Chad d'Entremont, is doctoral student at Teachers College and Assistant Director Dissemination at the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education (NCSPE). d'Entremont, who after three years of teaching the eighth grade in New Hampshire, decided to go to graduate school to pursue a degree in Education Policy and make Teachers College and New York City his new home.  Since he's been in New York, d'Entremont has worked with the Boys' Club of New York and has helped design and implement the Boys' Club of New York's After School Academy which provides supplemental educational services to neighborhood boys. "Working with young boys from the Lower East Side and Flushing really made me aware the diversity of needs and interests within schools," says d'Entremont. 

In addition, this doctoral candidate knows a thing or two about school choice. For that reason, d'Entremont flew across the country this past April to share his knowledge with the community of researchers and scholars at the annual American Education Research Association (AERA) meeting in San Francisco.  d'Entremont and his co-author, Erin Martin, presented their research findings about enrollment patterns in New Jersey charter schools.

"Some charter schools do serve as a sorting mechanism - but they sort in distinct ways depending on the demographics of the city," d'Entremont said.

d'Entremont and Martin's study examined whether or not there was an over-representation of African-American students in predominately minority urban school districts and, if charter school enrollments under-represent African-American students in racially-mixed suburban school districts.

"There is some disconnect in the research and there are various competing views about the role of charter schools as a reform mechanism," explains d'Entremont.

Since the creation of the charter schools and the public school choice movement over a decade ago, many have been weary of these publicly financed schools.  Opponents of the charter school movement suggest that these schools re-segregate students; meanwhile, proponents believe that this market-based opportunity will force public schools to tighten up their act. 

With data from the New Jersey Department of Education and census data on various city and suburban schools in New Jersey, d'Entremont and Martin considered how charter school enrollments may vary by school location and student demographics in neighboring public schools.  "Charter school reform decentralizes authority to the school-level and encourages administrators to adapt school practices to local needs.  It would seem unlikely that all charter schools serve the same purpose and enroll the same type of student."  Their key findings include: 

• Hispanic students in New Jersey do not generally attend charter schools;
• On average, suburban charter schools in New Jersey are located in inner-ring suburbs that struggle with many of the same economic and social problems that are found in central cities; and
• White students are most likely to attend charter schools in racially mixed school districts where they may have incentives to exit public schools.

What next for d'Entremont?  He and Martin plan to collaborate on additional research on how charter schools may exacerbate the housing pattern of "white flight" in certain urban areas.

Published Friday, Feb. 8, 2008