Papers presented
All documents are in Portable Document Format 
unless otherwise noted.
- The Performance of Charter Schools in Wisconsin (2004)
- Going Charter? A Study of School District Competition in Wisconsin (2004)
- The Political Economy of School Choice (2004)
- Analyzing State Charter School Laws and Their Influence on the Formation of Charter Schools in the United States (2003)
"The Performance of Charter Schools in Wisconsin" (Paper; Executive Summary 
)
John F. Witte, David L.Weimer, Paul A. Schlomer, and Arnold F. Shober
In this paper we present data on the performance of charter schools in Wisconsin. We focus on several comparisons between charter schools and traditional public schools. We limit our performance analysis to standardized test in the 4th and 8th grades for two years – 2000-01 and 2001-02. The 2002-03 and later data are not comparable because the date of the test was changed and the scoring "cut points" were also changed considerably. We reserve judgment until later on charter high schools because almost all are at-risk schools for which test score data alone will provide a distorted picture of performance. The results for 4th and 8th grades are generally favorable for charter schools and the findings hold up over various tests, comparison schools, and weighted or unweighted data. For the second year of data, almost all the effects occur in charter schools in existence over one year. In 2000-01 there were too few new schools to make that comparison. [Top]
"Going Charter? A Study of School District Competition in Wisconsin" (Paper; Tables)
John F. Witte, Paul Schlomer, and Arnold Shober.
The question that drives this paper is why some school districts decide to open up charter schools and others do not. The answer to this question may involve a number of different theories. In this paper we explore three theories: 1) entrepreneurial initiative; 2)structural explanations; and, 3) spatial competition. We use data on the state of Wisconsin derived from extensive case studies of 19 charter schools and quantitative data on Wisconsin school district from state files and the U.S. Department of Education common core data bases. We find evidence to support all three explanations for why districts "go charter." First, in almost every school and district we visited for case studies, at the heart of either the district or the charter school, and often both, there were entrepreneurial administrators, school board members, teachers, or parents. Our evidence was anecdotal but very consistent across 19 case studies. Second, there are two general sets of structural characteristics that were shown to be quantitatively correlated with becoming a charter district. The first were resource characteristics (size, federal revenue, and for suburbs available seats); the second were indicators of unmet students needs (the percent of students eligible for free lunch). Finally, we argued and believe we provided significant evidence that competition is also a motivation for going charter. We posited and the data supported that open enrollment and charter schools are working together to enhance the flows of students from home schooling, private schools, dropouts, and from other public school districts into charter school districts. Thus using several different indicators and models, estimating either which districts become charter districts, or the flow and net gain directly from open enrollment, there is no question that charter schools are increasing competition for students in Wisconsin.
To be presented at the American Political Science Association 2004 Annual Meeting, Chicago, Ill. [Top]
"The Political Economy of School Choice" (Paper; Executive Summary)
John F. Witte, Arnold F. Shober, Paul A. Schlomer, and Pär Jason Engle
In this paper, we analyze the complex political economy of school choice, primarily as it has developed in Wisconsin, although we believe the models we develop will generalize to other locales. We focus specifically on how these various forms of choice interact and compete with each other. Most striking to us was that school choices, particularly charter schools, have expanded beyond the inner city and urban areas to include mid-sized cities and smaller towns. To explain this expansion of choice, we develop a theory derived from spatial economic theory. Spatial theory, which explains firm placement relative to customer and supplier location, is applicable to school districts and schools. The empirical data we analyze, in addition to our rich case study materials, include the growth and expansion in charter schools; and, for Wisconsin, the use of open enrollment by charter-school districts. The results are startling in terms of how well they seem to conform to our abstract spatial-economic theory. An exception is the creation of virtual charter schools that draw on a market defined only by the borders of the state.
To be presented at the American Political Science Association 2004 Annual Meeting, Chicago, Ill. [Top]
"Analyzing State Charter School Laws and Their Influence on the Formation of Charter Schools in the United States" (Paper)
John F. Witte, Arnold Shober, and Paul Manna.
This paper analyzes charter school state laws in terms of two general dimensions: 1) the flexibility, freedom, and support extended in the law; and 2) the degree of public accountability required of charter schools. The paper proposes a much more complex set of analyzes of those laws than have been accomplished to date. After analyzing the empirical properties of the subscales, we briefly compare them to the widely used Center for Education Reform scale. We then estimate what state characteristics appear to best predict both flexibility and accountability. Finally, we study the relationship between variance in laws, other independent variables and the number of charter schools established in a state. We find somewhat surprisingly that flexibility in laws along our multiple dimensions is also highly correlated with high levels of required public accountability. We are very unsuccessful in finding any linear relationships that appear to explain which states enact flexible laws and which do not. We do, however, find a number of interesting relationships between the number of charters existing in states and the nature of their laws, as well as other demographic and political factors.
Presented at the American Political Science Association 2003 Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pa., August 28-31, 2003 [Top]