The primary purpose of this study is to examine how Education Management Organizations (EMOs) appear to affect the segregation or integration of schools by race, economic class, special education status, and language. This is accomplished through examining differences in enrollment patterns between schools operated by EMOs and schools run by their neighboring local districts. Five primary findings were reached: (1) Charter schools operated by EMOs tend to be strongly racial segregative for both minority and majority students as compared with the composition of the sending district; (2) For economically challenged students, EMO-operated charter schools more strongly segregate students than do their respective local districts. (3) EMO-operated schools consistently enrolled a lower proportion of special education children than their home district; (4) English Language Learners (ELL) were also consistently underrepresented in charter schools in every comparison; and (5) When examined for the years 2001 to 2007, the composition of the charter schools trended closer to the public school district for each of the four demographic groups examined. However, this phenomenon was an artifact of balancing extremes. For both for-profit and nonprofit EMOs, the segregation patterns of 2000-2001 were virtually identical to those in 2006-2007. Appendices include: (1) Findings by EMO; (2) Tables with Descriptive Statistics for Key Measures and the Differential Scores; and (3) Longitudinal Trends in EMO-Operated Schools. (Contains 6 tables, 15 figures and 60 endnotes.).
