FLORIDA – Charter schools across the county will celebrate National Charter Schools Week (May 8-14, 2022) by highlighting successes and honoring the changemakers who made a positive impact on the movement that has in just 30 years grown to nearly 7,700 public charter schools and campuses across the nation and more than 680 here in Florida.
National Charter Schools week exists to celebrate charter schools, the high-quality and tuition-free public schools that nearly 3.6 million students across America and more than 341,000 around Florida depend on for an excellent education. In recognition of our movement’s history and future, this year’s theme is National Charter Schools Week 2022: Charter Schools Rising.
“As we celebrate the tremendous success of the charter school movement in the Sunshine State, we are reflecting on the contribution that charter schools have made to Florida’s system of K12 public education, and also highlighting the stakeholders, alumni, and students that will lead us into the next 30 years,” Lynn Norman-Teck, Executive Director of the Florida Charter School Alliance (FCSA) and charter school parent.
Throughout National Charter Schools Week, FCSA and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools will be celebrating in several ways. FCSA will release a series of videos on social media – @FloridaCharterSchools – that tell the charter school story from the point of view of teachers, administrators, students, and alumni.
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is hosting virtual events including Charter School Changemakers – 10 individuals and their associated schools are making a difference in their communities and bringing innovation and creativity to solve problems; Champions for Charter Schools – recognizing those who are fighting every day for charter school leaders, families, and communities on a state and federal level are honored. regulations on the Charter Schools Program (CSP) will stifle growth and opportunity for kids across America, #CharterLove Spirit Day to wrap up the week.
For more than 25 years, charter schools have provided families with a quality education option, helped raise student achievement and graduation rates, and helped minority students outperform district students on state and national tests. Charter schools continue to innovate to ensure that their programs meet the needs and talents of the communities they serve. A testament to their success is the growing demand from parents for quality charter school options and increased enrollment during the pandemic. For more facts about Florida’s public charter schools, click here.
| In honor of National Charter Schools Week, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute rounded up some of our most recent charter school research and commentary: |
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Still Rising: Charter School Enrollment and Student Achievement at the Metropolitan Level (January 2022) In the wake of the biggest education crisis in living memory, the need for transformational change is palpable and urgent. Accordingly, Still Rising: Charter School Enrollment and Student Achievement at the Metropolitan Level asks: Can a rising tide of charter schools carry students in America’s largest metro areas—including those in traditional public schools—before it? And if so, how far? To address these questions, Fordham’s associate director of research David Griffith analyzed a decade of data on reading and math achievement at the metropolitan level, as well as nearly two decades of data on charter and traditional public school enrollment. He finds:
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Robbers or Victims? Charter Schools and District Finances (February 2021) For years, foes of school choice have claimed that charter schools “drain the coffers” of traditional school districts. Yet in a recent study, Robbers or Victims? Charter Schools and District Finances, we found that this assertion is largely unfounded. Analyst Mark Weber examined the impacts of charter school growth on district finances. Using enrollment and fiscal data reported by traditional school districts between 2001 and 2018, he assessed the relationship between the local market share of independent charter schools—those not authorized by traditional school districts—and the finances of their “host” school districts in twenty-one states. In most states, results show that total revenues per pupil increased as the percentage of local students who enrolled in charter schools rose. The Power of Expectations in District and Charter Schools (to be published in Summer 2022) Decades of research show that high quality educators and strong school leadership are essential to improving students’ educational outcomes. Research also shows that numerous factors can contribute to effective teaching, such as the caliber of teacher preparation programs, the quality of one’s teacher peers and supervising mentors, and the size of teaching bonuses, to name a few. Another, more scalable factor that may contribute to quality teaching lies in teachers’ expectations for their students. Likewise, a common theme across successful charter schools is their emphasis on high expectations for all of their pupils. Yet few studies have attempted to connect these two literatures. This study, to be authored by American University’s Seth Gershenson, will break new ground by examining how expectations of students vary by school sector, comparing the expectations of teachers, parents, and students in charter and traditional public schools. It will also dig into whether and how possible “expectation gaps” may correlate with longer-term student outcomes (such as college enrollment, completion, earnings, and receipt of social assistance) in one sector or the other. How do For-Profit and Non-Profit Charter Schools Differ in their Effectiveness and Operations? (to be published in Fall 2022) The fractured state of national politics has exacerbated the growing animus toward the charter sector—and in particular, toward charter schools managed by for-profit entities. In recent years, some states have banned or considered banning the management of charter schools by for-profit companies, and President Biden, with the encouragement of House Democrats, has issued regulations that would almost certainly deny startup funding to “for-profit charter schools.” Yet what constitutes a for-profit charter school—and what constitutes “management”—is not always clear, as most charters (like most traditional school districts) contract some services from outside vendors, most of which are for-profit companies. Moreover, we know precious little about how the status of a charter school as a for-profit or nonprofit organization is related to its effectiveness. This upcoming study, to be authored by Ohio State University’s Stéphane Lavertu, will use data from Ohio to clarify the definition of “for-profit” charter schools, explore how spending, processes, and services differ across schools with for-profit and nonprofit status, and estimate the extent to which that status corresponds to student educational outcomes. |
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