This report highlights the results of a survey of nearly 1,500 parents of charter school students in Michigan. Charter schools are state-funded, tuition-free schools of choice, authorized by public agencies such as universities and community colleges. The survey asks parents questions concerning their satisfaction with charter schools, why they…

In 2007, the U.S. Department of Education commissioned WestEd to develop a guide on using quality authorizing to promote high-quality charter schools. At the time, notions about how authorizers could contribute to the existence of such schools were in their infancy, and the publication, which profiles the oversight practices of eight selected…

Annual "Profiles" reports are comprehensive digests of data on education management organizations. Analysis and interpretation of the data in this report are, for the most part, limited to describing general trends over time. The report is intended for a broad audience. Policymakers, educators, school district officials, and school board…

Communities across the country are grappling with different approaches to improving their schools. Introducing or expanding charter schools is one of the approaches that states and school districts have considered or implemented. Charter schools serve more than 5 percent of public school students nationwide and make up close to 7 percent of all…

Hurricane Katrina set the stage for a transformation of public education in New Orleans, replacing the city's existing school system with a decentralized choice-based system of both charter and district-run schools. Using principal, teacher, and parent surveys administered three years after Katrina, this study examined schools' governance and…

In July of 2007, the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) at Indiana University was contracted to conduct an evaluation of the Indiana charter schools. The evaluation has been designed to ensure that all objectives of the provisions of HEA 1001-2007 are fulfilled. In addition, the framework of the study is based in IC 20-24-2-1,…

This book contains evidence about charter schools that can provide important data on evaluating this new public-private hybrid and its success at serving the core purpose of public education. The book focuses on charter schools in Michigan, which is regarded as having one of the most permissive charter laws in the country. The first three chapters…

The federal government is devoting millions of dollars to charter and voucher programs that currently require parents to abandon regular public schools. The goal of the authors of The School Choice Hoax is to expose the misleading hyperbole that has been driving the school choice movement and to show how charter schools can become more effective…

This report is a general guide for people planning a charter school. In September 1995 the Program on Reinventing Public Education, a collaborative effort of the University of Washington's Institute for Public Policy and Management and the RAND Institute for Education and Training, sponsored a workshop on charter school startup. This report…

This guide is intended to help current and prospective charter school leaders decide whether and how to work with pre-existing "whole school designs." Such school designs range from those that cover one core element of school operations to designs covering almost every aspect of school operations. The guide contains initial information…

To help educators assess charter schools' effects on education, this article summarizes information from two studies: the U.S. Department of Education's ongoing National Study of Charter Schools and the Hudson Institute's 1996-97 Charter Schools in Action Project. Charter schools are growing in number, serving diverse student populations, and…

This sourcebook is a collection of some planning workshop ideas and tools that have been used by organizers of charter school workshops in a number of states. The purpose of the sourcebook is to help organizations assist potential charter school founders in their school planning through the application, chartering, and approval processes. The…

This report suggests that charter schools need to consider six critical questions as they develop a student accountability plan for their school. These questions are: (1) "What is our school's mission?"; (2) "What do we want our students to know and be able to do?"; (3) "How will we know whether our students are achieving or attaining the goals…

This guide may be used by charter school operators in developing a business plan that can be used as a management tool in individual schools and in preparing applications for charters, renewals, and grants and loans. A sound business plan must reflect the school's ideas, assets, and needs clearly and succinctly. Drafting a business plan begins…

This study examines the unionization rates of teachers in traditional government, charter, and private schools to determine how school choice might affect school employee labor unions, including the Michigan Education Association and the Michigan Federation of Teachers. The findings of this study reveal that unions have powerful financial…