Internship at the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence: Can Charter Schools Work?

Danny Miller, Centre College Abstract

I spent this past summer in Lexington, KY working with the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence on research and policy development concerning charter schools. Kentucky is one of only eight states in the US that does not

currently allow charter schools, and I was tasked with investigating whether or not that was hurting students and, if it was, what policies might maximize student performance. In order to accomplish this task, I conducted a

comprehensive survey of the best and most recent research on charter schools and charter school policies, and then cross-compared the results of that survey with existing charter legislation across the country. I used that cross-

comparison to identify key success factors for student success in charter schools, and then I created a model law of best practices for lawmakers to use as sample legislation. This model law was presented to the board members of the

Prichard Committee to serve as a basis for the creation of their official policy regarding charter schools.

ResarchCharter schools are a highly controversial and politicized topic in the field of education policy. As such, it is difficult to find accurate information and statistics around charter schools, since most research done in this area is heavily biased (both for and against) and therefore unreliable. My job over the summer was to sort through this political haze in search of information that would reveal whether or not charter schools would, in fact, benefit Kentucky students. Fortunately, Stanford University has conducted a two-part, thorough survey on charter performance across the country which was free of propaganda and bias. I was able to take the results contained in this survey and cross-compare them to the policies of states across the country, with special attention paid to the states Stanford had identified as successful or unsuccessful, in order to identify a range of best practices that research has shown to correlate with higher student performance in charter schools than in public schools. Some of these practices are listed below:• Certain demographic groups of students were consistently identified as more positively

affected by charter schools than by public schools (see the chart to the right for a thorough breakdown of this phenomenon), so a successful charter system would target charter schools to areas with high concentrations of these groups.

• Stanford’s report showed that, after an initial adjustment period of the first two to three years of operation, charter schools rarely showed improved performance or efficacy. Therefore, a successful charter system would be effective at identifying and quickly closing ineffective schools, as well as only authorizing schools with a strong likelihood of success

• Not surprisingly, even great charter legislation did not guarantee a successful charter system; research showed that full, dedicated implementation of policy was at least as important in the creation of a strong charter system as a well-designed law. Full and equal funding for charter schools, for example, is paramount.

The Importance of Socioeconomic DemographicsNearly all of the reliable research into charter schools is consistent about one thing in particular: the importance of demographics in charter school success. Certain demographics have been consistently shown to do better in charter schools than traditional public schools, while others consistently do worse in charters. The chart to the right is an extremely simplified summary of every demographic group and economic subgroup (although they did not differentiate poverty and non-poverty subgroups for white or Asian students) broken out by Stanford in its report. For the sake of accessibilty, Stanford converted the variations in each group’s performance from largely incomprehensible measures of standard deviations into an estimated number of days of learning, using white students at traditional public schools (the largest single demographic group) as the baseline for comparison. These results served to inform several of the best practices my research identified as well as the model legislation I developed.

What is a Charter School?At least in Kentucky, we don’t really know yet. “The first question that must be answered when determining a charter school position is one of definition: What does the term “charter school” really mean? The National Education Association defines charters as “publicly funded elementary or secondary schools that have been freed from some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools, in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each charter school's charter.” While this definition generally holds true for charters across the country, it is also overly broad. Different states and cities have advocated different types of charter schools, as have various politicians, activists, and education reformers. Although this flexibility has left room for experimentation and innovation to find the best fit for the individual needs of specific states and districts, it has also contributed to a culture of confusion surrounding charters, especially among people with a vested interest in but only a casual acquaintance with charter schools, such as parents of schoolchildren. This confusion has given rise to a variety of competing operational definitions of what comprises a charter school. Depending on who is using the phrase, the term “charter school” may or may not be intended to include elements such as the following: New start-up charter schools, traditional public schools converted to charter schools due to parent choice or underperformance triggers, virtual schools, schools automatically exempt from all state regulations, schools which have systematically identified and obtained waivers from only those specific regulations that prevent the school from implementing its strategy for reform or innovation, schools run by the local school board or district, schools run by an independent corporation, elite schools aimed at the best students, and/or schools intended to serve underprivileged students who have been underserved by their traditional public school. Given such discrepancies, it is no surprise that fundamental misunderstandings of charter schools abound, especially among groups such as parents.”