EXPOSURE TO PHILADELPHIA’S CHARTER SCHOOLS: A SPATIAL ANALYSIS
Open Access
- Author:
- Sanchez, Luis Alberto
- Graduate Program:
- Sociology
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- August 13, 2010
- Committee Members:
- Stephen Augustus Matthews, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Stephen Augustus Matthews, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- charter schools
spatial analysis
GIS
urban sociology - Abstract:
- Charter schools are becoming more prevalent in American education, specifically in urban areas as a mechanism for educational reform. This study conducts a spatial analysis of Philadelphia’s charter schools with data from the 2007 school year. It extends earlier charter school research by using advanced measures of exposure to examine spatial relationship of Philadelphia’s charter schools’ to the city’s racial and social groups. This spatial analysis answers three questions. First, are charter schools spatially clustered or equally distributed across Philadelphia? Second, is exposure to charter schools associated with an area’s racial, social, and ecological characteristics? And finally, do spatially advanced measures of exposure provide a better understanding of the locational behavior of charter schools in relation to neighborhood demographic characteristics? Using a spatially informed measure of exposure, I find that charter schools are clustered across Philadelphia, particularly in the city’s most disadvantaged areas. Race-based associations to charter school exposure are mainly explained by socioeconomic factors with the exception of areas with concentrated white populations, which exhibit the lowest levels of exposure. Additionally, newer residential areas have less exposure to charter schools. The paper ends with a discussion of charter schools’ effort to reform educational opportunities in urban school districts.