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Charter Schools. ERIC Digest
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ERIC Identifier: ED422600
Publication Date: 1998-02-00
Author: Hadderman, Margaret
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on
Educational Management Eugene OR.
Charter Schools. ERIC Digest, Number 118.
In seven short years, the U.S. charter-school movement has produced about 800
schools in 29 states and the District of Columbia, enrolling over 100,000
students. Charter schools reflect their founders' varied philosophies, programs,
and organizational structures, serve diverse student populations, and are
committed to improving public education.
Charter schools are freed of many restrictive rules and regulations. In
return, these schools are expected to achieve educational outcomes within a
certain period (usually three to five years) or have their charters revoked by
sponsors (a local school board, state education agency, or university).
WHAT EXPLAINS CHARTER SCHOOLS' GROWING POPULARITY?
Some
members of the public are dissatisfied with educational quality and school
district bureaucracies (Jenkins and Dow 1996). Today's charter-school
initiatives are rooted in the educational reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, from
state mandates to improve instruction, to school-based management, school
restructuring, and private/public-choice initiatives.
Many people, President Clinton among them, see charter schools, with their
emphasis on autonomy and accountability, as a workable political compromise and
an alternative to vouchers. The charter approach uses market principles while
insisting that schools be nonsectarian and democratic. For founders, starting a
brand-new school is an exhausting, yet exhilarating experience that "stirs the
creative and adaptive juices of everyone involved" (Ray Budde 1996).
WHICH STATES ARE LEADERS IN THE CHARTER-SCHOOL MOVEMENT?
In
1991, Minnesota adopted charter-school legislation to expand a longstanding
program of public school choice and to stimulate broader system improvements.
Since then, the charter concept has spread to more than half the states.
State laws follow varied sets of key organizing principles based on Ted
Kolderie's recommendations for Minnesota, American Federation of Teachers
guidelines, and/or federal charter-school legislation (U.S. Department of
Education). Principles govern sponsorship, number of schools, regulatory
waivers, degree of fiscal/legal autonomy, and performance expectations.
Current laws have been characterized as either strong or weak. Strong-law
states mandate considerable autonomy from local labor-management agreements,
allow multiple charter-granting agencies, and allocate a level of funding
consistent with the statewide per pupil average. Arizona's 1994 law is the
strongest, with multiple charter-granting agencies, freedom from local labor
contracts, and large numbers of charters permitted.
The vast majority of charter schools (more than 70 percent) are found in
states with the strongest laws: Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, and North Carolina.
WHAT PROGRESS HAVE CHARTER SCHOOLS MADE?
Evidence on the
growth and outcomes of this relatively new movement has started to come in. The
U.S. Department of Education's FIRST YEAR REPORT, part of a four-year national
study on charters, is based on interviews of 225 charter schools in 10 states
(1997). Charters tend to be small (fewer than 200 students) and represent
primarily new schools, though some schools had converted to charter status.
The study found enormous variation among states. Charter schools tended to be
somewhat more racially diverse, and to enroll slightly fewer students with
special needs and limited-English-proficient students than the average schools
in their state. The most common reasons for founding charters were to pursue an
educational vision and gain autonomy.
"Charter schools are havens for children who had bad educational experiences
elsewhere," according to a Hudson Institute survey of students, teachers, and
parents from fifty charters in ten states. More than 60 percent of the parents
said charter schools are better than their children's previous schools in terms
of teaching quality, individual attention from teachers, curriculum, discipline,
parent involvement, and academic standards. Most teachers reported feeling
empowered and professionally fulfilled (Vanourek and others 1997).
Nathan points to three other signs of progress:
1. Charter schools in California, Colorado, and Minnesota have had their
contracts renewed because they produced measurable achievement gains, including
that of students from low-income families.
2. The charter idea has helped stimulate improvement in the broader education
system. For example, the Massachusetts charter law permitting applicants to go
directly to the state board for a charter helped convince Boston to create its
own "Pilot School" program. Minnesota districts, which had refused to create
Montessori public schools, did so after frustrated parents began discussing
charters.
3. Civil-rights and advocacy groups are trying to create charter schools.
This includes civil-rights legend Rosa Parks, and groups like the Urban League
and ACORN (Association for Community Organizations Reform Now) (Nathan, personal
interview).
WHAT ARE SOME PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FACING CHARTER
SCHOOLS?
Nearly all charter schools face implementation obstacles, but newly
created schools are most vulnerable. Most new charters are plagued by resource
limitations, particularly inadequate startup funds.
Although charter advocates recommend the schools control all per-pupil funds,
in reality they rarely receive as much funding as other public schools. They
generally lack access to funding for facilities and special program funds
distributed on a district basis (Bierlein and Bateman 1996). Sometimes private
businesses and foundations, such as the Ameritech Corporation in Michigan and
the Annenburg Fund in California, provide support (Jenkins and Dow). Congress
and the President allocated $80 million to support charter-school activities in
fiscal year 1998, up from $51 million in 1997.
Charters sometimes face opposition from local boards, state education
agencies, and unions. Many educators are concerned that charter schools might
siphon off badly needed funds for regular schools. The American Federation of
Teachers urges that charter schools adopt high standards, hire only certified
teachers, and maintain teachers' collective-bargaining rights. Also, some
charters feel they face unwieldy regulatory barriers.
According to Bierlein and Bateman, the odds are stacked against charter
schools. There may be too few strong-law states to make a significant
difference. Educators who are motivated enough to create and manage charter
schools could easily be burnt out by a process that demands increased
accountability while providing little professional assistance.
WHAT ARE SOME POSSIBLE POLICY/PRACTICE DIRECTIONS FOR
CHARTERS?
As more states join the movement, there is increasing speculation
about upcoming legislation. In an innovation-diffusion study surveying education
policy experts in fifty states, Michael Mintrom and Sandra Vergari (1997) found
that charter legislation is more readily considered in states with a policy
entrepreneur, poor test scores, Republican legislative control, and proximity to
other charter-law states. Legislative enthusiasm, gubernatorial support,
interactions with national authorities, and use of permissive charter-law models
increase the chances for adopting stronger laws. Seeking union support and using
restrictive models presage adoption of weaker laws.
The threat of vouchers, wavering support for public education, and bipartisan
support for charters has led some unions to start charters themselves. Several
AFT chapters, such as those in Houston and Dallas, have themselves started
charters. The National Education Association has allocated $1.5 million to help
members start charter schools. Charters offer teachers a brand of empowerment,
employee ownership, and governance that might be enhanced by union assistance
(Nathan).
Over two dozen private management companies are scrambling to increase their
10 percent share of a "more hospitable and entrepreneurial market" (Stecklow
1997). Boston-based Advantage Schools Inc. has contracted to run charter schools
in New Jersey, Arizona, and North Carolina. The Education Development
Corporation was planning in the summer of 1997 to manage nine nonsectarian
charter schools in Michigan, using cost-effective measures employed in Christian
schools.
Professor Frank Smith, of Columbia University Teachers College, sees the
charter-school movement as a chance to involve entire communities in redesigning
all schools and converting them to "client-centered, learning cultures" (1997).
He favors the Advocacy Center Design process used by state-appointed
Superintendent Laval Wilson to transform four failing New Jersey schools.
Building stronger communities via newly designed institutions may prove more
productive than charters' typical "free-the-teacher-and-parent" approach.
Charter schools might also benefit by adopting research-based schooling
models, such as Accelerated Schools and the Success For All Program, and by
emulating successful programs in charter or "grant-maintained" schools in
England, Canada, and New Zealand.
RESOURCES
American Federation of Teachers. CHARTER SCHOOLS:
DO THEY MEASURE UP? Washington, D.C.: Author, 1996. 68 pages.
Bierlein, Louann, and Mark Bateman. "Charter Schools v. the Status Quo: Which
Will Succeed?" INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM 5, 2 (April 1996):
159-68. EJ 525 971.
Budde, Ray. "The Evolution of the Charter Concept." PHI DELTA KAPPAN 78, 1
(September 1996): 72-73. EJ 530 653.
Jenkins, John, and Jeffrey L. Dow. "A Primer on Charter Schools."
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM, 5, 2 (April 1996): 224-27. EJ 525
978.
Mintrom, Michael, and Sandra Vergari. "Political Factors Shaping Charter
School Laws." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational
Research Association (Chicago, March 24, 1997). 46 pages. ED 407 708.
Nathan, Joe. CHARTER SCHOOLS: CREATING HOPE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR AMERICAN
EDUCATION. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1996. 249 pages. ED 410 657.
Smith, Frank L. "Guidance for the Charter Bound." THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR
54, 7 (August 1997): 18-22. EJ 548 963.
Stecklow, Steve. "Businesses Scramble to Run Charter Schools." THE WALL
STREET JOURNAL 137, 37 (August 21, 1997): B1, B8.
U.S. Department of Education. A STUDY ON CHARTER SCHOOLS: FIRST YEAR REPORT.
Washington, D.C.: Author, 1997. 74 pages. ED 409 620.
Vanourek, Gregg and others. "Charter Schools as Seen by Those Who Know Them
Best: Students, Teachers, and Parents." Washington, D.C.: Hudson Institute,
1997. 12 pages. ED 409 650.
ALSO CONSULT THESE WEBSITES:
Center for Education Reform
http://edreform.com
---
U.S.
Department of Education
http://www.uscharterschools.org
---
Private
Site
http://csr.syr.edu
AOL
Online has an extensive site (keyword is charter)
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