Creed Benjamin, Jabbar Huriya, Scott Michael
Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA.
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, The University of Texas at Austin.
Educ Adm Q. 2021 Dec;57(5):815-858. doi: 10.1177/0013161x211037337. Epub 2021 Oct 1.
School choice policies are expected to generate competition leading to improvement in school practices. However, little is known about how competition operates in public education-particularly in charter schools. This paper examines charter-school leaders' competitive perception formation and the actions taken in response to competition.
Using Arizona charter-school leaders' responses to an original survey, Arizona Department of Education data, and the Common Core of Data, we examined the factors predicting the labeling of a school as a competitor. We estimated fixed effects logistic regression models which examine factors predicting the labeling of competitor schools and of top competitors. We used logistic regression models to understand charter-school leaders' responses to competition.
We find charter-school leaders in Arizona perceived at least some competition with other schools, and their perceptions vary by urbanicity. While distance between schools mattered generally for labeling a school as a competitor, distance did not factor into labeling "top competitor" schools. Student outcomes did not predict competition between schools, but student demographics were associated with labeling a school a competitor. Charter-school leaders responded to competition through changes in outreach and advertising rather than curriculum and instruction. Competitive responses were related to the respondent school's quality and the level of perceived competition.
We found charter-school leaders perceive competition and respond by changing school practices. Responses typically focus on marketing activities over productive responses. The novel state-level analysis allows us to test the effects of local market conditions typically absent in the literature.
择校政策有望引发竞争，从而促使学校改进办学实践。然而，对于竞争在公立教育中如何发挥作用，尤其是在特许学校中如何发挥作用，我们知之甚少。本文考察了特许学校领导者的竞争认知形成以及他们针对竞争所采取的行动。
利用亚利桑那州特许学校领导者对一项原创调查的回复、亚利桑那州教育部的数据以及《数据核心》，我们考察了预测一所学校被视为竞争对手的因素。我们估计了固定效应逻辑回归模型，该模型考察了预测竞争对手学校和顶级竞争对手被认定的因素。我们使用逻辑回归模型来了解特许学校领导者对竞争的反应。
我们发现亚利桑那州的特许学校领导者认为至少与其他一些学校存在竞争，而且他们的认知因城市化程度而异。虽然学校之间的距离通常是将一所学校认定为竞争对手的重要因素，但距离并不是认定“顶级竞争对手”学校的因素。学生成绩并不能预测学校之间的竞争，但学生人口统计学特征与将一所学校认定为竞争对手有关。特许学校领导者通过拓展和广告宣传方面的改变而非课程与教学方面的改变来应对竞争。竞争反应与受访学校的质量以及感知到的竞争程度有关。
我们发现特许学校领导者感知到竞争，并通过改变学校实践来做出回应。回应通常集中在营销活动而非实质性的回应上。这种新颖的州层面分析使我们能够检验文献中通常缺乏的当地市场条件的影响。
