Opportunities in Charter Schools

By: Eric Marshall

School Choice: Resources for Educators Considering Careers in Charter Schools

In the recent films, The Lottery and Waiting for “Superman,” charter schools have been portrayed as the best choice for success for students in failing school districts. But are charters the right choice for new educators joining the teaching profession?

Charter schools vary greatly in structure and quality, so the decision to seek employment in one should be based on the individual school not on charter schools as a whole. That being said, here is some general information about charters that may be of use. The resources featured in this piece come from across the Web and attempts to present an unbiased picture of charter school employment.

What are charter schools? How common are they?

On its website, the U.S. Department of Education defines charter schools thusly:

[A charter school is] a publicly funded school that is typically governed by a group or organization under a legislative contract or charter with the state; the charter exempts the school from selected state or local rules and regulations. In return for funding and autonomy, the charter school must meet the accountability standards articulated in its charter. A school’s charter is reviewed periodically (typically every 3 to 5 years) and can be revoked if guidelines on curriculum and management are not followed or the standards are not met.

The same site says that as of 2007-08, there are charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia, serving 1.3 million students. The majority of charter schools (55 percent) are in cities, while 22 percent are in suburban areas, 8 percent in towns, and 15 percent in rural areas.

What is it like to teach in a charter school?

The All Education Schools website offers the following description of the charter school teaching experience: “Compared to other public schools, [charters] are more likely to be located in urban areas, typically have smaller classes, and are less likely to be unionized. Many new charter schools have a ‘start-up’ feel.”

In addition, each state has its own standards governing charter school creation and development. These differing standards matter according to the Center for Education Reform (CER), an advocacy group for school choice. CER grades each state on the following 55 point scale:

• Multiple Authorizers (15 points): Does the state permit entities other than traditional school boards to create and manage charter schools independently, and does the existence of such a provision actually lead to the active practice of independent authorizing?

• Number of Schools Allowed (10 points): How many charter schools are allowed to open, whether annually, in total throughout the state, or on a local level?

• Operations (15 points): How much independence from existing state and district operational rules and procedures is codified in law and results in that practice as intended?

• Equity (15 points): Fiscal equity requires that the amount of money allotted for each charter school student is the same and that the monies charter schools receive come from the same funding streams as all other public schools.

In CER’s 2011 report, California, Minnesota, and Washington D.C. all earned A’s in the ranking system, while Kansas, Virginia, Iowa, and Mississippi earned F’s. The CER rankings do not necessarily correlate with the actual quality of charter schools in a state; but low rankings in categories like “operations” and “equity” for example, could negatively impact the amount of innovation a charter can introduce, or the budget at its disposal.

How do charter schools compare to traditional public schools?

Effectiveness

A 2009 study conducted by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States, found that “a decent fraction of charter schools, 17 percent, provide superior education opportunities for their students. Nearly half of the charter schools nationwide have results that are no different from the local public school options and over a third, 37 percent, deliver learning results that are significantly worse than that their student would have received  had they remained in traditional public schools.”

However a study from RAND, Charter Schools in Eight States: Effects on Achievement, Attainment, Integration, and Competition, found that students at charter schools attend and graduate college at a higher rate than students at traditional public schools (TPS). “Among students who attended a charter middle school, those who went on to attend a charter high school were 7 to 15 percentage points more likely to graduate than students who transitioned to a traditional public high school. Similarly, those attending a charter high school were 8 to 10 percentage points more likely to enroll in college than were their TPS counterparts.”

Salary

Salaries at charters vary: Some match those found at traditional public schools in the district, while others are higher or lower based upon their charter. A report from the Center for American Progress, Teacher Compensation in Charter and Private Schools: Snapshots and Lessons for District Public Schools, found that charters have greater flexibility, as a result:

• Strict salary schedules play a much smaller role in charter and private schools in determining teachers’ base pay. Many charter and private schools do not use a schedule at all, and even those that do tend to use it as a starting point rather than the sole determinant of teachers’ pay.
• Charter and private schools are more likely than district schools to tie some portion of teachers’ pay to performance, and a significant number also use higher pay to fill hard-to-staff positions.
• Charter and private schools also make much greater use of non-financial rewards than district schools to draw and keep the best teachers.

Teacher Turnover

The National Center for School Choice studied the differences in teacher turnover at traditional public schools and charters. The findings from Teacher Turnover in Charter Schools indicate that charter teachers were more likely to change schools or leave the teaching profession entirely:

Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and Teacher Follow-Up Survey (TFS), the researchers found that 25% of charter school teachers turned over during the 2003-2004 school year, compared to 14% of traditional public school teachers. Fourteen percent of charter school teachers left the profession outright and 11% moved to a different school, while 7% of traditional public school teachers left the profession and 7% moved schools. Using multi-nominal logistic regression, the researchers found the odds of a charter school teacher leaving the profession versus staying in the same school are 132% greater than those of a traditional public school teacher. The odds of a charter school teacher moving schools are 76% greater.

The study concluded that “most of the turnover in charter schools is voluntary and dysfunctional as compared to that of traditional public schools.”

Unionization

Many charter schools are not unionized, and teachers often have limited say in how the school is run, and must have their contracts renewed annually. In a news story, a representative from the Massachusetts chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) describes the situation as “Over and over again, we’re hearing that all of the power at these schools rests in the hands of the principal and that the teachers are basically walking on eggshells.” To support charter school teachers, AFT created a website called AFT ACTS (Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff). Representing 120 public charter schools in 12 states, AFT ACTS mobilizes “charter school employees around issues of common concern, such as providing the best possible education to all children, regardless of background; strengthening our profession; expanding professional development; improving the conditions of teaching and learning; and bolstering our voice in school-level decision-making.”

However, a number of charters and teachers feel that belonging to unions stifles innovation in schools. In a series of articles in The New York Times, the struggle of a group of charter teachers to join a union, then their subsequent decision to break away from it is documented. “I am a teacher and I can’t waste energy — all I want to do is make the school better. I saw early on that the union was not, in my opinion, looking to have amicable conversations with the administration. We were being encouraged to be even more miserable, and if I can avoid misery, I want to do that.”

Additional Recommendations/Resources

The US Charter Schools website (http://www.uscharterschools.org/) is a place where charter school developers, authorizers, and operators can meet, exchange ideas, and access a valuable resource library. The website provides a wide range of information and links to resources to guide charter schools in every phase of their development — from start-up, to expansion, to renewal.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (http://www.publiccharters.org/) is a national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. Their goal is to increase the number of high-quality charter schools available to all families, particularly in disadvantaged communities that lack access to quality public schools.

Partners for Developing Futures (http://www.partnersdevelopingfutures.org/) is a social venture investment fund that supports entrepreneurial leaders of color in creating and running high-performing public charter schools that serve underserved students. “Partners’ mission is to efficiently attract, identify, and support talented leaders of color in creating and growing high-quality charter schools and charter school networks.”