Charter School Study
RPP will undertake the most comprehensive and ambitious look at charter schools to be attempted to date. It plans an annual survey of all charter schools, achievement testing at a sample of charter schools, and a more intensive look at the operation of about half of the schools in this sample. RPP will report achievement gains for children at charter schools, compared to national norms and to students in a sample of comparison schools.
In addition to examining the impact of charter schools on student achievement, RPP plans to study how charter schools differ from other public schools on goals, expectations, curricula, teacher qualifications, methods of assessing achievement, and the types of students that they serve. RPP plans a series of policy studies, including additional site visits at a subsample of charter schools. These studies will address questions about which government policies help or hinder successful program implementation, and how the formation and operation of charter schools affects other public and private schools and other efforts for education reform. In the final analysis, RPP hopes to identify the conditions critical to success in a charter school.
Throughout, RPP plans to remain in close touch with charter schools and those interested in their operation. By April of 1996 it plans to start an on-line network on the Internet, linking charter schools with one another. The link will include a managed bulletin board and a user network. RPP also plans to install a WorldWide Web server, pointing to home pages maintained by charter schools.
Level 1 Study: The Level 1 Study will rely on an annual survey, conducted by telephone in the spring of each year. This survey will build on a past survey by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) and the Center for School Change, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.
Level 2 Study: RPP will visit and conduct testing at a sample of approximately 50 charter school sites. There will be two visits per school over the four year study. Schools will be moved into the study in two cohorts, with a target of 30 in Year 1 and 20 in Year 2. The staggered schedule allows adding new schools in Year 2, including some of those funded under the charter-school state grant program.
The achievement test will be a curriculum-based, criterion-referenced level test developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). The test permits selection of different test items for different schools, based on the judgment of teachers at charter schools. This design feature is to accommodate the different approaches to assessment that charter schools are expected and encouraged to take. Plans are to link test items to CTBS and CAT to allow comparison of school-level scores at selected grade levels.
Level 3 Study: RPP will conduct more intensive case studies at half of the Level 2 sites, as well as at a targeted 14 non-charter school sites. These non-charter sites will be matched where possible to charter school sites. It is expected that it will not be possible to match all charter schools as some will be sufficiently unique that no match can be found.
Plans are to perform this intensive study at group of schools in Year 1, 2 and 3; and another group in Years 2, 3 and 4. Testing for the first cohort will be on the same schedule as for Level 2 schools, first cohort, with additional testing in the fall and spring of Year 2 and in the spring of Year 3. Testing for the second cohort will be on the same schedule as for the second cohort of the Level 2 schools, and, in addition, in the fall and spring of Year 3 and the spring of Year 4.
Testing at about half of the comparison schools will follow the schedule for the Level 3 schools, first cohort (except no test scores will be available for Year 1). Testing at the remaining comparison schools will follow the schedule for the Level 3 schools, second cohort.
Policy Studies: Finally, RPP plans additional site visits to six of the intensively-studied schools in Year 3 and six in Year 4 for examination of policy issues affecting charter schools.
Reports: Interim reports on findings will be available in November 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Advisory Board: Advisory board members include Jose M.F. Afonso; Rexford Brown; Joan Buckley; Lee Cronbach; Gary K. Hart; Ted Kolderie; Robewrt L. Linn; Elaine J. Salinas.
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