Where the Schools Are: An Examination of Charter School Location and Its Implications Carol S. Weissert, Matthew J. Uttermark and Kenneth Mackie LeRoy Collins Institute September 27th, 2018

Why are we Talking About School Location?

Groups are looking to start two new charter schools in Leon County “Originally, charter schools were intended by the Legislature to concentrate specifically on low performing students, especially those who were struggling to read. While history has proven that areas of poverty have a disproportionate number of struggling students, charter schools in Leon County aren’t even located near neighborhoods with the highest needs. . . This system is not equal.” - Rocky Hanna in the Tallahassee Democrat April 3rd, 2018

Overview Using a geospatial analysis we will examine this claim. Overview how we have collected geospatial data on charter schools We will explore if a charter school: Is located near areas of need Placement has varied overtime Location varies based on the type of charter school Enrolls students that mirror surrounding community demographics

Overview Takeaway points Charter Schools – for the most part – are doing a good job! Placed closer to areas of high diversity and limited mobility Patterns have not changed since the 1990s Both Corporate and Community charters place in areas of need Charter school enrollment mirrors surrounding neighborhoods – and even manages to have slightly higher enrollment for Blacks

What is a Geospatial Analysis?

Geospatial Analysis Schools are located in geographic space District Number Miami-Dade 133 out of (485) Broward 110 (348) Palm Beach 57 (234) Hillsborough 47 (289) Orange 40 (243) Schools are located in geographic space Using coordinates (latitude and longitude) we can plot them on a map We have 692 Charter Schools in our sample Concentrated in urban areas Especially south Florida

Overlay Census Tract Maps with Demographic data We draw 1, 2 and 5 mile boundaries around each school in our sample If the center of a Census Tract falls within the circle we connect the Tract’s data with the Charter School This gives us our community profiles with which we can conduct comparisons.

Where Are the Charter Schools?

Where Are the Charter Schools? We begin by looking at SES and demographic factors for all charter schools We find that as we draw boundaries farther from Charter schools: Rental rates decrease Communities become less Black Communities become less Hispanic We can observe these patterns in the following bar charts

Renters

Blacks

Hispanics

Hispanics – Subsets

What About When We Look Overtime?

What About When We Look Overtime? We examine the SES and demography of characteristics of charter schools—based on when the school was opened Two year intervals Only presenting the 1 mile analysis, but results are identical when examined at the 2 and 5 mile level We find no long-term overtime trends between charter school placement and demographics Placement is the highest for Black communities in the 1990s Placement is the highest for Hispanic communities in the 2000s However, there is a lot of variation We average over two-year intervals to cut down on variation

Renters

Blacks

Hispanics

What About When We Look at Charter Type?

What About When We Look at Charter Type? We compare Charter school started by individuals in the community against those formed by Charter Corporations We find that Charters do place themselves in diverse neighborhoods – however, the findings are bifurcated Community charters are more likely to place in Black neighborhoods Corporate charters are more likely to place in Hispanic neighborhoods

Renters

Blacks

Hispanics

Hispanics

How do School Demographics Compare to the Surrounding Community?

How do School Demographics Compare to the Surrounding Community? We compare neighborhood demographics to the enrolled rates of Blacks and Hispanics within Charter schools. Enrollment rates were gathered from the Department of Education Overall, charters do a good job representing their surrounding neighborhoods Black enrollment is higher in charter schools than surrounding neighborhoods Hispanic enrollment is about the same surrounding neighborhoods

Blacks

Hispanics

Conclusions

Conclusions Our findings do not support Rocky’s claim. We find evidence that Charter schools place themselves in both diverse socio-economic environments and diverse racial environments. Evidence which supports the Florida Legislature’s original goal Moreover, this pattern of school placement has remained broadly consistent over the past twenty years. However, the distribution of Charter types is not uniform. Community charters are more common in Black neighborhoods, while Corporate charters more common in Hispanic communities. School demography mirrors community demography