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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Note: Please be aware that online publishers often change URLs or no longer provide access to articles after 7 days. If any of the below links no longer work, access the publishing newspaper and search the archives for the keywords in the subject matter. Good luck.
Most Public Charter Schools Make Performance Gains in Dayton, Ohio
Most of Dayton's public charter schools made gains in test performance last year while more than two-thirds of schools within the school district saw scores decline. Public charter schools made up 12 of the top 20 schools in the city. "If you look at the charter results they are undeniably better than the district on almost all indicators," said Terry Ryan of the pro-charter Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. "But if you look at the district schools, the schools that are performing best are the schools of choice. Something is going on there."
Source: Dayton Daily News, (09/01/2008)
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Elementary Public Charter School Documents its Success in New Jersey
In 1997, the Learning Community, one of New Jersey’s first public charter schools, was started by parents who met in a play group. The school had a different approach from district schools to classroom teaching: no grades, no textbooks and hands-on learning through art projects, field trips and community involvement. The school expanded to 324 children in kindergarten through eighth grade, gaining credibility with above-average standardized test scores and a track record of acceptances to selective nearby high schools. Until recently, little was known about how Learning Community students performed academically once they moved on to high school, and whether their early experience at a charter school made a difference. This summer the school tracked down their very first students, a group of 25 who finished eighth grade in 2004 and were expected to graduate from high school last spring. Of the 23 students they could find, 20 had graduated high school on time, but three did not. The college-bound students reported earning a wide range of SAT scores, from 1,800 (out of a possible 2,400) for a girl on a full scholarship to Drew to 780 for a boy with a learning disability. Fifteen will enter four-year colleges this fall and others plan to enroll in community college. Principal Susan Grierson said the case study of the school’s first students confirmed for her that the lessons taught here have been carried on. "Did a small nurturing school make a difference?" she asked. "I think the small classes and individual attention were irreplaceable, because some of these kids would have fallen through the cracks. You can’t sit in a classroom here and hide."
Source: New York Times (free registration required), (08/31/2008)
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Long Waiting Lists for Texas' Public Charter Schools Put Pressure on Cap
Analysis from the Texas Public Policy Foundation finds that at least 16,810 students were on waiting lists at Texas public charters last school year. That figure, based on a survey of schools, includes data from about half the state's "open enrollment" public charter schools, which serve a majority of Texas public charter students, plus most of the state’s 19 university-operated public charter campuses. Open-enrollment public charters are considered independent school districts and can have multiple campuses, the report says. Because just one-half of the schools (169), serving some 49,000 student, responded to the survey, the actual waiting list total is likely to be higher, said Brooke Dollens Terry, a policy analyst for the organization. Texas law sets a limit of 215 open-enrollment public charters. The state has 210 now, and analysts say the last five slots may be filled this fall. “In Texas and nationwide, the demand to attend a charter school far outweighs the supply,” the report stated. “The Texas legislature has unnecessarily prevented charters from operating in a free market and should eliminate the cap.”
Source: Education Week (subscription required), (08/29/2008)
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Good Morning America Profiles Obama's Support for Public Charter Schools
Good Morning America takes a look at presidential candidate Barack Obama's support for public charter schools. As part of a series on how the presidential candidates' plans would impact the average American family, the television program examines Obama's education plan and find that he supports public chartering as an option for families desiring a high-quality education for their children. Obama is campaigning on promises to create programs to recruit and retain teachers, including efforts to experiment with new ways of compensating them, to expand access to public charter schools, and to change the No Child Left Behind Act to improve the quality of testing and to increase funding.
Source: ABC News, (08/27/2008)
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Statewide Public Charter School Performance Mixed in Ohio
Statewide, according to the Ohio Department of Education, eight public charter schools were rated Excellent, while 102 were rated as being in Academic Emergency. Comparing public charter schools to district public schools is not comparing apples to apples because public charter schools often have different purposes, said Ron Adler, president of the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education, a public charter school advocacy group. He said public charter schools can be dropout recovery schools or serve children with special needs, and that they vary widely depending on their mission. "They want to have one set of uniform tests for everyone, but not all students are alike," he said. Allison Perz, executive director of the Ohio Council of Community School which sponsors public charter schools throughout the state, noted the unique challenge of the state's public charter schools is to engage students who were not comfortable in a traditional school setting and who are often years behind in academic performance when they enroll. "Typically, the students who are drawn or attracted to charter schools are those who have had a negative experience in another format," she said. "We are noting that across the board, collectively for all our schools, we're seeing 77 percent that either increased in their rating or stayed the same," she said.
Source: Toledo Blade, (08/27/2008)
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Survey Suggests Majority of Americans Still Do Not Understand that Public Charter Schools are Public Schools
According to a survey commissioned by the Center for Education Reform, Americans strongly embrace public charter schooling and other education choice options. While more than three-quarters of survey participants did not correctly identify public charter schools as public schools, when given a clear definition, 78 percent of respondents supported "allowing communities to create new public schools – called charter schools – that would be held accountable for student results and would be required to meet the same academic standards and testing requirements as other public schools." Awareness of and support for public charter schools was higher in states with stronger charter laws and higher levels of media coverage.
Source: Center for Education Reform (CER), (08/25/2008)
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