TY - JOUR
T1 - A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF CREAM SKIMMING AND PUSHOUT IN CHOICE VERSUS TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS
AU - Kho, Adam
AU - Zimmer, Ron
AU - McEachin, Andrew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Association for Education Finance and Policy.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - One of the controversies surrounding charter schools is whether these schools may either “cream skim” high-performing students from traditional public schools or “pushout” low-achieving students or students with discipline histories, leaving traditional public schools to educate the most challenging students. In this study, we use longitudinal statewide data from Tennessee and North Carolina and linear probability models to examine whether there is evidence consistent with these selective enrollment practices. Because school choice programs managed by districts (mag-net and open enrollment programs) have a similar ability to cream skim and pushout students, we also examine these outcomes for these programs. Across the various school choice programs, magnet schools have the most evidence of cream skimming, but this might be expected as they often have selective admissions. For charter schools, we do not find patterns in the data consistent with cream skimming, but we do find evidence consistent with pushout behaviors based on discipline records. Finally, some have raised concerns that students may be pushed out near accountability test dates, but our results suggest no evidence consistent with this claim.
AB - One of the controversies surrounding charter schools is whether these schools may either “cream skim” high-performing students from traditional public schools or “pushout” low-achieving students or students with discipline histories, leaving traditional public schools to educate the most challenging students. In this study, we use longitudinal statewide data from Tennessee and North Carolina and linear probability models to examine whether there is evidence consistent with these selective enrollment practices. Because school choice programs managed by districts (mag-net and open enrollment programs) have a similar ability to cream skim and pushout students, we also examine these outcomes for these programs. Across the various school choice programs, magnet schools have the most evidence of cream skimming, but this might be expected as they often have selective admissions. For charter schools, we do not find patterns in the data consistent with cream skimming, but we do find evidence consistent with pushout behaviors based on discipline records. Finally, some have raised concerns that students may be pushed out near accountability test dates, but our results suggest no evidence consistent with this claim.
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U2 - 10.1162/edfp_a_00333
DO - 10.1162/edfp_a_00333
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122234187
SN - 1557-3060
VL - 17
SP - 160
EP - 187
JO - Education Finance and Policy
JF - Education Finance and Policy
IS - 1
ER -