Sara Mead and Andrew J. Rotherham
Education Sector
September 2007
This report illustrates the maturing outlook of the charter school movement. Over the last five years, the folks at Education Sector (previously at Progressive Policy Institute) examined charter laws and practices in twelve states whose charter-school enrollments represent about 75 percent of the U.S. total. This overview analysis shows where things can go wrong with charter schooling and how to tighten the bolts going ahead. Charter authorizing (a.k.a., "sponsoring") is a key issue. A number of problems seem to plague authorizers: unclear roles and responsibilities, inadequate resources, and limited public oversight. Fortunately, though, states are beginning to demand more from their authorizers; for example, California and Arizona now "prohibit school districts from authorizing charters outside their boundaries" because they have little incentive to ensure quality and are too far away to practice oversight. Charter advocates, too, have increasingly recognized the importance of quality authorizing (see Fordham's own revelations here). The report also examines such issues as funding, caps, data, and burdensome regulations. (Another good recent paper from Ed Sector proposes "Smart Charter School Caps," which means "eliminating any cap for ‘proven' schools that have demonstrated outstanding gains for students," and basing caps on the level of authorizer capacity.) The report closes with solid recommendations. Find it here.
