Week 5 Blog Post- This Week's Research (Empirical Research Article)

The study that I found this week is a little different than typical studies regarding charter school education. This week’s article focuses on the teachers of charter schools and their experiences like working conditions, student engagement in learning, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction. I like how this study looked at the teacher’s experiences. A lot of the research that I found in the past couple of weeks focus mainly on the negatives of charter schools. I will have to do some research about public and private schools in the next couple of weeks. I am honestly torn between charter schools and public schools. I think public schools are great. Some of them may not have the best teachers and the policies aren’t the best, but they are consistent.

I admit that some of them are not good, but there are also a lot of really good ones out there. The charter school that I work at appears to be a really good school. I love the environment, the students, and the teachers. They are all really supportive and good at what they do. The teachers truly love what they do and it is evident in their teaching. A lot of the teachers are younger, but from what I see it is a good thing. Younger teachers are able to understand their students better and still love what they do. I know from experience that some teachers who have been teaching for a long time aren’t consistent. They don’t teach what they are supposed to. I went to a public high school and there were a couple of amazing teachers, and others who should not be teachers.

My research strategies changed slightly this week. I went to the Leatherby Library instead of Google Scholar. I was able to find an article that fit what I needed for the assignment. It was a little confusing finding an article that was peer reviewed empirical versus peer reviewed, but I found what I could.

Week 4 Blog Post- This Week's Research (Scholarly Article)

The article that I found this week provided a study about a charter school and public school in North Carolina and which school had better student achievement. The article provided specific examples, scientific studies, and past research on the subject. I like how this article was exactly what my research question seeks to answer. The environment and outcome of the two schools might be different than a school in California, but the information is still accurate and will be helpful with writing my paper. The article I found states that students make considerably smaller achievement gains in charter schools than in public schools. Through the research that I have found from the past weeks, there has been a couple of sources that state that charter schools serving mostly at-risk students make a slightly larger gain than average students in traditional public schools. I find that really interesting because at-risk students might be more likely to fail, but with a charter school education have a better chance to succeed in school.

From the past couple of articles that I have found there have been more articles about the negatives of charter schools than the positives. I hope to find more positives on the side of charter schools because I am able to see firsthand how different and innovative charter schools are. I work at one and I see how the teaching styles, curriculum, and environment encourage children to explore creatively and move at their own pace.

I used the same research strategy this week as I have done in the past couple of weeks and it is my reliable method of research. I have yet to have to go onto different research databases because Google Scholar has provided enough research at the moment.

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Allison Chang

Week 3 Blog Post- This Week's Research (Books)

The research that I conducted this week allowed me to look more into the subject of the effectiveness of charter schools. The book I found was really interesting because it provided not only information about the history of charter schools, but also interviews and a look into various charter schools in the United States. I am going to read the book more in depth when I start to write my paper. The particular book that I found was written for parents to look into whether charter school education is better than traditional public schools so it provides a lot of information to the pro side of the argument. Many of the other sources I found are quick to write against the different way of schooling. The research led me to learn more about the positives and effectiveness of charter schools. I really like this book because it gives information aimed at parents so it is really well written and thought out. It provides research on all different perspectives of the argument. I was able to find this source on Google Scholar so it was not as hard as I expected it to be. Google Scholar is a great research tool because it provides books, articles, and scholarly journals.

I did not use any new strategies when it came to looking for books versus research articles. I really like using Google Scholar because it states whether a source is a book or article. I used my research term from the previous week (“charter schools”) to find the book that I used for this week. Like any research when searching for books, I found it difficult to find ebooks that provide enough information and does not have a lot of it cut out. I am hoping to find more information about charter schools and the effectiveness. Like I stated above, many sources provide arguments against charter schools. I am really interested to see what my research comes to in terms of answering my research question. I hope I will be able to find enough articles and books about my topic.

Week 2 Blog Post- Starting My Research (Evaluating Background Information)

The background information I found from this weeks assignment was interesting. There is not a lot about the history of charter schools from the research I conducted. I found one document that had a little bit of history and research that could be useful to my writing in the next couple of weeks. I will have to conduct some more research in the next couple of weeks to find more useful background information. The information that I did find is helpful to provide studies that were conducted comparing traditional public school to charter schools.

The research that I found has provided me with more research to the effectiveness of charter school education for students. One article that I found had a more negative feel to the research that dismissed charter school education. The other article was more neutral toward charter school education. I think both articles can be useful in writing the final paper. The research process takes a lot longer than was expected mainly because I could not find much background on my topic. There is not a lot on my topic, but there is enough to write a supported literature review. Hopefully I can find more information in the next couple of weeks to support my topic.

I did not use any new research strategies when I found my articles. I went to Google Scholar because I have always used it first when I look for articles. I find that it helps me the most because it states whether the link is a book, article, or journal. I really want to look more into various charter schools in the United States. I work at a charter school so I see how the one I work at is really good when it comes to educating students, but I have read that there are some that are not as good as the one I work at. 

I am not sure what I really want to write about yet, but I think that my research will focus on the effectiveness of charter school education. I have not really considered charter schools before starting working at one. I see how it can be a good and bad experience, but it all depends on the child and their individual needs.