Analysis of the Washington State Public Charter School Ballot Measure

Media Round Up

NAPCS in the News

• “Charter school group calls for tougher laws,” Nina Rees (President and CEO) quoted in USA Today, Nov. 28

News to Know

• “Michigan Bill Would Require Districts to Offer Vacant Buildings to Charters,” Livingston Daily, Nov. 30
• “A New Campaign for Public Charter School Accountability,” Education Week, Nov. 29
• “Study: New Jersey Charter Students Outperform District Peers,” Education Week, Nov. 28
• “Public Charter Schools Among Race to the Top Finalists,” Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27
• “Charter Advocates Lobby to Restore Tax Credit for Facilities,” Education Week, Nov. 26

Audience Favorites

Facebook— Congrats to Christian Sanchez, a 16-year-old Capital City Public Charter School student, who received the 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama. Learn more about Christian's award here: http://www.galatheatre.org/galita.php?cmd=loadEvent&id=124

Twitter— RT @benbwieder: Nina Rees of @charteralliance says 150 charter schools closed last year, evidence of good charter accountability #EIA12

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.

Creating High-Performing Charters to Transform Lives

Today, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) made an important statement: it’s time to focus on quality.

In its new campaign, NACSA will support authorizers as they close failing charter schools and open twice as many excellent ones. The goal is to provide an additional 1 million students an education in high-quality public charter schools.

To accomplish the goal, NACSA will urge states to improve charter school laws so that they:

1. 1.) Set clear expectations for the performance of public charter schools;
2. 2.) Hold authorizers accountable for the schools they oversee; and
3. 3.) Create statewide authorizers, which are more likely to promote quality growth.

Several hundred public charter schools will need to close under this renewed focus on quality, but NACSA says that the changes are necessary to ensure the charter sector will grow successfully in the long term.

“The charter school idea is predicated on the notion that in exchange for autonomy and freedom from bureaucratic rules, schools would face closure if they fail to meet their academic goals,” said Nina S. Rees, the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “I fully support that and support the efforts of authorizers to get it right, whatever the numbers may be. I also support NACSA's efforts to promote growth and quality at the same time and to push policies that will help ensure that every charter public school is a high-quality school.”

Click here for more about the 1 million lives campaign – or follow #1millionlives on Twitter. You can find additional media coverage of the 1 million lives campaign at the Huffington Post, Education Week, and Atlanta Journal Constitution.


Image via NACSA website

Ten Percent of Race to the Top District Finalists are Charter Local Education Agencies

A Growing Movement: America’s Largest Charter School Communities (7th Edition)

Today we released the seventh edition of our annual market share report, A Growing Movement: America’s Largest School Communities. This year marks unprecedented nationwide growth for public charter schools. For the first time ever, 110 school districts have 10 percent of their students enrolled in public charter schools in the 2011-2012 academic year (96 in 2010-2011). A record 25 school districts have more than 20 percent of students enrolled in charter schools, and seven school districts enroll at least 30 percent of public school students in charter schools. Back in 2006, when we first released the report, there were six school districts with more than 20 percent and only one district with more than 30 percent of students enrolled in charter schools.

There wasn’t any movement in the top spots for market share and total charter enrollment: New Orleans remains number one with 76 percent of students enrolled in charter schools and Los Angeles keeps the top spot with nearly 100,000 students attending charter schools. Clark County rocketed to the top of the list of high growth with 64 percent more students attending charter schools in 2011-2012 than in the previous academic year.

The map below presents data from the three lists of school districts with the highest charter school market share, enrollment, and growth. The geographic display of the data shows that school districts with high concentrations of students enrolled in charter schools are more likely to be located in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the country (the green bubbles). In contrast, a large portion of the districts with high growth in the number of charter school students are located in the South and West regions (the orange bubbles). School districts with large numbers of students enrolled in charter schools are spread out across the nation (the blue bubbles).

Enrollment in charter schools is on the rise because they are demonstrating that success is possible even in neighborhoods where some schools have been failing for generations.


Click here for a higher resolution version of the map below.

Conference Focuses on Charter and District Public School Collaboration

“Collaboration and partnerships can be powerful multipliers of innovations.”

Last week, NAPCS was proud to co-host the second National Best Cooperative Practices between Charter & Traditional Public Schools Conference (NBCP Conference) in Denver, Colorado. One of the foundational principles of the public charter school model is that charter schools use their autonomy to serve as laboratories of innovation; road testing promising practices that would then be shared with the traditional schools for maximum impact. The NBCP Conference was designed to showcase examples of cooperative practices that serve as models for replications and spark ideas for how all sectors of public education can work together.

Schools from throughout the country shared their practices during breakout sessions on topics including: curriculum and instruction; performance and accountability; college and career readiness; facilities; operations; and services. The general and breakout sessions demonstrated:

• Examples of cooperation on a small scale
• How charters can help fill gaps to address needs in the local public education space
• Where there is strong district leadership supporting charters, there are more opportunities
• Where charters are considered equal partners in educating kids, cooperation and collaboration happen naturally

Image: Keynote speaker Don Shalvey

A panel discussion on barriers to charter and traditional public school collaboration identified the following ground rules for cooperative work:

• This work is inherently political
• Build relationships to build trust
• Educate past the myths about charter and district interests
• Focus on mutual wins

 
Image: “Anticipating and Overcoming Obstacles to Collaboration” Panel Discussion

While nobody at the conference claimed this work is easy, there was consistent testimony by both charter leaders and school district representatives that the effort to work with traditional schools broadened their impact. Further, in several instances, cooperation with district schools was an explicit part of the charter school’s mission. This seemed particularly true for successful standalone charters that wanted to magnify their impact without replicating their school. Please visit the NBCP Conference webpage to learn more about public schools working together.

Media Round Up

NAPCS in the News

• “Education Ballot Initiative Results Show Mixed Returns On School Reform,” Nina Rees (President and CEO) quoted in the Huffington Post, Nov. 7
• “NAPCS President & CEO Nina Rees on the 2012 Election,” Nina Rees statement printed in the Sacramento Bee, Nov. 7
• “Sick of the Presidential Race? Here Are 2 Education Ballot Measures to Watch,” Nina Rees (President and CEO) quoted in The Atlantic, Nov. 5
• “NAPCS CEO Interviews Khan Academy Founder,” Nina Rees (President and CEO) interview on C-SPAN2, Nov. 5

News to Know

• “D.C. Charters’ Graduation Rate Continues to Be Well Above District’s” Washington Post, Nov. 9
• “Results Still Unclear For Washington State Charter Initiative,” Seattle Times, Nov. 8
• “Georgia Voters Approve Charter School Amendment,” Marietta Daily Journal and Anderson Independent Mail, Nov. 7
• “All Eyes on Georgia, Washington as Voters Consider Charter School Initiatives,” CNN, Nov. 6
• “Charters Called ‘Pioneers’ in Reform,” Albuquerque Journal, Nov. 5

Audience Favorites

Facebook—Charters Win Big in Election: In Georgia, voters sent a clear message that they want public school options that are unique partnerships between teachers, parents, and students and that respond to the specific needs of their communities.

Twitter— @charteralliance Charters on the Ballot: The public charter school movement will be a winner either way in today’s Presidential election

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.

Charters on the Ballot

The public charter school movement will be a winner either way in today’s Presidential election.

Both President Obama and Governor Romney are long-time supporters of the innovative public schools that give parents options that traditional public schools do not.

But they’re not the only ones on the ballot who are supporters of public charters.

In North Carolina, gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory promises to “address the thousands of families on waiting lists for charter schools in addition to the dozens of charter schools waiting to open.”

And Rob McKenna, a candidate for governor in Washington state, supports “highly innovative public charter schools” and would draw from models that have been successful elsewhere.

In Delaware, incumbent Jack Markell signed a bill last year to improve accountability for charter schools.

And Missouri’s incumbent Jay Nixon supported a bill to strengthen accountability for charter schools and their authorizers.

And voters and Georgia and Washington state will have the chance to have their voices heard about the future of charters in their states.

In Washington, voters will have the chance to make the state the 42nd to have a charter school law – one that would create up to 40 schools in the next five years. In Georgia, voters have the chance to re-instate a state board to hear appeals from charter applicants that have been rejected by their local school board. (See more here and here.)

In Georgia, voters have the chance to amend the state’s constitution.

For more education news in the election, see Education Week’s voter guide and Whiteboard Adviser’s gubernatorial and legislative summaries.

President Obama and Governor Romney Agree: Expand Public Charter Schools

• Dayton Daily News, Oct. 31
• The Guardian, Oct. 26
• Princeton Union-Eagle, Oct. 25
• The Associated Press, Oct. 23
• The North Jersey Record, Oct. 22
• USA Today, Oct. 17
• Huffington Post, Oct. 15

Media Round Up

NAPCS in the News

• “Duncan Needs Four More Years,” Nina Rees (President and CEO) response on the National Journal Education Experts Blog, Oct. 29

News to Know

• “Controversy Over Charter Schools Lands on State Ballots,” The Nation, Nov. 2
• “Obama, Romney both support charter schools,” Dayton Daily News, Nov. 1
• “Practical Hurdles at Play in Pa. Charter-Law Stumble,” Education Week, Oct. 31
• “Georgia get's A's for monitoring charter schools,” WSB Radio, Oct. 30
• “Well-heeled S.A. effort aims for more charter schools — lots more,” San Antonio Express-News, Oct. 29

Audience Favorites

Facebook—  It's a scary reality that one out of every four kids trick or treating this Halloween won't graduate high school in four years. As independent public schools that are designed to boost student achievement, public charter schools are working to address this pressing issue.

Twitter— @Ninacharters explains the importance of parent trigger laws on @usnews

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.