RAND Education
2003
This report seeks to provide a comprehensive review of charters in California. It examines who attends charters, how well their students do, and how charter schools differ from conventional public schools. It also discusses integration, special ed, student access, and the authorizing process, while providing a number of recommendations for improvement. Prepared by RAND for the California Legislative Analyst's Office, as required by California's charter school law, the report is informative if a bit dry. Of greatest value is its analysis comparing the academic gains in charters to those in public schools. In some cases, the authors were able to make use of student-level testing data; in other instances, they relied on aggregate data (in the form of the Academic Performance Index, or API). However, they did control for pupil characteristics and they found little overall difference between charters and conventional public schools - this despite the many ways in which charters get less by way of resources than do conventional public schools. They also compare the racial compositions of charters and non-charters, finding only small disparities. The report provides detailed information on many aspects of California charters - such as teacher and principal experience - and also offers some recommendations that all states should heed. Most notable is its call for more coordinated testing and tracking efforts, so that student-level data can be used to evaluate the performance of all schools. To find a summary of this lengthy yet accessible report, visit http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1700/MR1700.sum.pdf. For the full report, surf to http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1700/.
