On average, the funding gap between charter schools and traditional schools is 22 percent, or $1,800 per pupil. The average charter school ends up with a total funding shortfall of nearly half a million dollars.
Source: Charter School Funding: Inequity’s Next Frontier
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CSRQ Center Report on Education Service Providers
This document is the product of researchers screening 940 studies on seven different educational management organizations to look for proof of whether the programs produce gains in student achievement. Only nine studies met the group's strict definition for scientific quality and all of them focused on Edison Schools, the for-profit company that operates 157 schools, including many charters, around the country. Edison, however, only received a rating of "moderate" by the group's standards for "evidence of positive overall effects." No providers earned the top two ratings: "moderately strong" and "very strong." Researchers could not find any studies to show whether some of the organizations' models improved student achievement, but none of the organizations were found to have a negative impact on schools. The seven models operate in 350 schools, which represent 60 to 65 percent of all the schools across the country that use such outside groups.
Opening Procedures: A Guide for Board of Trustees and Leaders of New Charter Schools
This guidebook is focused on board members and leaders in new Massachusetts charter schools, but much of the information provided could be useful to charter school governing boards in other states. The document provides school leaders with information on hiring, evaluation, and professional development of faculty, and presents guidance to ensure that charter schools have the processes in place to perform due diligence in the responsible management of the school's fiscal affairs. The handbook also identifies sources of additional information that may be useful to new charter schools as they grow from proposal to implementation.
Trends in Charter School Authorizing
Using data from a sample of 184 entities that together authorizes nearly one-half of the nation's charter schools, the study describes seven types of authorizers. The author judges how well the authorizers practice “five elements of successful authorizing:” data-driven decision-making; sound working relations; skilled personnel; adequate resources and autonomy; community and parent input. Authorizers are growing more selective when deciding whether to allow charter schools to open, lowering the national approval rate from 70 percent in 2003 to approximately 50 percent in 2006. An estimated 75 percent of non-renewals were due to poor academic performance. Thirty-one percent of authorizers were found to be aggressive about both quality and compliance, while almost half practice limited oversight of their schools.
Playing to Type: Mapping the Charter School Landscape
This study examines a sample of 1,182 charter schools (87 percent of charters operating in 2001-02) and categorizes them into five categories based on their curricular approaches: 1) general: includes "conversion" schools (29 percent of schools in sample); 2) progressive: schools that focus on individual student development approaches (29 percent); 3) traditional: schools emphasizing a "back-to-basics" approach; 4) vocational: schools that equip students to transition from school to work (12 percent); and, 5) alternative delivery: schools that provide most instruction outside a traditional bricks-and-mortar building, e.g., virtual schools (6 percent). The author finds three-quarters of charters do not target a specific student population for enrollment, while 26 percent serve students with specific needs or attributes. The report provides demographic information and takes an initial look at performance by type.
New Jersey District and Charter Revenue Analysis: FY 2002-03
This comparative analysis of revenues in charter and district schools in New Jersey finds that charter schools in the state receive 23 percent less than district schools. Newark and Trenton charter schools faced the most severe inequities with Newark receiving 44 percent less in total per pupil revenue than the city's school district and Trenton's charters receiving 38 percent less than district schools. Funding for the state's Abbott districts (poorest urban districts), a revenue stream charters are not eligible to receive, is a key source of the funding disparity. As in other states, local and state funding for capital and debt service contributes to the funding inequity between districts and charters.
Charter Progress: What's Worked and What Hasn't
In honor of National Charter Schools Week, these authors offer an examination of where the charter movement stands and where it's going. They comment on three trends. First, charter schools are educationally diverse. Second, they face severe obstacles, both financial and political. Third, authorization—the act of chartering or licensing these schools—is the most important factor in creating high-quality charter schools. They encourage legislators to the give authorizing responsibility to organizations that have the ability and willingness to charter by choice, not coercion, and can provide ample financial and human resources.
National Charter School Poll
This telephone poll of 801 registered voters finds that many Americans still lack an understanding of charter schools. However, after hearing charter schools defined as "independent public schools that are free to be more innovative and are held accountable for improved student achievement," 74 percent of voters said they would favor expanding charter schools (including 39 percent strongly favoring charter school expansion). Fifty-five percent of parents surveyed said they would be interested in enrolling their child in a charter school. Other poll results include: 90 percent of voters favor holding students, teachers, and parents accountable for improving student achievement; 85 percent of voters favor giving parents more options for where to send their child to school; and 83 percent of voters favor giving schools more flexibility to design curriculum
The Renaissance of Urban Education: Charter Schools in America's Cities
This study of urban public charter schools finds that charters in Buffalo, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York and Washington, D.C. outperform traditional public schools and often rival the highest-performing schools in surrounding suburban districts. The author finds that these results are due to strong political leadership, good charter laws, effective authorizing practices, and helpful local organization activities. Several recommendations are offered to help take charter success to scale and to create policies that support it.
Charter Schools and No Child Left Behind: An Oncoming Collision?
While the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 poses some challenges to charter schools, it also provides a boost to chartering. Many districts around the nation are now deciding to take advantage of the law's provision that permits converting failed schools into charter schools. The authors of this paper propose several conditions which must be met if the expansion of charter schools is to lead to improved performance. The most important of these is that the charter must be based on a strong authorizing and monitoring process that produces a genuine performance contract.
Prism: Charter Schools
In 1993, the Colorado legislature provided for the creation of charter schools. In spring 2006, there are more than 100 public charter schools, serving over 36,800 students across the state. Twenty thousand families are on waitlists to enter them. The impact of charters are definitely being felt and the Colorado Association of School Boards devotes its whole spring issue of its journal, the Prism, to charter schools. Articles –- crafted by an array of education researchers, school board members, district officials, and charter school advocates -- focus on academic performance (charter schools perform equal to or better than district schools), issues of racial/income equity, ways to address charter school funding issues, and the effects of districts' declining enrollment.
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