Measuring the Sociospatial Effects of Charter Schools in LA

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MEASURING THE SOCIOSPATIAL EFFECTS OF CHARTER SCHOOLS IN LA BROCK HICKS

MASTER’S CANDIDATE IN URBAN + REGIONAL PLANNING (BROCKHICKS@UCLA.EDU) UCLA LUSKIN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

LA COUNTY

APPLIED PLANNING RESEARCH PROJECT APRIL 2015

INTRODUCTION

LA COUNTY

.

DATA

THE GEOGRAPHY OF STUDY Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)

1. CALIFORNIA DEPT. OF EDUCATION Current schools database + Longitudinal administrative data (Enrollment, Free Reduced-Price Meals, English Language Learners, API) 2. LAUSD Charters database + TPS attendance boundaries for 2002 and 2014 (only years available) 3. GEOLYTICS Neighborhood Change Database (packaged tract-level Census and ACS data with tract boundaries normalized to 2010)

City of LA + its neighborhoods

2nd largest district in the US (LA City + a few neighbors)

WHAT IS A . . . .

METHODS

TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL (TPS) A school that is maintained at public expense for the

education of the children of a community or district and that constitutes part of a system of free public education. No selection criteria are allowed and all students may attend, regardless of background.

COLLAPSE INTO STUDY PERIODS

PRIVATE SCHOOL (PS) A school founded, run, and maintained by a private group rather than by

the government, usually charging tuition and often following a particular philosophy, viewpoint, etc. Many schools have complex selection processes with strict selection criteria.

SCHOOLS

6 three-year periods

HOODS

3 Census periods

SPATIALIZE DATA

CHARTER SCHOOL (CS) An independently run public school granted greater flexibility in return for greater accountability for performance. Unlike PS, they cannot ‘select’ students based on any predetermined criteria; in practice, certain criterion often biases the selection process. Charters are either startups or conversions from TPS.

ESTABLISH CS ATTENDANCE AREAS

Calc avg area of TPS areas by level for each period

CALC PCT CHANGES

Calc unique area for each CS = each CS enrollment / TPS student/m2 density

RESTRUCTURE BEFORE/AFTER

Join schools to CS buffers

Each 3-year period

3-year periods

Join CS buffers to census tracts

Each Census period

Census periods

THE RESEARCH PROJECT

BUFFER CHARTERS

By TPS area avgs By unique area value for each CS

ANALYSIS DESCRIPTIVE MULTIVARIATE

Mapping + comparisons of pct changes

Fixed-effect regression models

CHARTER ATTENDANCE AREAS

This project measures socioeconomic change—across space and time—associated with startup charter school emergence in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The scope is the entire district, from the first charters in the 1990s to the present.

1993/94 to 1999/00 VENTURA COUNTY

PURPOSE

2000/01 to 2009/10 VENTURA COUNTY

2010/11 to 2013/14 VENTURA COUNTY

LA COUNTY

LA COUNTY

L COU

Charter schools are a relatively new formulation of the neighborhood educational institution. The neighborhood public school has played an important role historically in the development of US cities. LA is a hotspot for charter growth and charter educational reform. Little is known about the effects of charter schools on cities and urban neighborhoods. Given the empirically-tested, long-established link between school quality and neighborhood quality, research on the potential impacts of charters is necessary. Could the search for higher quality schools outside a household’s neighborhood be the first step in eventual relocation? Could family households with school-age children be agents of neighborhood change and new gentrifiers in Los Angeles?

PACIFIC OCEAN

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

0

Charter School Attendance Areas

Charter School Census Tracts (>50% by area)

ORANGE Charter School Census Tracts (>50% by area)

ORANGE Charter School Census Tracts (>50% by area)

LAUSD

LAUSD

LAUSD

City of LA

5

10

CHARTER SCHOOL

704

700

646

NO. OF SCHOOLS

600

589

614

300

545

511

6,533 Absolute percent change 1996-2013 363 Average percent change per year

200

109

100 -

VENTURA COUNTY

627

593

500 400

3

11

1996/97 – 1998/99

1999/00 – 2001/02

739

653

163

2005/06 – 2007/08

2008/09 – 2010/11

VENTURA COUNTY

LA COUNTY

PACIFIC OCEAN

518

LA COUNTY

PERCENT OF LAUSD PUBLIC SCHOOLS

100%

1%

2%

8%

90%

CHARTER SCHOOL 14%

2011/12 – 2013/14

NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS BY CENSUS TRACT

21%

NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS BY CENSUS TRACT

3 4-5 6 - 10

5-7 8 - 14

40%

2,000 Relative percent change 1996-2013 111 Average percent change per year

LAUSDboundary

0

5

30% 20% 10% 0% 1996/97 – 1998/99

1999/00 – 2001/02

2002/03 – 2005/06 – 2004/05 2007/08 3‐YEAR PERIODS

2008/09 – 2010/11

2011/12 – 2013/14

LAcityOutline

10

2000/01 to 2009/10 20 Miles

PACIFIC OCEAN

2

70%

50%

0

5

10

0

Charter school attendance areas

LAUSD

Charter school census tracts (intersect >= 50% by area)

City of LA

520 Miles 10

20 Miles

N

LA County census tracts

+ 1.6%

Median household income

+ 6.6%

Median gross rent ( CS tracts also had greater loss of renter-occupied units (-2.19) )

+ 13.1%

Proportion of non-hispanic white (CS tracts saw a higher percent change in white pop.) ORANGE

(for 1990-2000, when there were only 5 total charters, the difference was nearly identical)

COUNTY

LAUSDboundary

0

5

Coming soon! The preliminary descriptives tell an interesting story about neighborhood change, but fail to control for may factors—like major differences between neighborhoods. Will the seemingly substantial differences between tracts with charter schools and tracts without hold up to regression analysis?

3-4

1

PACIFIC OCEAN

2

80%

60%

20 Miles

MULTIVARIATE 1

19%

10

LA County Census Tracts

199

3‐YEAR PERIODS

TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL

5

City of LA

Mean percent changes 2000 to 2010 in charter census tracts vs. non-charter census tracts (discluding outliers)

53 2002/03 – 2004/05

0

LA County Census Tracts

DESCRIPTIVE

DENSITY BY CENSUS TRACT

PRIVATE SCHOOL

800

20 Miles

City of LA

ORAN COUN

COUNTY

VERY PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

CONTEXT DRAMATIC CHARTER GROWTH IN LA TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL

Charter School Attendance Areas

COUNTY

LA County Census Tracts

PACIFIC OCEAN

1) the effects on surrounding neighborhoods district-wide; and 2) the effects on adjacent public schools (a microcosm of the neighborhood)?

PACIFIC OCEAN

Charter School Attendance Areas

What are the [sociospatial] effects of charter school growth in the LAUSD on surrounding neighborhoods and traditional public schools? Specifically, what does a comparison of before and after charter school openings indicate about:

PACIFIC OCEAN

LAcityOutline

10

ORANGE COUNTY

ORANGE COUNTY

2010/11 to 2013/14 20 Miles

1 charter

4-5 charters

1 charter

5-7 charters

2 charters

6-10 charters

2 charters

8-14 charters

3 charters

3-4 charters

NEXT STEPS

ORANGE COUNTY

1. Spatialize the schools-to-schools longitudinal dataset; calculate percent changes between 3-year periods; restructure for before/after analysis. 2. In both datasets, compare means of selected percent change variables 3. Construct fixed-effect regression models 4. Write a report and graduate!

N

BACKDROP MAP “CONSTELLATION OF SCHOOL CHOICE IN LAUSD (2014/15)”

TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL

PRIVATE SCHOOL

STARTUP CHARTER

CONVERSION CHARTER

CLIENT FACULTY CHAIRS

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS DR. PAAVO MONKONNEN, GOETZ WOLFF


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