Charter Schools

Rhode Island Should Empower Mayors to Expand Pre-K Options

Sara Mead — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:15:00 -0400

Last week the Rhode Island legislature passed legislation to allow the creation of "Mayoral Academies," a new type of charter schools that would allow Mayors to recruit high-quality, nationally proven charter school operators to open new charter schools in their cities. Its a great idea that should help foster quality growth in what's currently a relatively weak charter school sector in Rhode Island. Previously, all charter schools in Rhode Island had to be approved by the State Department of Education, and that, combined with a moratorium on new charter schools that is set to expire this month, have kept the number of charter schools small. Evidence from Indianapolis, where the Mayor is authorized to grant school charters, suggests that enabling Mayors to authorize charter schools can produce good results.

Here's an idea that would make it even better, though: Allow the new Mayoral Academies to serve pre-kindergarten students. Currently, Rhode Island is one of only 11 states nationally that don't invest in state pre-k programs. Nationally, Mayors, such as Denver's John Hickenlooper, or former San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, have taken the lead in supporting quality early education when states fall behind. And, as we've previously argued here, charter schools are a natural partner in expanding quality pre-k. Charters have played an important role in expanding quality pre-k options in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and elsewhere. Given all that, it would just be common sense for Rhode Island to allow its mayors to authorize charter schools for pre-kindergarteners. Allowing new Mayoral Academies to enroll pre-k students--and to receive state funds to do so--would be a great first step towards moving the pre-k ball forward in Rhode Island.

Happy National Charter Schools Week!

Sara Mead — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:13:00 -0400

This week, May 4 through May 10, is National Charter Schools Week. Charter schools, charter school authorizers and charter school associations across the country are holding events to raise awareness about charter schooling and celebrate the successes and growth of the nation’s 4,300 charter schools, as well as the 1.2 million students they serve.

We’ve written previously about the often overlooked potential charter schools have to improve early education. Charter schools are independent public schools of choice that are publicly funded, free of charge to students, and accountable to the public, but operated by organizations other than local school districts. Many charter schools are already delivering high-quality early elementary school programs, and are a valuable source of potential capacity as states seek to expand pre-kindergarten programs.

Moreover, charter schooling provides a model for how policymakers can integrate diverse providers into emerging state pre-k and early childhood public education systems. One key question for policymakers seeking to expand early education investments is the extent to which pre-k and other early childhood services should be delivered through public schools, or through the diverse network of “community providers”—childcare centers, community- and faith-based preschools, and private nursery school—that already serve many 3- and 4-year-olds. Charter schools, which are community providers delivering public education in the K-12 sphere, suggest that this division between “public schools” and “community providers” needn’t be so stark. Policymakers can get the best of both worlds—the community connections, diversity, and parent choice of community based providers, as well as the public school system’s academic orientation, teacher quality standards, and stability of state school funding formulas—by building pre-k and early childhood education systems premised on diverse delivery, parent choice, and public accountability.

The charter school and universal pre-k movements are also dealing with similar challenges of managing growth, ensuring quality across diverse providers, developing the supply of human capital, obtaining adequate facilities, and building political support. And they could learn from one another's successes--and struggles--in responding to these challenges.

As both charter schooling and state pre-k continue to expand, the universal pre-k and charter school movements should be natural partners and allies in addressing these shared challenges. One of the first steps in building that partnership would be expanding the number of charter schools delivering high-quality early education programs.

Charter schools across the country are already offering high-quality early education programs. In Los Angelese, Calif., the nationally recognized Accelerated School and Camino Nuevo Charter School offer both high-quality early elementary programs and pre-k programs with funding from Los Angeles' Universal Preschool (LAUP) program. Many Florida and Georgia charter schools offer pre-k with funding from their states' universal pre-kindergarten programs. Here in Washington, D.C., where charter schools receive full per-pupil funding for each 3- and 4-year-old they enroll, dozens of charter schools offer programs for 3- and 4-year-olds. Even in states without significant state pre-k programs, some charter schools are able to offer pre-k programs paid for with a mixture of parent funding, private philanthropy, and federal or state childcare subsidies for low-income students.

Yet, even as many charter schools offer high-quality early education programs, others face barriers--including difficulties obtaining state pre-k funding, inadequate funding to deliver quality pre-k programs, lack of state pre-k funding, overly restrictive zoning and licensure codes--that prevent them from doing so. Going forward, both the charter school and pre-k movements must consider ways to remove these obstacles and grow the supply of charter schools offering high-quality pre-k and early education programs.

The theme of this year’s National Charter School Week is “Growing Excellence”—a theme that reflects the charter school movement’s dual goals of improving educational quality and expanding the number of school choice options available to families. National Charter Schools Week provides an opportunity to think about how charter schooling can support efforts to grow excellence in early education, as well.

Campaign Watch: An Early Ed Agenda John McCain Could Love?

Sara Mead — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:41:00 -0400

We've spent a lot of time over the past two weeks talking about the Democratic presidential candidates' early education agendas, so today we're going to devote some time to the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain. So far, McCain hasn't said much about education issues, and hasn't offered any sort of education policy agenda. That's hardly surprising, as McCain has never been particularly involved on education issues in the Senate, and education issues were not a major issue in the Republican primary campaign. Richard Whitmire reports that McCain's advisors are about to start unrolling a series of education proposals-but predicts they won't include a significant early education component.

There are lots of good reasons for McCain's advisors to incorporate an early education component in the education agenda they're formulating. For starters, it would be counterintuitive, and it would also help cast a more positive light on some of the areas where McCain is weaker.

Further, it's probably easier for Republican politicians to support innovative ideas on early education than on K-12 reform right now. Conventional wisdom within the pundit class holds that teachers unions make it difficult for Democrats to advance compelling school reform ideas. But the politics of school reform are equally fraught for many Republicans. The conservative base loathes NCLB with a passion to rival that of the most strident teacher unionist and strongly opposes any expansion of the feds' role in schooling. Moderate Republicans know that the suburban parents they represent aren't thrilled by NCLB or reforms that might shake up a status quo that works pretty well for them now. And, as the Sol Stern controversy demonstrates, the conservative constituency for education reform is increasingly divided between choice-niks who think vouchers are the only answer, and devotees of curricular reform. In other words, for a politician who's never evinced a particular passion for education issues, the waters can't look too appealing in K-12 reform.

Early education looks much more favorable. Because we have a diverse delivery system in early education, new early education investments can flow to a variety of providers-including private schools, for-profit providers, and faith-based organizations-not just the existing public school system. Economic arguments have convinced leading business conservatives, such as CED president Charles Kolb, to support early education. And Republican governors, such as Bob Riley in Alabama or former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in Arkansas, have been leaders in fighting to expand pre-k funding at the state level.

To be sure, fiscal conservatives, including McCain, are unlikely to embrace large federal universal pre-k programs. But there are plenty of things that McCain-or other candidates-could propose to improve early education without huge new expenditures. Last fall we released 10 low- or no-cost proposals to improve early education in the No Child Left Behind Act. We've thought of a few more early education ideas that might fit in well with a McCain education agenda:

Provide pre-k for children of active duty military personnel: Today, in our all-volunteer, professional military, more than 40 percent of active duty service members have children-and 40 percent of those children are under age five. The military has created an impressive system to provide high-quality childcare for children whose parents serve in the military. But military preschoolers should also have access to high-quality pre-k aligned with early elementary programs-something many currently don't get, or have only sporadically due to high mobility and differing state pre-k eligibility criteria. Both Texas and Kansas have policies that make children from military families eligible for publicly funded pre-k, and Maryland is considering similar legislation. Senator McCain could encourage more states to do the same by offering one-to-one matching grants to states that expand pre-k programs to serve children from military families. This investment would support quality education for military children and complement the military's current investments in childcare, and might cost around $500 million annually.

Support charter schools that provide high-quality pre-k: Charter schools can play a valuable role in delivering high-quality, aligned early education programs in diverse settings. Senator McCain's education advisor, Lisa Graham Keegan, supports charter schools, and his home state of Arizona has the highest percentage of students in charter schools in the country. So it would seem natural for McCain to promote charter schooling as a strategy for improving early education and expanding access to pre-kindergarten. McCain could propose policies to expand the number of early education charter schools by: amending the federal charter schools program to support pre-k charter schools, encouraging states to remove barriers that prevent charter schools from offering pre-k, and requiring the Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services to work together to help charter schools access federal funding streams for child care and early education.

Support parent choice in early education: Senator McCain supports greater parent choice in K-12 education. Parents already have a diverse array of choices in early education-but they often have trouble finding good information to help them make the best choice for their child. A growing number of states are creating online resources that provide parents with lists of childcare providers in their area, as well as access to quality ratings, inspection records, and other information to help them judge the quality of providers. And the privately operated Savvy Source for Parents offers profiles of local pre-k providers to help parents make informed choices. Senator McCain could support parent choice in early education by offering grants to states and private groups to create or improve online resources that help parents access reliable information about the quality of child care and early education providers.

Expand programs for preschoolers, toddlers, and infants with disabilities: In the Senate, McCain has voted on multiple occasions for full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. IDEA provides grants to local school districts to help with the costs of educating school-aged students with disabilities. But it also includes programs to serve infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities. These programs are important, because early intervention is key to helping children with disabilities-especially those with severe disabilities such as autism-meet their full potential. Senator McCain could propose to expand these programs and also to allow states to use up to 15 percent of funding from them to provide preventive services for young children who have not yet been identified with a disability, but are at high risk for one-something IDEA already allows school districts to do with funds they receive for school-age students. We could expand these programs substantially for relatively modest amounts of money, and the investment could ultimately save money by supporting early interventions that reduce the need for more costly services later on.

Create high-quality alternative certification models for pre-k teachers: Whitmire notes that McCain supports Teach for America, which recruits talented recent college graduates to work in high-poverty schools. McCain could support a Teach for America-like initiative to expand the supply of high-quality preschool and early childhood education teachers. As states across the country expand universal pre-k programs and raise quality standards for them, many are facing difficulties in recruiting qualified teachers. Many experienced early educators have valuable skills but lack formal credentials. In order to keep these individuals in the classroom, build their knowledge and skills, and ensure and adequate supply of high-quality early educators, we need new, streamlined models of early educator training that focus on developing the skills and knowledge research has shown affect young children's learning. Supporting the creation and expansion of alternate route programs-such as Teach for America-for pre-k teachers would be a great way for McCain to support states' efforts to improve early education.

These are just a few, relatively low-cost proposals for things that conservative candidates and legislators could support to improve early education. Stay tuned for more coverage of early education in the election as campaign 2008 continues.

Photo of John McCain by flickr user PaisleyPitbull, used under a Creative Commons license.

Charter Schools: An Important Partner Supporting Quality Pre-k

Sara Mead — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:11:00 -0400

A growing number of charter schools across the country are offering high-quality pre-k programs, and charter schools can be a valuable source of pre-k capacity as states expand publicly funded pre-k. But in too many states a variety of policy barriers prevent charter schools from playing a role in state pre-k programs. In a new policy brief on the Democrats for Education Reform website, I argue that it's time to break down these barriers and build partnerships between the charter school and universal pre-k movements to support quality and alignment in early education.

The charter school and universal pre-k movements are two of the most dynamic movements in education today, and they are slowly changing the shape of public education in important ways. The pre-k movement is building new systems of public education at the state and local level to education 3 and 4 year-olds. At the same time, the charter school movement is building a system of new public schools operating independently of existing school district systems--often with an explicit mission to serve disadvantaged and minority students. Both movements are driven substantially by concerns about equity and a desire to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap. And both face similar challenges: growing the supply of high-quality providers, recruiting and developing human capital, obtaining and financing appropriate facilities, overcoming political opposition, ensuring quality across diverse providers.

Yet, even as they pursue complementary goals and face similar challenges, the charter school and universal pre-k movements operate on separate tracks, with little cooperation or exchange of ideas between the two sectors. That's unfortunate, because the two movements could learn a lot from one another's responses to their shared challenges, and could provide valuable support to each other. For instance, charter schools could be a valuable potential source of pre-k capacity to help states expand pre-k programs, and the pre-k movement could learn a lot from the charter school movement's experience with scaling up high-performing providers, or from charter school authorizers' work to ensure quality across diverse providers. At the same time, charter schools could learn a lot from the pre-k movement's advocacy efforts, and policies to incorporate charter schools into state pre-k programs could support growth and quality in the charter movement.

Moreover, both the pre-k movement and the charter school movement benefit from one another's success: Charter schools will be more able to meet their student achievement goals if the students they serve have had the benefit of high-quality pre-k experiences. And the pre-k movement will get better long-term results if charter schools can expand the supply of high-quality elementary schools serving pre-k students. Charter schools that offer pre-k can also provide an aligned PK-3 experience.

So why isn't there a stronger link between the charter school and pre-k movements? Largely because we still operate in silos when it comes to early education and school reform: Early education is in one silo, existing public school systems in another, and charter schools in a third--with very little communication or exchange of ideas between silos. One of our goals here at Early Ed Watch is to help break down those silos and support increased communication between early educators, public school systems, and charter public schools.

But another important reason for the divide between charter schools and pre-k advocates is that policies in many states prevent charter schools from offering state-funded pre-k programs. In New York State, officials have interpreted the state charter school law to exclude charter schools from participating in the state pre-kindergarten program. In other states, pre-k funds flow to school districts, but not to charter schools, so charter schools have access to pre-k funds only if school districts agree to include charters in pre-k funding. Many states provide only part of the cost of pre-k programs, and expect school districts to pay the rest out of local property taxes—but charter schools can’t raise funds from local property taxes, making it difficult for them to participate in these programs.

Many of the same policies that prevent charter schools from participating in state pre-k programs also have quality and other negative consequences for other pre-k providers--so both the charter movement and the pre-k movement have an incentive to address them.

In the new policy brief, I lay out several policy recommendations for state and federal policymakers to eliminate barriers to charter schools offering high-quality pre-k:

Eliminate state policies that bar charter schools from offering pre-k.
Allow charter schools to receive state per-pupil funds to educate 3- and 4-year-olds.
Allow charter schools equitable access to state and federal pre-k funds.
Ensure state pre-k programs provide adequate funding to support quality.
Include pre-k charters in the Federal Charter Schools Program.
Eliminate caps on the numbers of Charter Schools.
Build authorizer capacity in early education.

This recommendations can not only encourage more charter schools to offer high-quality pre-k--they can also help support quality and alignment for other publicly funded pre-k providers. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether state pre-k programs serve children in traditional public schools, community-based providers, or charter schools. What matters is that families have access to an array of good pre-k options across a diverse array of high-quality providers. The charter movement can be an important source of good pre-k providers, as well as offering strategies for states to incorporate diverse providers into their pre-k system in a variety of ways.

A Huge Missed Opportunity in New York State

Sara Mead — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman devoted her Huffington Post column last week to singing the praises of Excellence Charter School, an all-boys school in Brooklyn, New York that seeks to combat the high-dropout rates for African American men by providing a strong academic curriculum in an environment that supports students' social and character development. Excellence, a member of the Uncommon Schools network, currently serves 220 boys in kindergarten through fourth grade. [slideshow]

Wright Edelman is clearly impressed by the school, which she proposes replicating in thousands of urban and rural school districts nationally. She and the organization she runs have also been strong advocates for quality early education, including universal pre-k. But, ironically, the school Wright Edelman praises here is barred by law from providing the kinds of pre-k services CDF has advocated for.

How come? Under the New York state law, charter schools--independent public schools that receive state funds and are accountable to the state, but are operated by non-profit groups rather than school districts--are not allowed to offer pre-kindergarten programs. They cannot receive pre-k funding from the state the way public school districts do, nor can they contract with school districts to offer pre-k programs, the way other non-profit organizations and community-based early childhood providers may. (New York's universal pre-k law, passed in 1997, requires that 10% of pre-k funds be used for community-based providers.) New York doesn't even allow charter schools to offer pre-k with funds they raise themselves from private philanthropy!

This is a huge mistake.

Most obviously, this policy makes it impossible for charter schools to offer children an aligned PK-3 experience. High-quality schools like Excellence can't start working with low-income children to close acheivement gaps until kindergarten, losing a valuable year. Even if students are fortunate enough to attend pre-k elsewhere, the pre-k program is often not aligned with the K-3 programs offered by charter schools or other public schools.

Equally important, this policy deprives New York State of a valuable potential source of high-quality pre-k capacity. Governor Eliot Spitzer has promised to make universal pre-k available to every New York four-year-old by the 2010-2011 school year. Getting there will require a huge increase in pre-k capacity to accommodate the two-thirds of New York 4-year-olds who aren't currently in state funded pre-k. As the state seeks to expand pre-k, it must take advantage of charter schools and other providers than can align pre-k with quality early elementary programs. Many New York Charter Schools--including Excellence, the Achievement First network, or UFT's charter school in Brooklyn--are providing students a high quality elementary school education, and could be a valuable source of high-quality pre-k capacity as New York expands its pre-k investments. Barring these schools from offering pre-k undermines New York's efforts to offer all children high-quality pre-k, and denies children access to a high-quality, aligned PK-3 experience.

Fortunately, this problem is an easy one to fix. New York would need to amend its charter school law to allow charter schools to offer pre-k. The universal pre-k legislation should also allow charter schools, along with school districts, to receive state pre-k funding. These are simple changes with big potential to benefit New York children.