In 2023, charter school advocates continued to make legislative gains in statehouses across the country. These gains were made in red, blue, and purple states, oftentimes in ways that showed bipartisan support for charter schools remains firmly in place. In looking at the results of this year's legislative sessions across the country, four…

Charter schools are public schools established under charters, typically with state or local entities. In return for more flexibility and autonomy, charter schools must meet specific accountability standards. This briefing from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) describes: (1) the challenges charter schools face when attempting to…

2022 turned out to be a dynamic year for charter schools, as many state lawmakers recognized the fact parents want more schooling options that fit their children's unique needs. In total, close to 50% of states with charter school laws gained at least one legislative win. Read for more details on how the charter school movement strengthened in the…

We survey 137 charter school administrators and 129 board members and find that U.S. charter school internal controls are perceived to be relatively strong overall. However, board independence, board communication of internal control responsibilities to school personnel, lines of communication between the board and school personnel, and reporting…

Studies of charter closure rates typically focus on year-to-year closures. While important for researchers, such studies provide little guidance to families seeking to understand the risk of enrolling their child in a charter school. That is because studies determining how many schools close each year provide no information on how long the school…

This brief describes a new method for states to determine how well their charter school facility needs are being met with state policies, both at present and in the future as the number of charter schools increases. The brief also illustrates how this new approach, called a Charter Facility Index, can be used in practice, with three state…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page sheets on a variety of subjects. The topics for this report on English learners in charter schools include: (1) Number of Charter Schools, by State, Including DC: SY 2015-16; (2) Percentage of Charter School Students Who Are ELs, by…

Finding funds to build and renovate facilities is a major hurdle for public charter schools because most state laws do not provide charter schools with the full amount of state and local funding that other public schools receive. Although an increasing number of states are passing laws to address charter school facility funding gaps, inequities…

Charter schools began in the 1990s as an experimental alternative to public schools. Today they are a multi-billion dollar sector composed of both nonprofit and for-profit corporations that embrace the philosophy of the marketplace. Supporters of charters see school failure as a natural feature of the model. They argue that schools do not fail at…

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has been studying the four-day school week since 2015. Since then, the phenomenon of the four-day school week has spread into non-rural areas and interest appears to be growing. Given these apparent changes, the author wanted to know more about recent trends in the initiative. As districts continue…

Improving public education has long been a cornerstone of the Democratic platform. Because progressives understand that access to a quality education is the gateway to a better life, their decades-long struggle to promote equal rights and opportunity for all Americans has been deeply tied to their struggle to create an effective public school…

The "Knowledge Is Power Program" ("KIPP") is a nonprofit network of more than 200 public charter schools educating early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) identified four studies of "KIPP" that fall within the scope of the Charter Schools topic area and meet…

A Toolkit of Emerging Best Practices and Opportunities for Charter Support Organizations Approximately 6.4 million students--roughly 13 percent of the student population between ages 6-21--receive special education and related services in public schools every year. While students identified as eligible for special education require supports and…

During the 2014-15 school year, almost 500 new public charter schools opened. An estimated 348,000 additional students were attending public charter schools in the 2014-15 school year compared with the previous school year. With the addition of new charter schools and students, there are now more than 6,700 public charter schools enrolling about…

Utilizing longitudinal data from the national Schools to Watch (STW) program, this paper examines school demographic characteristics and teacher ratings of the implementation of STW criteria in STW schools and schools that have applied but have not yet been designated as a STW. The STW program was established by the National Forum to Accelerate…