Media Round Up

NAPCS in the News

• “Enrollment in Charter Schools Is Increasing,” Nina Rees (President and CEO) quoted in the New York Times, Nov. 14
• “Charter Schools Grow Rapidly, Adding 200,000 Students: Report,” Nina Rees quoted in Huffington Post, Nov. 14
• “Charters' District Enrollment Shares Rising, Report Finds,” Nina Rees quoted in Education Week, Nov. 14
• “New Report Identifies 110 Districts with 10 Percent of Students Enrolled in Public Charter Schools,” Nina Rees statement in PRNewswire press release, Nov. 14

News to Know

• “In Georgia and Washington, a New Future for ‘Local Control’ of Schools," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 16
• “Diverse Charter Schools: the Next Big Idea?” Education Next,  Nov. 15
• “NAPCS Report: Enrollment in Public Charter Schools Rises Nationwide,” Boston Globe, Nov. 14
• “On Election Day, School Choice Victories,” Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13
• “In Georgia, Looking Ahead After Passage of Charter Schools Amendment,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, Nov. 12

Audience Favorites

Facebook—  For the first time, more than 100 school districts have 10 percent of their students enrolled in public charter schools. Is your district on our list of highest percentage, number or growth in students served by public charter schools? Check out our infographic and report: http://www.publiccharters.org/Blog/Default.aspx?id=297

Twitter— @CRPE_UW: @charteralliance report on charter enrollment growth: 25 districts have at least 20% of their students in charters ow.ly/fimVj

You can stay up to date on all the developments in the public charter school sector by subscribing to our regular news updates…Sign up here.

What is a public charter school?

During National Charter Schools Week, we celebrate achievements in the school house and the state house. These achievements could not have been possible without the commitment of teachers, leaders, parents and advocates from all parts of the country. We asked some of these individuals to tell us why they are a part of the charter schools movement.

As executive director of the Public Charter Schools Alliance of South Carolina, Mary Carmichael gets asked all the time about charter schools.  Here’s her answer to the most basic, but most important question: What is a public charter school? 

It is a community where teachers are empowered to foster a lifelong love of discovering and applying new knowledge.

It is a community where families have the opportunity to see their children flourish in a learning environment aligned to their needs.

It is a community where school leaders are educational entrepreneurs allocating resources and developing a faculty of instructional innovators to advance the mission of the school.

It is a community where boards are held accountable for being excellent stewards of public funds and improving students’ academic achievement.

What is a public charter school?
Public charter schools embody our American ideals of independent, innovative thinkers and doers.  They are public schools with the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for improving student achievement.

National Charter School Week is an exciting time to be joining charter school leaders from across the country in Washington, D.C. to celebrate 20 years of innovation in public charter schools and to share knowledge on how to transform public education for all children in all of our communities.

What is a public charter school?
It is a community where we all can make a difference in the life of a child and impact in our collective future.

Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws

Today, we released the third annual edition of Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws.  This report evaluates, scores, and ranks each of the country’s 42 state charter school laws against the 20 essential components from the NAPCS model law.

2011 was a significant year for charter school policy across the country, as evidenced by the shifts in this year’s report.  Here are the major takeaways from the report:

• Sixteen states saw their charter school law scores increase, 22 states’ overall scores remained the same, and four states fell in their overall score. 
• In the 2011 rankings, the average score of all states with a charter school law was 100 (out of a maximum possible 208), and in this year’s rankings the average state score rose to 107, demonstrating that state charter laws are improving. 
• By aligning their recently enacted charter school law with the NAPCS model law, Maine’s law landed at the top spot on this year’s list.  Mississippi’s law remains at the bottom of the list.
• Additionally, as a result of positive policy changes made over the past year, New Mexico made a big jump in the rankings, moving from 20th to fourth; Indiana went from 25th to sixth; and Rhode Island from 37th to 26th.
• Conversely, Georgia fell from seventh to 14th.  In addition, South Carolina fell six spots from 19th to 25th.  And four states dropped five places:  Missouri (13th to 18th), Oklahoma (22nd to 27th), Connecticut (24th to 29th), and New Jersey (26th to 31st).
• The top 10 states with laws best positioned to support the growth of high-quality charter schools are Maine, Minnesota, Florida, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Indiana, Colorado, New York, California and Michigan.

What’s most encouraging about the charter school movement’s legislative efforts is that they’re more frequently marrying growth and quality.  As we’ve long argued at NAPCS, the long- term viability of the charter school movement is primarily dependent on the quality of the charter schools that open.  It’s critical that state lawmakers recognize the importance of charter school quality – and the impact that their laws have on it.  We are glad to see that they are increasingly doing so.

Notwithstanding this progress, much work remains to be done to ensure that charter school laws support the promise of the charter school concept.  From lifting arbitrary caps on growth to providing full autonomy to ensuring accountability for performance to providing equitable funding and facilities support, more states than not have work left on their to-do list with regard to establishing a strong charter school law.