Schools Without Diversity: Education Management Organizations, Charter Schools, and the Demographic Stratification of the American School System

This report, which is a comprehensive examination of enrollment patterns in charter schools operated by Education Management organizations (EMOs), finds that charter schools run by EMOs are segregated by race, family income, disabilities and English language learner status as compared with their local public schools districts

Teacher Attrition in Charter Schools

This study focuses on the reasons why teachers are leaving charter schools. It is based on analyses of data collected in surveys of charter school employees from around the country from 1997-2006. 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- approximately double the traditional public school rate of 11 percent. Moreover, attrition among new teachers in charter schools is close to 40 percent annually. The authors contend that high attrition, "consumes resources of schools, impedes schools' efforts to build professional learning communities and positive, stable school cultures," and recommend that supporters of charters schools focus efforts on reducing teacher attrition

Equal or Fair? A Study of Revenues and Expenditures in American Charter Schools

A new study finds that charter schools typically get less funding than traditional public schools. And it also reveals that the primary reason charters tend to get less funding is because traditional public schools must offer far more special education, transportation and student support services. Spending on those programs and services -- often not available in charter schools -- accounts for much or all of the difference in funding each receives. This finding is one of several that Professor Gary Miron and his co-author Jessica Urschel make in Equal or Fair? A Study of Revenues and Expenditures in American Charter Schools, released today by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. The study comes amid a growing debate over the question of whether charter schools are inadequately funded compared with traditional public schools. In recent years, numerous charter school advocates have cited the purported funding gap to help explain charter schools' achievement results compared with traditional public schools. Miron and Urshel point out that, compared with traditional public schools, charter schools spend proportionally more on administration -- in the percentage of overall spending that goes to administrative costs, as well as in the salaries they pay administrative personnel. Overall, however, charter schools spend less than traditional public schools: less on instruction, less on student support services and less on teacher salaries and benefits. Equal or Fair? is the most comprehensive study to date on the question. It uses data from the U.S. Department of Education on revenue sources and spending patterns of charter schools and traditional public schools and districts across the nation. It also examines patterns across nine different comparison groups, ranging from traditional public schools to various sub-groups of charter schools. "On first appearance, charter schools receive less revenue per pupil ($9,883) than traditional public schools ($12,863)," Miron and Urschel find. Yet, they add, this direct comparison "may be misleading." States vary considerably in the way they channel funds to charter schools. Moreover, public schools provide -- and receive funds for -- certain services that most charter schools do not provide (or spend far less on) including special education, student support services and transportation and food services. This largely explains the differences in revenues and expenditures for charters compared with traditional schools. "When charter schools and traditional public schools have similar programs and services and when they serve similar students, funding levels should be equal in order to be considered fair," they write. "However, as long as traditional public schools are delivering more programs, serving wider ranges of grades, and enrolling a higher proportion of students with special needs, they will require relatively higher levels of financial support. Under these circumstances, differences or inequality in funding can be seen as reasonable and fair.

Evaluating the Impact of Charter Schools on Student Achievement: A Longitudinal Look at the Great Lakes States

This study looks at student achievement in math and reading in charter and traditional public schools over a five-year period in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The primary finding is that student achievement in charter schools in these six states is lower than in traditional public schools. The study also finds, however, that student achievement in charter schools is improving over time

NEPC Review: The Policy Framework for Online Charter Schools

Relative to earlier research, this study from the Center on Reinventing Public Education provides a more in-depth analysis of policy features across the 27 states that allow online charter schools. It presents a well-organized description of policy features and includes a set of policy recommendations that generally, but not always, follow well from the study&rsquo;s evidence. Because the findings are largely negative, this report may be seized on by groups that are broadly critical of charter schools. But the report is published by an organization that often advocates for charter school growth, and the authors&rsquo; discussion of findings suggests that the charter school establishment is advocating for separating online charter schools from brick-and-mortar charter schools and governing them with a separate policy framework. While there is some justification for such an approach, online charter issues are not completely distinct from issues that arise from other charters. Overall, the detailed analyses of policy environments and the summary of problems in the online charter school sector included in this report should be useful to policymakers who are willing and able to pursue more restrictive oversight and increase accountability for online charter schools.</p

NEPC Review: Playing to Type? Mapping the Charter School Landscape

This report developed a unique typology to compare charter schools types by their enrollment, demographic background of students, and performance.</p

NEPC Review: Charter Schools: A Report on Rethinking the Federal Role in Education

The report summarizes evidence from five studies of student achievement in oversubscribed charter schools and two studies on charter school revenues and outlines a number of recommendations relevant to the federal role in charter schools. While many recommendations are reasonable, those related to charter school facilities and charter school finance are more likely to be disputed because they are poorly developed and based on a narrow and misleading view of the evidence. This review discusses and expands upon the evidence and recommendations presented in the report. The intent of the report is to guide federal policy in ways that can improve and expand charter schools, but weaknesses in the report and flaws in the conclusions and the process used to generate the report undermine its utility. The report can serve as an initial step in outlining some of the key issues that federal lawmakers should consider. Nevertheless, federal policies that will strengthen charter schools in the longer run&mdash;rather than expanding the number of charter schools in the short run&mdash;need to be based on a more accurate and representative body of evidence. Further, the process of formulating recommendations requires more than six voices and more than a day of conversations to develop a comprehensive understanding of vital issues as well as to build a consensus.</p

NEPC Review: Public Charter Schools: A Great Value for Ohio's Public Education System

This Buckeye Institute policy brief sets out to document problems and inequities in charter school finance in Ohio, but it falls short in providing a comprehensive presentation of evidence. It ignores relevant research literature and extensive findings from the official state evaluation. It incorrectly assumes that charter schools serve the same types of students and provide the same range of services, and it does so based on only partial revenues. Perhaps most troubling, the report&rsquo;s primary findings&mdash;-that districts gain revenue for each student who attends a charter school and that there would be a net loss of revenues for districts if charter schools were closed&mdash;-are based on an ungrounded and misleading interpretation of Ohio&rsquo;s mechanism for funding schools. To illustrate these problems, this review presents a comprehensive description of particular cost advantages and disadvantages that charter schools face. Such comprehensiveness is important for seeing through one-sided arguments from opponents or advocates that may not take into consideration the whole range of factors that affect the equitable distribution of revenues.</p

Virtual Schools Report 2016: Directory and Performance Review

The fourth edition of the National Education Policy Center’s annual report on online and blended learning schools provides a detailed overview and inventory of full-time virtual schools and blended learning schools, also called hybrid schools. Little rigorous research has examined their inner workings, but evidence indicates that students differ from those in traditional public schools, and that school outcomes are consistently below traditional public schools. Nevertheless, enrollment growth has continued, assisted by vigorous advertising campaigns, corporate lobbying, and favorable legislation. This report includes student demographics, state-specific school performance ratings, and a comparison of virtual school outcomes with state norms, and provides suggestions for policymakers going forward

Profiles of Nonprofit Education Management Organizations: 2007-2008

Profiles of Nonprofit Education Management Organizations: 2007-2008 is the first annual Profiles report to examine nonprofit education management organizations (EMOs). This report is modeled after the 10 annual Profiles of For-Profit Education Management Organizations that cover for-profit EMOs. While the number of for-profit EMOs has grown rapidly in the 1990s and is now leveling off, the number of nonprofit EMOs has been growing more steadily over time. This Profiles report documents the number of nonprofit firms managing publicly funded schools, identifies the schools they manage, and records the number of students those schools enroll.</p