New Report: Narrowing the Charter-Enrollment Gap

Read the full report here.

As charter schools continue their rapid expansion in America’s cities, questions related to equitable access to these schools of choice have jumped to the forefront of the policy conversation. Indeed, the proportion of students in charters with classifications that suggest that they are difficult to educate—such as students with disabilities, those who are not proficient in English, and those who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch—is often substantially below their respective proportions in traditional (“district”) public schools.

Charter-school students are less likely to be eligible for free/reduced-price lunches, to speak English as a second language (ESL), or to have a disability than are students in surrounding district schools. I use student enrollment data to examine why this is so: contrary to conventional wisdom, such differences in student populations have little to do with disadvantaged students being more likely to leave charters than traditional public schools; instead, they are a product of disadvantaged students being less likely to apply to—and enroll—in charters. How might policymakers narrow this enrollment gap? 

Replacing traditional “school-based” enrollment systems (where parents who wish their kids to attend a public school other than their default district school must complete separate applications for each extra school to which they apply) with common-enrollment systems (where parents need only complete a single application listing their school preferences) might reduce informational and other costs associated with applying to charters. The public school districts of Denver, New Orleans, Newark (N.J.), and Washington, D.C., have all recently adopted common enrollment and have included charters in their application forms. Other cities, including Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Oakland, and Indianapolis, are considering adopting common enrollment, too. New York City and Boston currently use common enrollment for some grades but do not include charters in their application forms.

Policymakers have considered various interventions to increase access to charters for disadvantaged students, including imposing strict quotas. However, another, less heavy-handed, approach holds particular promise: simplifying the charter-application process. In most cities, students apply to each charter school individually. This process imposes informational and other costs that are often more challenging for disadvantaged parents. Some cities have recently adopted “common-enrollment” systems for their charter and district schools that centralize and simplify the enrollment process—by requiring parents to list their school preferences on a single application form—and better match students with their preferred school with an advanced algorithm.

I use longitudinal data from Denver to measure whether adoption of common enrollment increased the proportion of disadvantaged students enrolled in that city’s charter elementary schools. I find that Denver’s adoption of common enrollment substantially increased the proportion of students enrolling in charter kindergartens who are minority, eligible for free/reduced-priced lunch, or speak English as a second language. Importantly, this paper considers only one specific effect of common enrollment on the charter-school sector. While policymakers should take a more expansive measure of the merits of common enrollment before adopting it, this paper suggests that an effective way to boost disadvantaged students’ enrollment in charters is to make applying to them easier.

Common-enrollment systems that include charters will likely expand disadvantaged students’ enrollment in charter schools. This finding is particularly important, given recent research suggesting that the widely noted enrollment gaps between charter and district schools are predominantly determined by who enters charters, not who exits them. Policies, such as common enrollment, that facilitate application to charters thus offer the most promise of narrowing such gaps.

Marcus A. Winters is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an assistant professor at the University of Colorado. Follow him on Twitter here.

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