Organizational, financial and demographic characteristics of charter schools in Texas and their relationship to school performance

Abstract

The deepening dissatisfaction with traditional public schools has inspired changes in the educational system. In less than a decade charter schools have gone from nonexistent to widespread. Charter schools are different from other reforms because charter schools tend to vary in terms of their performance and population served. Some charter schools are obviously more effective than others in terms of their performance on reading, writing and mathematics state-mandated tests. Therefore, the purpose of this study of the correlates of charter school effectiveness is to measure the strength and direction of their relationships between charter schools performance and their organizational, financial and organizational characteristics. My research concludes that among the demographic, financial and organizational variables selected the attendance rate; the central administration expenses and the total number of teachers respectively have the strongest correlation and are the best predictors when it comes to school performance.