach

Author

Listed:
  • Gronberg, Timothy J.
  • Jansen, Dennis W.
  • Taylor, Lori L.

Abstract

Charters represent an expansion of public school choice, offering free, publicly funded educational alternatives to traditional public schools. One relatively unexplored research question concerning charter schools asks whether charter schools are more efficient suppliers of educational services than are traditional public schools. The potential relative efficiency advantage of charters vis-a-vis traditional publics is one of the mechanisms that supports the hypotheses that charters could improve performance for their students while using the same or fewer resources, and that the systemic effect of charters could lead to improved outcomes for traditional public students without requiring an increase in education sector resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Gronberg, Timothy J. & Jansen, Dennis W. & Taylor, Lori L., 2012. "The relative efficiency of charter schools: A cost frontier approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 302-317.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:31:y:2012:i:2:p:302-317
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.07.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027277571100104X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.07.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duncombe, William & Yinger, John, 2005. "How much more does a disadvantaged student cost?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 513-532, October.
    2. Nelson, Charles R & Startz, Richard, 1990. "Some Further Results on the Exact Small Sample Properties of the Instrumental Variable Estimator," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(4), pages 967-976, July.
    3. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy J. Hayes & Lori L. Taylor, 2009. "The Relative Efficiency Of Charter Schools," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(1), pages 67-87, March.
    4. Zivot, Eric & Startz, Richard & Nelson, Charles R, 1998. "Valid Confidence Intervals and Inference in the Presence of Weak Instruments," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1119-1146, November.
    5. Booker, Kevin & Gilpatric, Scott M. & Gronberg, Timothy & Jansen, Dennis, 2008. "The effect of charter schools on traditional public school students in Texas: Are children who stay behind left behind?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 123-145, July.
    6. Bettinger, Eric P., 2005. "The effect of charter schools on charter students and public schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 133-147, April.
    7. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    8. Hung-jen Wang & Peter Schmidt, 2002. "One-Step and Two-Step Estimation of the Effects of Exogenous Variables on Technical Efficiency Levels," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 129-144, September.
    9. Grosskopf, Shawna & Moutray, Chad, 2001. "Evaluating performance in Chicago public high schools in the wake of decentralization," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, February.
    10. Reback, Randall, 2008. "Teaching to the rating: School accountability and the distribution of student achievement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1394-1415, June.
    11. Imazeki, Jennifer & Reschovsky, Andrew, 2004. "Is No Child Left Behind an Un (Or Under) Funded Federal Mandate? Evidence From Texas," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 57(3), pages 571-588, September.
    12. Tim R. Sass, 2006. "Charter Schools and Student Achievement in Florida," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 91-122, January.
    13. Robert Bifulco & Helen F. Ladd, 2006. "The Impacts of Charter Schools on Student Achievement: Evidence from North Carolina," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 50-90, January.
    14. Booker, Kevin & Gilpatric, Scott M. & Gronberg, Timothy & Jansen, Dennis, 2007. "The impact of charter school attendance on student performance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 849-876, June.
    15. Andrews, Matthew & Duncombe, William & Yinger, John, 2002. "Revisiting economies of size in American education: are we any closer to a consensus?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 245-262, June.
    16. Gronberg, Timothy J. & Jansen, Dennis W. & Taylor, Lori L., 2011. "The Impact of Facilities on the Cost of Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(1), pages 193-218, March.
    17. Ni, Yongmei, 2009. "The impact of charter schools on the efficiency of traditional public schools: Evidence from Michigan," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 571-584, October.
    18. Michael P. Murray, 2006. "Avoiding Invalid Instruments and Coping with Weak Instruments," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 111-132, Fall.
    19. Primont, Diane F. & Domazlicky, Bruce, 2006. "Student achievement and efficiency in Missouri schools and the No Child Left Behind Act," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 77-90, February.
    20. Conroy, Stephen J. & Arguea, Nestor M., 2008. "An estimation of technical efficiency for Florida public elementary schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 655-663, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori Taylor & William L Weber, 2017. "Would weighted-student funding enhance intra-district equity in Texas? A simulation using DEA," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 377-389, April.
    2. Kristof De Witte & Laura López-Torres, 2017. "Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 339-363, April.
    3. Christian Buerger, 2020. "The Influence of Finance Policies on Charter School Supply Decisions in Five States," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 44-74, June.
    4. Nghiem, Son & Nguyen, Ha & Connelly, Luke, 2014. "The Efficiency of Australian Schools: Evidence from the NAPLAN Data 2009-2011," MPRA Paper 56231, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Son Nghiem & Ha Trong Nguyen & Luke B. Connelly, 2016. "The Efficiency of Australian Schools: A Nationwide Analysis Using Gains in Test Scores of Students as Outputs," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(3), pages 256-268, September.
    6. Buerger, Christian & Bifulco, Robert, 2019. "The effect of charter schools on districts’ student composition, costs, and efficiency: The case of New York state," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 61-72.
    7. John D. Singleton, 2019. "Incentives and the Supply of Effective Charter Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2568-2612, July.
    8. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori Taylor & William Weber, 2015. "Centralized or decentralized control of school resources? A network model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 139-150, April.
    9. Horrace, William C. & Rothbart, Michah W. & Yang, Yi, 2022. "Technical efficiency of public middle schools in New York City," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Camanho, Ana S. & Varriale, Luisa & Barbosa, Flávia & Sobral, Thiago, 2021. "Performance assessment of upper secondary schools in Italian regions using a circular pseudo-Malmquist index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(3), pages 1188-1208.
    11. Toma, Eugenia & Zimmer, Ron, 2012. "Two decades of charter schools: Expectations, reality, and the future," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 209-212.
    12. Tavares, Priscilla Albuquerque, 2015. "The impact of school management practices on educational performance: Evidence from public schools in São Paulo," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Julia Schwenkenberg & James VanderHoff, 2015. "Why Do Charter Schools Fail? An Analysis Of Charter School Survival In New Jersey," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(2), pages 300-314, April.
    14. Mustafa U. Karakaplan & Levent Kutlu, 2019. "School district consolidation policies: endogenous cost inefficiency and saving reversals," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1729-1768, May.
    15. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori L. Taylor, 2014. "Applied efficiency analysis in education," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 19-26.
    16. Onrubia-Fernández, Jorge & Fuentes, Antonio Jesús, 2017. "How costly are public sector inefficiencies? A theoretical framework for rationalising fiscal consolidations," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 11, pages 1-19.
    17. Bruce D. Baker & Ken Libby & Kathryn Wiley, 2015. "Charter School Expansion and Within-District Equity: Confluence or Conflict?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(3), pages 423-465, July.
    18. Yahia, F.B. & Essid, H., 2019. "Determinants of Tunisian Schools’ Efficiency: A DEA-Tobit Approach," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 8(1), pages 44-56, February.
    19. Timothy J. Gronberg & Dennis W. Jansen & Lori L. Taylor, 2017. "Are Charters the Best Alternative? A Cost Frontier Analysis of Alternative Education Campuses in Texas," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(3), pages 721-743, January.
    20. Lori Taylor & Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Laura Razzolini, 2023. "The role of poverty measurements in achieving educational equity through school finance reform," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 109-127, October.
    21. López-Torres, Laura & Nicolini, Rosella & Prior, Diego, 2017. "Does strategic interaction affect demand for school places? A conditional efficiency approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 89-103.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timothy J. Gronberg & Dennis W. Jansen & Mustafa U. Karakaplan & Lori L. Taylor, 2015. "School district consolidation: Market concentration and the scale‐efficiency tradeoff," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(2), pages 580-597, October.
    2. John D. Singleton, 2019. "Incentives and the Supply of Effective Charter Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2568-2612, July.
    3. Chen, Feng & Harris, Douglas N., 2023. "The market-level effects of charter schools on student outcomes: A national analysis of school districts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    4. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori Taylor & William Weber, 2015. "Centralized or decentralized control of school resources? A network model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 139-150, April.
    5. Buerger, Christian & Bifulco, Robert, 2019. "The effect of charter schools on districts’ student composition, costs, and efficiency: The case of New York state," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 61-72.
    6. Timothy J. Gronberg & Dennis W. Jansen & Lori L. Taylor, 2017. "Are Charters the Best Alternative? A Cost Frontier Analysis of Alternative Education Campuses in Texas," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(3), pages 721-743, January.
    7. Imberman, Scott A., 2011. "The effect of charter schools on achievement and behavior of public school students," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 850-863.
    8. Chakrabarti, Rajashri & Roy, Joydeep, 2016. "Do charter schools crowd out private school enrollment? Evidence from Michigan," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 88-103.
    9. Bruhn, Jesse & Imberman, Scott & Winters, Marcus, 2022. "Regulatory arbitrage in teacher hiring and retention: Evidence from Massachusetts Charter Schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    10. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Ron Zimmer, 2015. "Charter Schools: A Survey of Research on Their Characteristics and Effectiveness," NBER Working Papers 21256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Yusuke Jinnai, 2015. "How Does School Choice Improve Student Achievement? Estimating School-level Competitive Effects and Student-level Peer Effects," Working Papers EMS_2016_09, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    12. Son Nghiem & Ha Trong Nguyen & Luke B. Connelly, 2016. "The Efficiency of Australian Schools: A Nationwide Analysis Using Gains in Test Scores of Students as Outputs," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(3), pages 256-268, September.
    13. Winters, Marcus A., 2012. "Measuring the effect of charter schools on public school student achievement in an urban environment: Evidence from New York City," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 293-301.
    14. Kim, Youngran, 2018. "The effects of school choice on achievement gaps between private and public high schools: Evidence from the Seoul high school choice program," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 25-32.
    15. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    16. Kristof De Witte & Laura López-Torres, 2017. "Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 339-363, April.
    17. María-Jesús Mancebón & Domingo P. Ximénez-de-Embún & Mauro Mediavilla & José-María Gómez-Sancho, 2015. "Does educational management model matter? New evidence for Spain by a quasiexperimental approach," Working Papers 2015/40, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    18. Zimmer, Ron & Gill, Brian & Booker, Kevin & Lavertu, Stéphane & Witte, John, 2012. "Examining charter student achievement effects across seven states," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 213-224.
    19. Matthew Kasman & Susanna Loeb, 2013. "Principals' Perceptions of Competition for Students in Milwaukee Schools," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 8(1), pages 43-73, January.
    20. Maria Ferreyra & Brett Gordon & Dennis Epple, 2011. "Charter School Entry in Market Equilibrium: The Case of Washington, DC," 2011 Meeting Papers 1266, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Charter schools; Costs; School choice; Efficiency; Teacher salaries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:31:y:2012:i:2:p:302-317. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.