Accountability measures for charter schools

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Education policy in the U.S.

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Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

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Accountability measures for charter schools refer to attempts by educational oversight bodies to regulate charter schools. As charter schools are privately run, they are often free from many of the regulations followed by traditional public schools. As such, there is the possibility for accountability gaps regarding student achievement, operational transparency and fiscal practices. Accountability measures seek to correct or prevent these deficiencies by strengthening weak points of the charter school oversight system. According to a 2009 study conducted by Stanford University's CREDO group, there is a definite need for some form of accountability reform for charter schools: only 17% of students in charter schools seemed to be demonstrating a better education than those in public schools. Given that the charter school program was designed with the hopes of delivering better education, this is a disappointing number for educators. As such, there has been a substantial push in recent years to hold charter schools more accountable for their results.

Charter school accountability

This diagram illustrates the structure of charter school governance for many states.

Accountability in charter schools depends on the basic structure of the charter school governance. The typical structure places charter schools under direct supervision by a board of trustees. The trustees receive their power from an authorizer, who is certified by a given state to appoint these trustees. In some cases, an extra layer of administration is added in the form of "educational management organizations," or "EMOs." These organizations can be for-profit or nonprofit, and, when combined, oversee approximately 29 percent of all charter schools (16 percent are run by for-profit, while 13 percent are run by nonprofit EMOs). The exact responsibilities of each of these bodies differs from state to state.

Some of the accountability issues of charter schools include:

• Financial obscurity, or, where does the state funding given to these schools go?
• How is student achievement measured when curricula differ from that of traditional schooling?
• How much responsibility for charter schools does the state have?
  • How much responsibility does the authorizer have?
  • How much responsibility does the board of trustees have?
• State laws are often unclear about achievement requirements for virtual charter schools.
• State laws are also unclear about the certification and re-certification processes for new or existing charter schools.
• Some EMOs have shoddy records, but continue to run or open new schools without oversight.
• At what point should a charter school close? Who makes that decision?

As described above, the major issues of accountability all involve transparency or organization. Accountability measures seek to make charter schools and their governing bodies more transparent so that abuse or mistakes can be handled accordingly.

See also

• Education Policy in the U.S.
• Charter schools
• StudentsFirst
• Public education in the United States

External links

• National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
• National Association of Charter School Authorizers, "Charter School Performance Accountability"
• Huffington Post
• Research brief on charter schools' authorization and accountability