Figure 1. Demographics of Profiled Charter Schools

Figure 2. Framework for Site Analysis

Figure 3. Mosaica and the Arts and Technology Academy

Figure 4. The School of Arts and Sciences Thematic Instruction Rubric

Figure 5. BASIS Course Requirements

Figure 6. KIPP Student Incentive System (Excerpt)

Figure 7. Community of Peace Parent Compact

Figure 8. Oglethorpe Parent Volunteer Options

Figure 9. Gates Adult Education Program

Figure 10. Roxbury Prep Annual Accountability Plan (Excerpts)

I am pleased to introduce the third publication in the Innovations in Education series: Successful Charter Schools. This series, published by my Department's Office of Innovation and Improvement, identifies concrete, real-world examples of innovations flourishing throughout this great land in six important areas: public school choice, supplemental educational services, charter schools, magnet schools, alternative teacher certification, and school leadership.

Twelve years after the first charter school was launched, the charter school movement is now entering its adolescence. Like many pre-teens, it's had its share of growing pains, but I am confident that it is about to hit a growth spurt. That is because charter schools are enormously popular with their primary clients-parents and students-and because they are starting to show promising results in terms of student achievement. The basic tenets of charter schools-give them room to be innovative, hold them accountable for results, and let parents decide if they meet the needs of their children-are perfectly aligned with the historic No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which also focuses on accountability for results in return for more flexibility, and with providing more options for parents than ever before.

One of the promises of charter schools is that they can serve as laboratories of innovation-they can be public education's "R&D" arm. Because they have greater autonomy than traditional public schools, and since they tend to attract pioneering educators, they can try out new approaches to education that, if proven effective, can be transplanted back into the larger public education system. It is in this spirit that we highlight eight of the most successful charter schools in the United States.

These schools were chosen after an exhaustive national search. They were primarily selected because they have demonstrated success over time in boosting student achievement. Surely many more charter schools could have been identified, and these should not be considered "the best" charter schools in the nation. Nevertheless, they are among the best, and each has much to teach other charter schools-and traditional public schools-about teaching and learning, management strategies, staff development, and many other topics.

One of the most striking features of these schools is their diversity. While they are all producing impressive results-and meeting the "Adequate Yearly Progress" requirements of NCLB-they span the educational spectrum. Some are fairly traditional, with a laser-like focus on the basics. Others are much more open-ended and "progressive," with a more flexible approach to learning. None of these schools is a "testing factory," a stripped down place with no art, music, or time for community. This is an important point, because critics of NCLB-and of standards, testing, and accountability more generally-have voiced concerns that a focus on student achievement will lead schools to do nothing but teach reading and math. These eight schools demonstrate the fallacy of that argument. Excellent schools have always focused on delivering a well-rounded education. Certainly that's the kind of education the children of our nation's elite have always enjoyed, and it's the kind of education all of our children deserve.

I congratulate the schools highlighted herein and urge all educators to consider whether the practices described can help your school serve its students better. Let me finish by quoting one of the slogans of the KIPP Academy Houston-which I am proud to have helped get off the ground: "If there's a better way, we find it." What a wonderful outlook for our entire public education system-and what a fitting description of the ethos of charter schools.

Rod Paige, U.S. Secretary of Education
June 2004

The promise charter schools hold for public school innovation and reform lies in an unprecedented combination of freedom and accountability. Underwritten with public funds but run independently, charter schools are free from a range of state laws and district policies stipulating what and how they teach, where they can spend their money, and who they can hire and fire. In return, they are held strictly accountable for their academic and financial performance. To represent what such flexibility and accountability look like in practice, this guide provides a glimpse into the inner workings of eight American charter schools whose freedom to experiment is raising the level of student learning.

Free to experiment how? To lengthen the school day, mix grades, require dress codes, put teachers on their school boards, double up instruction in core subject areas like math or reading, make parents genuine partners in family-style school cultures, adopt any instructional practice that will help achieve their missions- free, in short, to do whatever it takes to build the skills, knowledge, and character traits their students need to succeed in today's world.

By allowing citizens to start new public schools with this kind of autonomy, making them available tuition-free to any student, and holding them accountable for results and family satisfaction, proponents hope that this new mix of choice and accountability will not only provide students stronger learning programs than local alternatives, but will also stimulate improvement of the existing public education system. With charter schools, it is accountability that makes freedom promising. No charter is permanent; it must be renewed-or revoked-at regular intervals. Continued funding, which is tied to student enrollment, also depends on educational results. "Deliver a quality product," as Finn et al. put it, "or you won't have students." ¹

In this guide we take a look at what contributes to a "quality product" as well as how eight particular charter schools (see figure 1) help their students achieve success.

The first charter school legislation was passed in Minnesota in 1991, and as of January 2004, there were 2,996 charter schools operating in the United States.² Across 40 states and the District of Columbia, about 750,000 students take part in this form of public education under varying charter laws.³

Parents choose to enroll their children in charter schools, usually entering a lottery for selection when schools are oversubscribed. The schools are free to determine their own governing structures, which include parents and teachers as active members. In all these configurations, autonomy gives charter schools the flexibility to allocate their budgets; hire staff; and create educational programs with curriculum, pedagogy, organizational structures, and ways of involving parents and community members that may not be typical of their neighboring schools. In this way charter schools can serve as laboratories, developing new educational practices that can be later replicated on a broader scale. This freedom to experiment is one reason charter schools have been called "education's best hope." ⁴

What does this promise look like in action? For this guide, a number of charter schools that are considered successful were carefully examined. The schools were selected first on the basis of student performance: They met 2003 Adequate Yearly Progress goals for their states and demonstrated three years of student achievement growth on standardized tests. They were also selected to represent a range of school types, serving differing student populations and various grade configurations. From over 250 schools nominated, many demonstrated that they were doing an excellent job of educating urban students who have been largely underserved in traditional public schools. A second set of charter schools seem to be meeting the demands of parents in more affluent communities who want an alternative to the local public school program. Very small schools-charter schools in rural areas, virtual technology schools, and home-schooling charter schools-were generally not eligible for consideration in this report because their size made it difficult to meet the testing criteria for participation. Ultimately, eight schools were selected for site visits. While not intended to represent "the best" charter schools in the country, they do provide a window into how autonomy, flexibility, and accountability can work to transform public education. Each school visit took place over one or two days, with observers visiting classes, collecting artifacts that represented aspects of the school's program, and interviewing parents, students, teachers, board members, administrators, and district liaisons. At each school, a set of questions guided the observations and interviews (see figure 2).

Figure 1. Demographics of Profiled Charter Schools

Among the eight schools represented in this guide, three consider themselves middle schools, one is a comprehensive K-12 school, one is 5-12, another is K-8, and two are elementary schools, one of which includes a preschool program. Student enrollment ranges from 182 at a middle school to 850 at an elementary school. At three of the schools, more than 80 percent of the students qualify for subsidized meals; at three other schools, the percentage is about 20 or less. Three of the schools are chartered by their state, four hold a charter from the local district, and one is chartered by a special chartering authority. The oldest of these schools has been in existence for 10 years; most are five or six years old. Programs vary from college prep to project-based learning, from an arts emphasis to bilingual education. Several programs feature non-violence or character education. Part II presents a concrete portrait of each school, a snapshot seeking to capture the particular ambience of the school culture, its distinctive mission and instructional program, and how it has gone about creating a learning community for its particular school population.

As remarkably diverse as these schools are, they share certain fundamental qualities, core features that seem to be at the heart of the charter process. Part I of the guide highlights those necessary elements of creating an effective charter school.