Title: Investigating the financial and socio-economic determinants of student learning at US charter and public schools: The Texas experience

Authors: Steve Lovett, Mary Jane Sauceda, Musa Essayyad

Addresses: The University of Texas at Brownsville, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, 78520, Texas, USA. ' The University of Texas at Brownsville, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, 78520, Texas, USA. ' The University of Texas at Brownsville, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, 78520, Texas, USA

Abstract: This paper investigates whether financial and socio-economic factors affect student performance of charter vs. public schools. Based on data from Texas, this research employs a multiple regression model to find whether charter school students outperform public school students. The policy implications of the results are relevant to legislative initiatives. The paper recommends to charter school advocates and state and federal regulators that there is probably a need to design and implement an experience-certification-adjusted pay scale for teachers so charter schools would attract competent teachers who would help students improve their learning skills and knowledge.

Keywords: education finance; charter schools; public schools; education funding; performance evaluation; learning performance; Texas; USA; United States; student performance; teacher pay; teacher competency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEF.2010.031233

International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance, 2010 Vol.3 No.2, pp.126 - 139

Published online: 26 Jan 2010 *

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