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Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 1 Running Head: CHARTER SCHOOLS AND THE TEACHER JOB SEARCH Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search in Michigan Marisa Cannata Vanderbilt University Please do not cite without author’s permission. Address correspondence to: Marisa Cannata, Vanderbilt University, [email protected], Wyatt 063, GPC#459, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203. This paper is supported by the National Center on School Choice, which is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) (R305A040043). All opinions expressed in this paper represent those of the authors and not necessarily the institutions with which they are affiliated or the U.S. Department of Education. All errors in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors. A previous version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in 2008. For more information, please visit the Center website at www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/. Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 2 Abstract This paper examines the position of charter schools in prospective elementary teachers’ job search decisions. Using a labor market segmentation framework, it explores teacher applicants’ decisions to apply to charter schools. The data come from a mixed-methods longitudinal study of prospective teachers looking for their first job. This paper finds moderate support that there is a segmented labor market for charter and traditional public school teachers. The institutional status of the school and teacher applicants’ lack of familiarity with charter schools was related to their disinclination to apply to charter schools, there is no evidence that these barriers led to lesser qualified teachers in charter schools. Further, charter schools were desirable for prospective teachers that wanted to serve predominantly minority students. Keywords: Charter schools, teacher career decisions, teacher labor market Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 3 Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search in Michigan Charter schools have been the subject of much educational policy research. Research about student achievement, governance, funding, and student composition in charter schools has proliferated in recent years (see, for example, Buckley & Schneider, 2005; Buddin & Zimmer, 2005; Bulkley & Hicks, 2005; Frankenberg & Lee, 2003; Lubienski & Lubienski, 2006). As the educational success of any school requires high quality teachers, it is surprising that less research exists on charter schools’ ability to recruit and retain teachers than other school operations. Indeed, as teachers are the most important school resource for student learning, we need to understand who teaches in charter schools and why they teach there. Previous research suggests that charter school teachers tend to come from more selective colleges than their peers in traditional public schools, but they are also more likely to be inexperienced and lack certification (Author et al, 2004; Baker & Dickerson, 2006; Guarino, 2003; Hoxby, 2002; Podgursky & Ballou, 2001; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2003). Charter school teachers also earn lower salaries and have higher attrition (Harris, 2006, 2007; Miron & Applegate, 2007; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2003). There is conflicting evidence on whether charter schools have lower class sizes (Fuller, Gawlik, Gonzales, Park, & Gibbings, 2003; Gruber, Wiley, Broughman, Strizek, & Burian-Fitzgerald, 2002). There are also ambiguous findings on the conditions inside charter schools, with charter school teachers reporting more autonomy and professional community, but less influence over schoolwide decisions (Author, 2007; Bomotti, Ginsberg, & Cobb, 1999; Crawford & Forsyth, 2004; Johnson & Landman, 2000; Vanourek, Manno, Finn, & Bierlein Palmer, 1998).. Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 4 The different qualifications and work experiences of charter and traditional public school teachers raise questions about whether the teachers who seek jobs in charter schools are similar to or different from those that seek employment in traditional public schools. Despite the existing research on teacher qualifications and work experiences, we know little about the overall impact of charter schools on the teacher labor market. Research on working conditions in charter schools tends to come from asking current charter school teachers what they like or do not like about working in their school or from retrospective accounts of their motivation for working in the charter sector. While these studies are valuable, we can only infer from their findings how charter schools fit into the larger landscape of schools as teachers search for a job and make decisions about where to teach. This paper explores how prospective elementary teachers think about charter schools during their first job search as they enter the teacher labor market, apply for teaching jobs, and decide where to work. Using a framework of labor market segmentation, it develops a model for understanding the interaction between institutional structures and informal boundaries in school sectors and teachers’ job search processes. In doing so, this paper analyzes teachers’ decisions to apply to charter schools and how the presence of charter schools affects prospective teachers’ job search decisions and outcomes. As such, this paper is a first step in analyzing the potential impact of charter schools on the teacher labor market. Labor Market Segmentation Why should we expect teachers to treat charter schools any differently than traditional public schools in their job search? Traditionally, the teacher labor market is considered a monopsony as districts with centralized hiring, staffing, and compensation practices serve as the single employer of teachers within a particular geographical area (Merrifield, 1999; Vedder & Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 5 Hall, 2000). Even though districts may compete with each other for prospective teachers, the degree of centralization and the influence of teacher unions may restrict the possible competitive effects on the labor market. Charter schools have the potential to inject more competition into the labor market as they offer additional employment opportunities for teachers. Thus increasing charter schools should be a boon to teacher applicants, giving them more diversified employment options in an environment in which employers must compete more strongly for their skills. The effect of these added opportunities, however, may depend on how prospective teachers view charter schools and the presence of frictions in the labor market. Search-theoretic models and labor market segmentation theory provide useful frames for exploring the relationship between charter schools and the teacher labor market because they focus attention on how individuals approach the job search and the difficulties that may arise when jobs are segmented into distinct groups. Labor market search theory argues that the decisions teachers make during a job search depend on the relative costs—from engaging in the job search process—and benefits—working in a job with particular characteristics or remaining unemployed and collecting unemployment benefits or enjoying more leisure time (Petrongolo & Pissarides, 2001). Job seekers weigh the costs involved in particular job search activities, the probability that those activities will lead to a job offer, and the characteristics of potentially available jobs when making decisions while on a job search (Devine & Kiefer, 1991; Holzer, 1988; Petrongolo & Pissarides, 2001; Rogerson, Shimer, & Wright, 2005; van den Berg, 1999). This search-theoretic model of the labor market emphasizes that frictions are created as it takes time and resources for workers to find a job and for employers to find workers (Rogerson et al., 2005). These frictions suggest that actual labor market outcomes are not well explained by traditional labor supply and demand models. Paying attention to these frictions is important as Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 6 the processes teachers use to find jobs structures the opportunities they see available to them and ultimately where they end up working (Author, in press). Studies of the teacher labor market in particular have found that search-theoretic models more accurately estimate teachers’ preferences for certain job features than traditional competitive wage models (Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2006). These complexities are amplified in the presence of a segmented labor market. A segmented labor market develops when there are institutional rules or informal boundaries that limit movement of workers between subgroups within the labor market. Certification or union membership may structure labor markets into distinct sectors that have different compensation and employment structures (Dickens & Lang, 1992; Kerr, 1954; Reid & Rubin, 2003). An important implication of a segmented labor market is that employment relations differ between the primary and secondary sectors (Baffoe-Bonnie, 2003; Beck, Horan, & Tolbert, 1978; Dickens & Lang, 1985, 1992; Osterman, 1975; Reid & Rubin, 2003). The primary—or core— sector offers jobs in larger organizations with higher salaries and more job security. The secondary—or peripheral—sector, however, is composed of jobs in smaller organizations with temporary employment contracts and lower wages. The primary sector has clear rules for promotion, a tight link between skills and salary, and tends to be highly unionized (although there are exceptions such as tenure track professors in higher education). The secondary sector, on the other hand, is less likely to be unionized and has unpredictable wages (Beck et al., 1978). While the primary sector may appear to offer more enticing conditions for workers, institutional rules limit movement between sectors or create queues as more workers demand jobs in one sector (Dickens & Lang, 1992; Kerr, 1954). Informal boundaries, including cultural distinctions, also contribute to labor market segmentation (Bauder, 2001). Without these barriers to Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 7 movement between sectors, salary and working conditions will equalize across sectors as workers seek out more favorable conditions and employers improve conditions to attract the most qualified applicants. One key question in search theory is how potential workers and employers meet (Rogerson et al., 2005). The outcomes of any particular teacher applicant depends on the likelihood that the teacher makes a match with particular schools, which is usually considered to be either random—with prospective teachers making contact with schools at random—or directed—with prospective teachers making contact with schools that offer the highest wages or best working conditions before contacting other less desirable schools (Rogerson et al., 2005). Yet in a segmented labor market, contacts between workers and potential employers are neither completely random nor directed due to institutional rules or informal boundaries. Teachers’ job searches may not be random if there are boundaries—either formal or informal—restricting their ability to make contact with both charter and traditional public schools. Likewise, prospective teachers may not always try to match with the school that offers the best combination of salary and working conditions if a segment of schools are absent from their search. Examining whether the presence of charter schools creates a segmented labor teacher labor market focuses our attention on three key questions. First, to what extent do teachers consider charter schools alongside traditional public schools? That is, to what extent are teachers likely to compare charter and traditional public schools on an equal basis with traditional public schools? Second, are there institutional rules or informal barriers that influence whether teachers consider charter schools in their job search? Third, are there observable differences in the qualifications, salary, and working conditions between teachers who end up in charter and Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 8 traditional public schools? The remainder of this paper will explore these questions. The next section examines evidence from existing research. Previous Research on Teachers in Charter Schools Labor market segmentation theory focuses attention on the institutional structures that may contribute to differences between sectors. Charter schools operate in a complex institutional environment. Some institutional rules make them similar to private schools while others make them similar to public schools. As charter schools do not have defined attendance areas and students must apply to attend a charter school, they are similar to private schools. Further, most charter schools are not unionized, creating another key institutional difference between charter and traditional public school sectors. Yet charter schools are publicly funded, may not be selective in admitting students, and—in the state in which this study was conducted—require teachers to be certified, making them similar to traditional public schools. These institutional rules are important in labor market segmentation theory because they create barriers that keep workers from moving between sectors. Thus teacher mobility between charter and traditional public schools can give us some indication that a segmented labor market is developing. Some research indicates that charter school teachers leave the profession altogether rather than moving into a new school, although among charter school teachers that do move schools, slightly more move to a traditional public school than to another charter school (Harris, 2007; The Ohio Collaborative, 2003). This suggests there is a small degree of movement of charter school teachers into traditional public schools. There is little evidence about whether traditional public school teachers move into charter schools. Some charter school teachers do have prior experience teaching in a traditional public school (Malloy & Wohlstetter, 2003; Miron, Cullen, Applegate, & Farrell, 2007), other evidence suggests that very few (near zero) of Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 9 traditional public school teachers move into charter schools, although this finding may be due to the small number of charter schools to which traditional public school teachers could move (Harris, 2007). Another study found that one-third of teachers in charter schools moved there from a traditional public school (Carruthers, 2008). This study also found a bimodal pattern in the types of teachers who move to charter schools, with traditional public school teachers who moved to charter schools as compared to other traditional public schools were both more likely to be inexperienced and have more than 30 years of experience. The second key characteristic of a segmented labor market is the differentiated qualifications, salary, and working conditions between sectors. Several studies have documented that charter school teachers do have different characteristics than teachers in traditional public schools that mirror differences between the primary and secondary sectors. For example, charter school teachers have less experience, are less likely to be certified, are less educated, and have higher attrition rates (Author et al, 2004; Harris, 2007; Miron & Nelson, 2002; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2003). Likewise, charter school teachers are more likely than traditional public school teachers to report that their school was the only job that was available to them and that this lack of job choice was linked to their lower qualifications (Author, 2009). They also have somewhat lower salaries that are less dependent on education and years of experience (Gruber et al., 2002; Harris, 2006; Podgursky, 2008; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2003). Further, charter schools are less likely to have collective bargaining agreements with unions, resulting in less job security for teachers and higher dismissal rates (Johnson & Landman, 2000; Podgursky, 2008). The evidence is more mixed on whether the different working conditions between charter and traditional public schools favor one sector over the other. On the one hand, charter school Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search 10 teachers report feeling more empowered in their classrooms and better teaching conditions (Bomotti et al., 1999; Hoxby, 2002). Many teachers are attracted to charter schools because of the ability to work with like-minded colleagues and engage in educational reform (Johnson & Landman, 2000; Miron et al., 2007). Charter school teachers also report higher levels of teacher professional community (Author, 2007; Gawlik, 2007; Goldring & Cravens, 2008; Wohlstetter & Griffin, 1998). Indeed, some charter management companies, such as EdVisions strive to create schools that are professional partnerships of teachers (Newell & Buchen, 2004). Yet other factors may make charter schools less desirable as workplaces. Charter school teachers report less satisfaction with the physical plants of their schools (Bomotti et al., 1999). Charter school teachers also earn lower salaries and get a lower return for each year of experience they have (Harris, 2006; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2003). Charter schools are also less likely to be unionized and some teachers may value job security and grievance procedures provided by collective bargaining (Johnson & Landman, 2000). Further, the autonomy given to charter schools may not mean that the influence over schoolwide decisions extends down to teachers (Bomotti et al., 1999; Crawford, 2001; Johnson & Landman, 2000). Despite the presence of shared values, the pressures of working in a charter school may mean teachers actually have little time for collaboration (Johnson & Landman, 2000). Overall, the existing literature suggests there are notable differences in the qualifications and work experiences of charter and traditional public school teachers. Some of these differences highlight the heterogeneity of charter schools and some may reflect institutional structures that shape teachers’ job search decisions.