Meeting the Equity Challenge in Public Charter Schools | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SPECIFIC EQUITY CHALLENGES FOR PUBLIC
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| Seven Key Areas | Impact on Public School Districts
Most children are now educated in traditional public schools, which will continue to be the case into the foreseeable future. Charter schools may offer new opportunities to their own students, but the larger picture raises an important equity question: What impact will charter schools have on public school systems? Ideally, advocates envision charter schools as laboratories of innovation, providing districts with successful ideas while offering students unique educational opportunities. In this way, charter schools may ultimately provide the necessary competition and incentive to spur change in the traditional system. |
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Seventy-two percent of charter schools report more applicants than student openings available |
Selection of Students How will students be selected by charter schools? This is one of the most often cited equity issues-the fear that either overtly or subtly, the process of selecting students will work to exclude particular groups of students from entering the schools of their choice. Among the sometimes contradictory concerns expressed are:
Charter school legislation and guidelines at both the state and federal levels have been drafted to ensure equal access to all students and compliance with antidiscrimination laws. Governing boards of charter schools are legally obligated to comply with all federal civil rights laws, and those operated by school districts must act in accordance with any existing U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR) approved or court-ordered desegregation plans. Federal legislation specifies that any school receiving federal funding must be open to all students who apply or admit students via a lottery if applications exceed demand. Many state laws also contain provisions to make sure that charter schools are open to all:
Despite such provisions, the charter school initiative has resulted in some schools that have virtually all-White or all-minority populations. This form of de facto segregation presents a dilemma for those committed both to improving student achievement for ethnic minority students and lower-achievers and to providing desegregated schools. For example, in July 1998, North Carolina's Healthy Start Academy, one of 34 charter schools in the state, faced closure by the State Board of Education because of a state diversity mandate for public schools. The K-2 school has a 98.8 percent Black student enrollment despite its open enrollment policy. Improved test scores and a 98 percent attendance rate have parents and staff pleased and ready to defend their school. A recent study by the nonpartisan research group Public Agenda reports that African American and White parents want schools to put more emphasis on improving academics than on integration (Jones, 1998). This attitude, however, could have a negative effect on equal educational opportunity and the attainment of an integrated society. In the years ahead, short-term progress will have to be weighed against the potentially harmful long-term effects of resegregation. To ensure equal access to all students, charter schools can use strategies that not only satisfy the letter of the law but also strive to make the educational opportunities they provide available to all. The OCR suggests that outreach efforts:
In addition, schools should make sure that they can provide educational opportunities that are attractive to all the students they intend to serve. This might include:
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According to survey results, 68 percent of charter school personnel believe a "central parent role" to be a powerful feature in attracting parents and students to their schools |
Family Involvement A family's involvement in a child's education is one of the most important factors in achieving academic success. Since parents or guardians are often among the founders of charter schools, they are more likely to be involved in their child's school and education than parents at traditional public schools. This was confirmed in a study of California's charter schools (Becker & Corwin, 1995) that found that parents were significantly more likely to volunteer at their children's charter school or to participate in the school's governance than parents at other public schools in the same district. There is, however, a troubling issue regarding equity and family involvement in charter schools. Some charters require parents or guardians to volunteer a certain number of hours at the school or fulfill some other requirement. In the California study, over 50 percent of schools surveyed required parents or guardians to sign contracts promising to participate in specified activities. Such requirements may be particularly detrimental to parents who may differ from mainstream parents in their reactions to family involvement methods used by most schools. For example, some parents or guardians may be unable to participate in the typical involvement schools expect, such as volunteering in classrooms or participating on parent advisory committees or parent teacher associations. Supporting their children by monitoring their attendance and homework or setting high expectations for achievement may be the kind of involvement that some parents are able to provide given their job schedules or family situations. For this reason, family involvement contracts could have the effect of screening out students whose parents are unable to meet their provisions. To avoid screening out families, charter schools need to be sure to:
Increasing family involvement of
underrepresented groups is a pressing concern for both traditional
and charter school staff. General strategies for addressing this
issue are discussed further on page 21. |
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In 25 states and the District of Columbia, a charter can be revoked for one or more of the following reasons:
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Accountability Accountability is a complex issue for public charter schools. In the article "Charter Schools Struggle with Accountability" (Education Week, June 10, 1998), author Lynn Schnaiberg poses several questions that she says charter school operators are asking themselves. Below are the questions and the equity issues they suggest. 1. "How good is good enough? How many of the goals set in its charter must a school meet? Or how close to those goals must it come?" A school's charter is the mechanism by which it is accountable. The educational goals and outcomes defined in a school's charter established by the school's founders most often include state standards in addition to specific performance goals. Together, these embody the school's vision in terms of measurable outcomes. Goals must be specific and rigorous and accompanied by a well-defined assessment plan so that students' progress towards goals can be determined. Ensuring equity in terms of selection, enrollment, curriculum, assessment, instruction, and interactions should also be part of a charter's goals and accountability system. 2. "Should a charter school be judged on its own merits or in comparison with other public schools?" In the long term, if the performance of lower-achieving students in charter schools is not measured against the performance of their counterparts in traditional schools, then there is no way to determine whether these students are being equitably served. 3. "If charter schools exist in part to be innovative and free from traditional approaches, should they be held to traditional ways of measuring achievement?" Those committed to equity have long advocated for alternative assessment in addition to traditional assessment to accommodate the various learning styles of students, especially those from diverse cultural backgrounds. 4. "How much should 'market' accountability, as gauged by parent satisfaction, count in the equation?" Whatever the decision, charter schools must make every reasonable effort to obtain the participation of underrepresented families in any assessment of family satisfaction. This may require translation of materials, interpreters, home visits, or provision of child care and transportation. |
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Approximately 17 percent of all charter schools report union or bargaining unit difficulties as key challenges faced during implementation and operation |
Teacher Certification While charter schools need highly trained, certified teachers, they also need the freedom to employ individuals with specialized expertise to pursue innovative educational programs. Should a NASA scientist or a multicultural artist or a successful businessperson be barred from teaching in a charter school if his or her experience applies to the subject at hand? Many states exempt charter schools from teacher-certification requirements, teacher's collective bargaining agreements, or both. This has proven to be one of the more contentious issues in the charter school debate. Many teacher unions view this aspect of the charter school movement as a threat to their existence and the hard-won gains that their members enjoy. Some perceive equity implications in barring teachers from collective bargaining. They contend that teacher unions have traditionally been a force for equity in society and education and therefore should not be alienated from charter schools. Or, they claim that charter schools should promote equity by example. Denying teachers the right to bargain collectively is seen as conflicting with an individual's right to belong to a union. Others contend that because charter schools are pursuing innovation outside the mainstream-for example, those developing culturally relevant curricula for ethnic or racial minorities-they may have the greatest need to break away from traditional education methods. Employing noncertified teachers is one nontraditional method they may want to examine. Fortunately there are signs that the discord between teacher unions and charter school advocates will be resolved. After opposing charter school legislation and charter schools in some states on the grounds that teachers would be unprotected and tax dollars spent on unproven experiments, in 1996 the National Education Association launched its own charter school initiative. Today, three of the five NEA-sponsored charter schools are operating and being closely watched. NEA guidelines obligate charters to hire certified teachers, provide job conditions equal to regular schools, and provide for a collective bargaining contract if allowed in the states where the charters operate. Some charter school advocates are also suggesting ways to give schools enough flexibility while still honoring teachers' rights:
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Special Education According to Joseph McKinney, writing in Educational Leadership (October 1996): The evidence...nationwide demonstrates that children with disabilities do not have equal access to charter schools. Charter school operators are avoiding potentially high-cost students rather than serving them, and charter school operators are unaware of and unprepared to meet their responsibilities regarding children with disabilities. Charter schools are legally and financially responsible for serving students with disabilities, including, at minimum, assessing each student's needs, developing individualized education programs (IEPs) for eligible students, and ensuring the provision of appropriate services, either through admittance to their schools or alternative placements. Federal civil rights laws mandate that all students with disabilities receive a "free appropriate public education" and prohibit exclusion of students from public schools, traditional and charter schools alike, solely on the basis of disability. The extent of a charter school's responsibility for serving students with disabilities may vary depending on its legal status. Free-standing charter schools are likely to have a greater responsibility in the case of special education than those operating under the jurisdiction of a local district. From a legal standpoint, state educational agencies bear the ultimate responsibility for assuring the appropriate funding of special education services. Whatever the circumstances, however, a blanket refusal to serve students with disabilities is both prohibited by federal civil rights laws and counter to the goal of achieving educational equity. Although there are some charter schools that specifically target students with disabilities, others may be only marginally capable of accommodating the special education needs of their students. Some strategies for schools in the latter situation to consider include:
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| How Charter Schools Are Doing So Far | Current data on the performance of charter schools with respect to equity is still incomplete. The four-year charter school study commissioned by the U. S. Department of Education is now in its third year. Recently released results from the second-year of the study (A National Study of Charter Schools) indicate that there is "no evidence to support the fear that charter schools as a group disproportionately serve White and economically advantaged students." In particular, the study found that charter schools:
The table below provides comparative data between charter schools and public schools on their estimated racial distribution.
What these figures do not show, as mentioned earlier, is that individual charter schools may have a virtually homogeneous student population on the basis of race. This de facto segregation issue will need to be addressed in the years ahead for public charter schools to be in compliance with federal civil rights laws. In their legislation authorizing charter schools, many states cite reaching lower-performing students and/or students with disabilities as one of the possible reasons for creating a charter school. This suggests that enhancing educational equity is one expectation of the charter school movement. Merely duplicating the performance of traditional public schools does not fulfill the promise of charter schools nor advance the agenda for meaningful systemic reform-reform that reaches and improves outcomes for all segments of the student population. While initial results from a variety of sources indicate increased student achievement in particular charter school settings, a full-scale national study has not yet been completed. With accountability for increased
achievement and the flexibility to structure and restructure
schools to meet diverse and changing student needs, charter
schools hold the promise of contributing to the greatest measure
of equitable education-parity of achievement for all groups of
students. **Based on 15 charter states plus Washington, D.C. |
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