This study contributes to the growing body of research concerning the strategic geographic positioning of traditional charter schools (TCS) in urban areas and their segregative effect by considering economist Michael Porter’s concept of business clusters, in which businesses ‘cluster’ to maximize their potential profit and to gain access to a customer base. Using a mixed-methods approach, we use geographic information systems (GIS) to perform an Average Nearest Neighbor Analyses (ANNA) to determine if charter and public schools (TPS) cluster in Ohio’s Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). We analyze school enrollment data and the local census tracts using MANOVA to compare the characteristics of TCS and TPS and produce maps of the results. Consistent with other research, we find evidence of increased segregation. The ANNA and MANOVA results indicate that TCS are more clustered than TPS and they tend to locate outside of the poorest communities with higher concentrations of Black and poor individuals.

In this study, we seek to contribute to the literature on traditional charter school (TCS) closure by examining the potential relationships among racial and socioeconomic enrollment characteristics, TCS age and early adopter status, student achievement and the likelihood of closure within Ohio’s “Big 8” Urban Counties (OBEUC). Using life tables and binary logistic regression, we examined 3,204 TCS school years (424 TCS) in OBEUC from the arrival of TCS in 1998 through 2015 to assess these relationships. While the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) reports that poor academic performance is the second most cited reason for TCS closure, we find no evidence that student performance predicts TCS closure in OBEUC. However, we find that compared to TCS with integrated enrollments, TCS with predominantly White or Black enrollments face higher risks of closure in OBEUC, even when controlling for other factors. This lack of a connection between student performance and TCS closure calls into question the argument that TCS closure is evidence that the accountability function of school choice policy is working.

In this article, we examine how demographic changes in Fargo and West Fargo, North Dakota between 2000 and 2017, including the resettlement of refugees, have impacted equitable educational arrangements in Fargo Public Schools (FPS) and West Fargo Public Schools (WFPS). Drawing on multiple data sources, including North Dakota’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Common Core of Data (CCD) available from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) and block group data from the U.S. Census Bureau, we use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine city and district level changes in the years 2000 and 2017. We also conduct descriptive statistics and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to assess the relationships among Black student enrollment, performance on state tests and enrollment characteristics that include race and free and reduced lunch. Findings underscore the increasing isolation of students over time by race, socioeconomic background and language.