Charter Schools' Status in the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Surveys

• Activity Number: 361
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods*
• Author(s): Randall Parmer*+ and Kerry Gruber and Greg Strizek and Betty Jackson
• Affiliation(s): U.S. Census Bureau and National Center for Education Statistics and ESSI and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: charter school ; interview status ; coverage

Abstract

As part of the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Surveys, charter schools were included for the first time. Charter schools are a relatively new phenomena in the elementary-secondary education environment, and the number of charter schools in the country is not known. A list of charter schools was obtained from the US Department of Education and a census of charter schools was conducted. Schools we suspected did not fit the definition of a charter school were screened to determine status. Schools fitting the definition were asked to complete the survey. In addition, some schools sampled as regular public schools in the survey reported to us they were charter and were subsequently subjected to the screening process.

This paper presents the results of that screening process and the subsequent data collection effort. The rate of exclusion from the charter school survey will be examined as well as the reasons for exclusion. The results of the public school screening will be analyzed with the goal of developing a measure of the coverage of the initial charter school list. An additional comparison to an independent list of charter schools will also be presented.