By Thomas Carroll
Friday, March 4, 2005
Charter Schools Are Working
In the midst of a politically tumultuous month, Governor Pataki took a
principled stand that may cement his advocacy of public charter schools
as perhaps his truest and most lasting legacy.
On March 2,2005,despite substantial pressure, the Pataki-appointed
State University of New York board of trustees, with his blessing,
closed three of the 14 SUNY-approved charter schools that are up for
renewal this year. This was arguably the board's finest moment, a
tribute to the political courage of the governor and the steadfastness
of State University Chairman Tom Egan and trustees Ed Cox and Randy
Daniels.
When the state charter-school law was adopted in December 1998, the
creation of up to 100 new independent public charter schools offered the
potential for great educational innovation and a new model of
educational accountability.
The five-year performance contracts that each charter school enters
into with the state constitute the cornerstone of this new
accountability. These contracts require charter schools to be explicit
about their educational offerings and the specific performance
benchmarks they commit to attain. If they stand and deliver, they are
entitled to another five-year performance contract. If they fail, as
these three schools did, they risk closure.
The potential of closure, virtually nonexistent among district schools,
has the effect of keeping charter-school founders and staffs focused on
results in a serious way. But this potential only has meaning if charter
schools have reason to believe that the state's chartering entities
actually will pull the trigger. This latest round of closures will
remove any lingering doubts.
The charter-school movement in New York, led by Bill Phillips, the
president of the New York Charter Schools Association, has shown sound
judgment in the face of these closures. Rather than taking the state
university to task for closing some of his member schools, Mr. Phillips
has backed the trustees' tough decision, noting that the schools
themselves dug their own holes. Says Mr. Phillips: "We mean it when we
say that if schools don't perform, there will be consequences. It's not
enough to just enroll the neediest kids."
A few early lessons can be drawn from these renewal and non-renewal
decisions by the state's chartering entities. First, most charter
schools are succeeding. In the past two years, 19 charter schools have
come up for renewal by either the State University or the Board of
Regents (16 this year and three last year). Only four have been closed.
Second, all three schools closed this year were very large schools
managed by for-profit educational management organizations, or EMOs. As
one of the individuals who advocated allowing EMOs to manage charter
schools in New York when the law was being drafted, I find these results
especially bracing. Not all EMO-managed schools are doing poorly -
indeed, some are doing very well - but the overrepresentation of
EMO-managed schools among the failing schools is a legitimate concern.
Third, success cannot be rushed. The state clearly made a huge mistake
rushing through the adoption of three charter schools in 1999, following
the law's passage. At that point, neither the State Education Department
nor the State University, the state's two chartering entities, was
adequately staffed to conduct the proper due diligence, nor did any of
these three schools take enough planning time to do it right.
Last year, one of these schools was closed outright after amassing a
record of almost total academic failure and financial ineptitude. One
was extended for a probationary two years, and the third lost the
authority to conduct classes in seventh and eighth grades, where it
posted some of the lowest scores in the state.
In striking contrast, in Round Two, only three of the 14 SUNY-approved
schools were closed. This dramatically reduced failure rate reflects the
much higher standards imposed by the State University after its initial
stumbles in 1999.
Fourth, the smaller, community-based nonprofit charter schools - the
bulk of New York's charter-school movement - have had a respectable
track record.
Within this group, there is much diversity. Some do better than others,
with Bronx Prep and KIPP perhaps the best in the state. The culture of
innovation surrounding charter schools means these autonomous schools
make a wide variety of academic and staffing decisions. And, not
surprisingly, this variety of choices produces a variety of outcomes.
Overall, most small charter schools are posting larger academic gains
than their comparable local district schools.
Over time, we will learn even more because of the innovation that was
allowed to flourish outside of stifling bureaucratic district
structures. This knowledge of best practices will help charter schools
improve further and hopefully help districts rethink some of their
practices as well.
Although the decision this month by the State University to close the
three failing charter schools was welcome, it is not without disruption.
Thousands of children now have to choose new schools, and the local
district schools - the primary alternative options - are not an enviable
lot.
In the future, the state chartering entities should do a better job of
anticipating failure and signaling to community groups that they are
looking for additional charter school applications in areas where other
schools likely are closing. Ideally, when one school closes, several
more should be opening, welcoming the disrupted students. To make this
proactive approach possible, the state cap on the overall number of
charter schools should be lifted.
In sum, although the decision to close three large charter schools will
cause some short-term disruptions, the Pataki-appointed State University
trustees made the right decision. These closures - all deserved - send a
strong message that charter schools will be held accountable, and
hopefully will serve as an inspiration for the much larger universe of
failing district schools (numbering in the hundreds) to get equally
serious about results. The children of the state deserve no less.
