Charter Schools: Additional Federal Attention Needed to Help Protect Access for Students with Disabilities - While the number of charter schools is growing rapidly, questions have been raised about whether charter schools are appropriately serving students with disabilities. In this report, the Government Accountability Office examines: (1) How do enrollment levels of students with disabilities in charter schools and traditional public schools compare, and what is known about the factors that may contribute to any differences? (2) How do charter schools reach out to students with disabilities and what special education services do charter schools provide? (3) What role do Education, state educational agencies, and other entities that oversee charter schools play in ensuring students with disabilities have access to charter schools? (United States Government Accountability Office, June 2012)...

Charter Schools in SREB States: Critical Questions and Next Steps for States - This report from SREB examines policy questions surrounding the effectiveness of charter schools, their impact on traditional public schools, appropriate funding policies, and performance accountability. The authors provide recommendations to policymakers for maximizing the potential of charter schools. (SREB, May 2012) ...

Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts - This study examines the effect of non-profit charter-school management organizations (CMOs) on middle school academic achievement and rates of high school graduation and post-secondary enrollment within eight geographically-diverse states. The study reported that, on average, there were no statistically significant effects of attending a CMO-operated school on state assessments in math, reading, science, or social studies among middle school youth or impacts on high school graduation and college enrollment rates. The study reported substantial variation in both the magnitude and level of statistical significance of the impacts across the participating CMOs. (Mathematica Policy Research and University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, 2012)...

Issue Brief: Beyond City Limits: Expanding Public Charter Schools in Rural America - This issue brief explores how public charter schools can meet the educational needs of rural communities. (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, February 2012)...

New Orleans-Style Education Reform: A Guide for Cities: Lessons Learned, 2004-2010 - This report shares the insights and lessons learned in developing a choice-based, predominantly charter system in New Orleans. The report can aid districts struggling to remedy widespread school system failure by providing tools and resources to guide their initial thinking, early work, and longer-term planning. (New Schools for New Orleans, January 2012)...

The State of Charter School Authorizing 2011 (Fourth Annual Report) - NACSA seeks to document and analyze the progression of charter school authorizing practices through its annual authorizer survey. This annual report provides an overview of the policies, practices, and characteristics of the nation’s largest charter school authorizers, as well as a sampling of smaller authorizing entities. It also builds upon the data presented in previous reports on NACSA’s authorizer survey. (National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 2012) ...

A Growing Movement: America's Largest Charter School Communities - This report demonstrates that in areas where families have a choice, a growing number of them are choosing public charter schools over the traditional public schools available to them. Consequently, the public education landscape is shifting in many major cities. Today, a record number of school districts—six—have at least 30 percent of their public school students enrolled in public charter schools. Additionally, 18 school districts have 20 percent or more of their public school students enrolled in charter schools, eleven more than when the report was first printed six years ago. (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, October 2011)...

Chartering Pre-K - This brief argues for the integration of community pre-k programs within charter schools as a way to improve outcomes. The brief also provides ideas on how to address challenges that exist between community-based pre-k providers and charter school authorizers and recommends that states provide more technical assistance to both constituencies. (Sara Mead, National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 2011)...

Charting a New Course to Retirement: How Charter Schools Handle Teacher Pensions - This document examines two questions: (1) When given the option, how many charter schools choose to participate in their regular state (or local) teacher pension plans and how many do not? (2) In the case of charter schools that do not participate in state plans, what--if anything--do they offer instead? (Amanda Olberg and Michael Podgursky, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, June 2011)...

How Do Charter Schools Get the Teachers They Want? - This brief draws upon a recent multi-year field study of charter schools in six cities in three states. It highlights the most promising recruitment and selection practices from these schools. (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, March 2011)...

Taking Charge of Choice: How Charter School Policy Contexts Matter - Report explores the policy context surrounding the development of charter school law in Indiana by conducting in-depth discussions with key stakeholders as well as analyzing documents relating to the period of adoption. The report describes how diverse elements can come together to create a unique policy environment, focusing on issues of public collective action, trust between institutions and investment from entities outside the city government. (National Center on School Choice, January 2011)...

Paying for Scale: Results of a Symposium on CMO Finance - In April 2010, a group of researchers and financial analysts met to decide how to better understand the financing and sustainability of CMOs. The report that came out of the meeting offers this conclusion: While public policy plays an important role in the future of CMOs, they cannot wait for legislative solutions. CMOs need to find new ways to help schools operate more efficiently, save money, innovate with new technologies, and adapt to leaner times. (National Charter School Research Project, January 2011)...

A Growing Movement: America's Largest Charter School Communities - Public charter schools have been part of America's public education system for 18 years and the number of these unique public schools is growing more each year. But what does this growth mean? Annually, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools tries to answer that question by examining the growing student enrollment in public charter schools. This report describes the communities having the highest percentage of public school students enrolled in charter schools. The public education landscape is gradually shifting in many major cities. (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, November 2010)...

Charter Schools and the Teacher Job Search - This research brief explores how prospective elementary school teachers decide whether to apply to a charter school when they begin looking for a job. Among the findings: (1) Few prospective teachers give equal consideration to charter schools and traditional public schools in the job search; (2) Social and institutional contexts influence teacher applicants' familiarity with and openness to working in charter schools; and (3) Teacher applicants who end up working in charter schools earn lower salaries and are less satisfied with their schools. That teachers hesitate to work in charter schools suggests these schools may face difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers beyond what might be expected given the students they serve. (Marisa Cannata, National Center on School Choice, July 2010)...

The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts: Final Report - This evaluation was conducted in 36 charter middle schools in 15 states. The study was limited to charter schools whose students were admissions lotteries. Key findings include: (1) On average, the schools that hold lotteries are neither more nor less successful than traditional public schools in improving student achievement, behavior and school progress; (2) Charter schools serving more low income or low achieving students had statistically significant positive effects on math test scores; and (3) Some operational features of charter middle schools are associated with more positive impacts on achievement. (IES, June 2010)...

Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing - The principles and standards set forth in this report are aimed at ensuring quality in the public charter school sector. The areas the principles and standards address include agency capacity, the application process, performance contracting, ongoing oversight and evaluation, and renewal decisionmaking. (National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 2010)...

Free to Lead: Autonomy in Highly Successful Charter Schools - This issue brief explores autonomy at five excellent charter schools across the county. When interviewed, all five school leaders identified ways autonomy has enhanced their ability, and the ability of their teachers, to achieve high levels of student performance. (Joe Ableidinger and Bryan Hassel, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, April 2010)...

Growing Pains: Scaling Up the Nation's Best Charter Schools - The last decade has seen a tremendous boom in charter schools. Charter management organizations (CMOs) have played an increasingly important role in sate and national efforts to bring reform to the toughest educational environments. But they have expanded more slowly and required more resources than supporters had hoped. Education Sector proposes a series of recommendations. (Education Sector, November 2009)...