Education Commons^™

Student Characteristics And Retention In Merit Preparatory School: An Analysis Of Retention In A New Jersey Charter School, Alyssa Mckenzie

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that operate with fewer limitations on hiring and firing staff, and that have more flexibility with curriculum than traditional public schools. The goal of charter schools is to improve education and that goal often is measured through test scores in math and reading. This paper is a case study of one charter school, Merit Preparatory Academy, located in Newark, New Jersey, over two academic years. The school operated as a free-standing charter in the first year and was managed by a charter management organization in the second.

Schools are often evaluated by comparing the …