Navigating Public-Private Partnerships

Navigating Public-Private Partnerships

Purpose of study

Public education landscape in many urban districts is being transformed as private-sector providers such as educational management organizations partner with or run the district schools. Some private sector providers’ vision for school reform has remained static over time. The increase in the public-private sector partnerships has made the concerned policy maker struggle to improve low-performing schools. Therefore, there is a need to examine different private-sector providers to identify factors which may contribute to success or failure of the public-private partnerships. This article creates a framework that places these private sector providers in a continuum of control.

Conceptual framework

Purchasing of services from private providers such as school lunch, and busing is common in district schools across the nation. Some argue that this public-private partnership has made service delivery in these schools more effective. Proponents of the private-public partnerships say that these private sector providers will use their outsider status and experience to access personal and professional networks that will spark creativity in the public school system. In contrast, the detractors of the public-private partnership will change the relationship between the government and citizens. To construct the continuum control, findings from earlier study and articles of other researchers were integrated (Bulky et al.2004; Gold et al.2007; Scott & DiMartino 2010). The continuum control is essential where private sector organizations fall along the continuum illustrates how much influence it aims to exert to exert, and also how much its educational goals could affect the schools’ decision-making process. Also, the continuum control highlights if the private sector organization goals remain static, then the power of the private sector organization can be limited by the local authorities of the school in partnership with. This kind of interaction between the school and the private sector organizations thus makes the design and the decision making of the school more challenging. The continuum control takes into consideration the values and the goals of the private sector providers and places them under the continuum control: From the least power to the most power. The continuum control reflects the extent of the control the private provider have over the school and looks at how the educational values of the individual provider may differ from those of the school in partnership with.

Review of the Literature

Research by Friedman (1962) revealed that the government chooses the private providers for the schools and agree on the terms of the contract with the private provider without consulting the parents. This research revealed that then the parents who are the direct consumers have to move from one school to another looking the school where their children will be best fitted depending on the services available in a particular school. (Burch 2010; Hill et al 2009). Another earlier research on the public-private partnerships revealed that the inclusion of the private providers in private schools changes the system of management of the public schools and hence shifting the allocation power. Private sector providers bring access to substantial financial capital linked with well-financed foundations.

Research hypothesis

The article hypothesizes that, by accounting the characteristics of the key actors, a continuum of control can predict the distribution of power between the private sector providers and the schools.

Research design and methods

The research drew from a sample of schools partners with two prominent partner organizations: Metropolitan United and University Edge, which acted both as the financial agents and the founding partners. Data collection spanned for 16 months. The school administrators, parents, students and the partners of the organizations were interviewed, and the necessary data was collected.

Findings and discussions

The continuum of control provides the framework to understand, analyze, and evaluate private-public partnerships. The addition of private providers in public schools changes the educational goals of the public schools. The private organizations then bring benefit to public schools in the sense that new resources are available.

The magnitude, destination, and determinants of mathematics and science teacher turnover.

Purpose of study

Over the last two decades, the turnover rate of mathematics and science teacher has increased, contrary to the other teachers whose turnover rate have not changed consistently. Data also shows that there have been a massive reshuffling of mathematics and science teachers from high performing schools to the low performing schools and even reshuffle of mathematics and science teachers from urban areas to the suburban area. This article addresses this worrying trend of mathematics and science teachers.

Conceptual framework

The theoretical perspective adopted in this research draws from the sociology of organizations, occupation, and work and the interdisciplinary field of the organizational theory. The primary objective of the study is to fully understand the factors behind the rate of mathematics and science teacher turnover and the consequence of the school turnover and staffing problems. Then it is necessary to address this issue from its roots where the teachers works and the affected schools.

Review of the literature

A long tradition of research has shown that, in addition to the perceptions and characteristics of individual employees, the overall conditions of workplaces and job sites significantly affect the attachment of the employees to the organization. (Cotton and Tuttle, 1986; Grieffen, Hom, &Griffeth, 2000).

Research design and method

The data used in this study came from the National Center for Educational Statistics’ (NCES) nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey(SASS). This is the largest and most comprehensive data source available on the staffing and organizational aspects. The U.S Census Bureau collects the SASS data for NCES from a random sample of school level.

Research questions

The study about the increased turnover rate of mathematics and science teachers rise this one crucial question: What are the reasons for and sources of these levels and patterns of mathematics and science teacher turnover?

Findings

Elementary and secondary teaching is one of the largest occupations in the United States representing 4% of the entire nationwide civilian workforce. Numerically, there is also a massive flow of teachers into, between and out of schools each year. For instance, the SASS data shows that at the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year, about 49,600 mathematics and science teachers were hired into schools they had not taught the prior year. The TFS data also show that from the late 1980s to 2005, annual rates of total turnover for mathematics and science teachers, while fluctuating from year to year, overall rose –by 34% for mathematics teachers and 10% for the science teachers. The data also shows that the flow of science and mathematics from one school to another has not been equally distributed over the nation as it varies from one location to another.

Discussions

Retirement is one of the leading reasons for those who left teaching in the field of science and mathematics. Smaller portions of both movers and leavers indicated that their moves or leaves were a result of school staffing actions-such as their school being close, being individually laid off, transferred, resigned or being fired. The most prominent set of the factor that has contributed to the increased turnover of science and mathematics teachers is the desire to obtain better jobs. Therefore, one measure which can reduce the turnover of mathematics and science teachers is increasing their monthly payments so that they will not seek better jobs to meet their needs.

References

Bulky et al.2004; Gold et al.2007; Scott and DiMartino 2010

Buras 2011; Reckhow 2010,2013; Scott 2009

Cotton and Tuttle,1986; Grieffen, Hom, &Griffeth,2000