A new policy paper from the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) explores how state education agencies (SEAs) can take advantage of their unique position to foster improved district-charter collaboration.
The authors lament, as did we in a recent report, that district and charter leaders are too often tearing chunks out of one another rather than finding ways to work together. Whether the endgame should be an all-charter system, as in New Orleans, or some kind of side-by-side system, as in Washington, D.C., most cities will have to find a working balance between the two sectors.
The paper makes a series of policy recommendations for how SEAs could facilitate this balance and act on the increased authority granted to them by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). They could, for example, use their unique position to tie financial and accountability incentives to collaboration efforts, provide cover for school districts in places where local politics are toxic, and remove state legal impediments to district-charter collaboration. ESSA also gives states the more flexibility to allot funding, design accountability systems, and adopt other constructive policies (like unified enrollment or facilities sharing) that promote district-charter collaboration.
The authors then point to examples like Florida’s grant program, which leverages state funds to promote partnership between high-performing districts and charter schools; Oregon’s use of federal funds from the Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) to improve the education of disadvantaged students in both sectors; and Louisiana’s adjusted special education-funding formula that better supports students with severe disabilities, regardless of whether they attend a charter or district school.
The paper makes it clear that SEAs could be important (if limited) facilitators of this collaboration and effectively identifies what steps they might take. Yet it also underplays a number of elements that make détente possible, such as strong local leadership in both sectors, the importance of sharing responsibility for things like school performance and special education, and the influence of other stakeholders like foundations, advocacy organizations, unions, parents, and business leaders.
Ultimately, as we found out ourselves, district-charter collaboration remains acutely fragile. But there are also signs that effective cooperation might have significant, positive effect on student learning. Thus, states should pull some of the levers outlined in this paper and embrace their vital role in making sure their district and charter sectors get along.
SOURCE: Alex Medler, “What States Can Do to Promote District-Charter Collaboration,” Center on Reinventing Public Education (June 2016).
