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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Building a Typology of Charter Schools in Texas
This report presents a replicable typology of charter schools in Texas based on their enrollment practices, missions, and curricula. It includes a comparison of the academic performance of students in each charter category to those within Texas traditional public schools, finding significant differences between each type. Highly academic charters perform very well academically and appear to outperform traditional public schools. The academic results of at-risk/recovery charters, which have a special education population that is over twice as large proportionally as traditional public schools, are not significantly different from traditional campuses serving at-risk populations. The authors encourage researchers and policymakers to use a similar classification system, as well as to track students’ individual performance over time, in order to make meaningful comparisons of performance between public charter and traditional public schools.
Teacher Attrition in Charter Schools
Analyzing existing teacher survey data, this study focuses on the reasons why teachers leave charter schools. The authors found that while overall attrition rates fluctuate from year to year and state to state, as many as one in four charter school teachers leave each year. The single background characteristic that strongly predicted teacher attrition was age: younger teachers in charter schools were more likely to leave than older teachers. Another strong predictor was grade level taught, with attrition rates highest in the upper grades. Attrition was higher for non-certified teachers. The authors recommend that charter school supporters focus efforts on reducing teacher attrition.
Identifying and Replicating the "DNA" of Successful Charter Schools: Lessons from the Private Sector
This brief summarizes lessons learned from scale-up and replication efforts and discusses how these lessons should be applied to future efforts to replicate and expand existing charter school models. Recommendations include: (1) make sure you are replicating a model that can be copied and is worth copying; (2) observe the original model directly; (3) copy the original model as closely as you can; (4) adapt only after achieving acceptable results; and (5) keep the template in mind, even as you adapt.
2007 National Charter Schools of the Year
In mid-May, the Center for Education Reform celebrated 53 charter schools from 24 states, recognizing them for "exemplifying the innovation, achievement and dedication of a charter school movement that has changed the face of American education." Evaluation of the schools involved four key areas: achievement; planning and execution; satisfaction; and policies and programs. This website lists the schools and their contact information.
The Five Dysfunctions of Charter School Boards
This document explores the dysfunctions found in public charter school boards and offers solutions for improving performance. One common dysfunction is a board that attempts to manage the day-to-day operations of the school, rather than focusing on governance. The author recommends that the board should make clear the outcomes desired, establish (through policies) the boundaries in which the outcomes are to occur, and then hold the management accountable by evaluating performance. Another dysfunction is the failure of the board to constantly improve its own performance. The author recommends that boards devote time to participating in professional development programs, discussing important books and articles, and staying aware of charter school trends and state and federal law.
California's Charter Schools: Measuring Their Performance
Charter middle and high school students in California scored higher on state assessments than their public school peers, even after factoring in school size and student background, according to this report. Charter elementary schools showed generally lower performance than traditional public elementary schools. Charter schools run by management organizations, such as KIPP, Green Dot, and Aspire, tended to perform far better than other charter schools. The study examined the 2005-06 test scores of 346 charter schools and 7,122 traditional public schools and compared schools with similar sizes, levels of parent education and rates of students receiving a subsidized lunch, among other factors.
Charter Schools and Student Achievement in Florida
This study finds that competition from charter schools appears to have a modest positive impact on student achievement in traditional public schools. Using longitudinal achievement data of public school students in Florida, the author of this article examines the performance of public charter schools and their competitive impact on traditional public schools. Initially, performance is lower in charter schools. By the fifth year of operation, however, new charter schools are on similar levels with the average traditional public school in math and achieve higher reading scores than their traditional public school counterparts. Whether measured by the presence of nearby charter schools, the number of competing charters, or the enrollment share garnered by charter schools, charter school competition is associated with higher math and unchanged reading scores in traditional public schools.
Number of Charter Schools and Students in the 2006-07 School Year
This document offers the most reliable and up-to-date state-by-state numbers on charter schools and students. As of April 2007, 1,144,758 of the nation's children are being educated in 4,046 charter schools. The number of schools ranges from just 1 in Mississippi to 621 charter schools in California. California also has the largest number of charter students (approximately 220,000). Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and Arizona also continue to have large charter markets.
Making Sense of Charter School Studies: A Reporter's Guide
The National Charter School Research Project, an initiative of the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education, has released a guide to help reporters evaluate the quality of charter school achievement studies. It also can be used to interpret other charter school or general education research. The document presents a list of "critical consumer questions," such as: (1) does the report compare apples to apples; (2) how large and representative is the study's sample and comparison group; (3) does the report look at test scores from one or more than one year; and (4) are the findings overstated. The guide also lists problems with common methods for measuring achievement in charter and traditional schools.
Evaluating the Impact of Charter Schools on Student Achievement
Achievement in charter schools in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin has not been found to exceed the achievement levels found in traditional public schools, according to a new study funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. The study compared school-based data of charters with demographically similar, traditional public schools over a five-year period and found that charter schools were not performing at levels that exceed traditional public schools. The authors did find that charter schools are making significant gains in achievement over time and that all of the states in the study had some very strong charters.
National Association of Charter School Authorizers Conference, October 22-23
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers will host its seventh annual conference October 22-23, 2007, at the Hyatt Regency Savannah on the Historic Riverfront in Savannah, GA. Steve Barr, Founder and CEO of Green Dot Public Schools, and James Forman, Jr. of Georgetown University are keynote speakers. With the theme of "Cultivating the Charter Garden," the conference will offer numerous interactive and practice-oriented sessions.
Arizona Charter Schools Association, Annual Conference, October 10-12
The Arizona Charter Schools Association will host its annual conference at the Glendale Renaissance Hotel & Spa in Glendale, Arizona, October 10-12, 2007. Conference information and exhibitor/sponsorship information will be available on the organization's website.
Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson: the Peyton Manning of Charter Schools
This article examines the charter schooling efforts, policies and processes, and successes of Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, the nation’s only mayor who currently authorizes charter schools. In the 2006–07 academic year, the mayor oversaw 16 charter schools serving 3,870 students.
Project Intersect: How Special Education and Charter Schools Coexist
This federally funded three year study of how special education and charter schools intersect offers a series of reports of how special education is accessed and delivered to children in charters who have disabilities. The project examines several issues, including: (1) how does state charter school legislation, including the authorization and appeal process, influence access to special education and related services; (2) how is special education incorporated in charter school policies and procedures; (3) how do children with disabilities access special education and related services in charter schools; and (4) how are charter schools building their capacity to provide special education? The initiative's 5th and 6th reports, Access and Accountability for Students With Disabilities in California Charter Schools and a Survey of Charter School Authorizers, are now available on the project's website, along with earlier reports. The 7th and final report from the study is expected in summer 2007.
The State of Public Education in New Orleans
New Orleans has 57 percent of its students in charter schools--the largest percentage of any district in the nation. A new report offers an assessment of the current state of those charters and the rest of the 58 public schools operating in the city. It draws conclusions from interviews, community meetings, online surveys and input from more than 3,000 people, along with conversations with educational leaders, and puts forth recommendations for the community that are designed to help achieve the goal of quality education for all public school students. The report finds that the "new system of schools is struggling, but there are some signs of early progress." Recommendations for improvement include empowering families to choose the best public schools for their children from a range of high-quality school options and adopting an aggressive strategy to recruit and retain high-quality teachers and staff.
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