Archived Information

Appendix A: Overview of the National Study's Research Design

1. Yearly Telephone Interviews with All Operational Charter Schools. The Study will maintain a database with information about all operational charter schools. During the first year, the Study called all charter schools that were in operation as of January 1996. In subsequent years, we interview all new charter schools that become operational. (We define operational as providing instruction to students). Annually, the Study conducts a follow-up telephone interview with all charter schools to update the national database. All charter sites are assured confidentiality for this information.

2. Repeated Field Visits to and Data Collection at a Sample of Charter Schools. In the first year, the Study chose an unbiased sample of 42 sites (cohort 1) within the five states that had charter schools which were in operation at least one year as of the 1995ó96 school year. Within the five states, the Study selected either all sites in the state or chose charter schools at random within the categories of grade levels served, school size, and whether the schools were newly created or pre-existing schools. This procedure was followed to select a second cohort of 30 charter schools in additional states in which charter schools were operational for at least one year as of the 1996ó97 school year. Similarly, the Study selected a third cohort of 21 charter schools in the 1997ó98 school year in order to include states that have more recently adopted charter legislation. The total number of charter schools selected was 93.^[1] The Study will conduct fieldwork at 91 of the selected sites. The data collected at all sites include information on student assessment, educational programs, organizational structure and climate, governance and finance, parental and community involvement and support, relations with district and/or charter sponsoring agencies, and factors affecting charter school development and implementation.

3. Data Collection from Fieldwork Districts. The Study will collect assessment data from the primary public school district or districts from which fieldwork charter schools draw their students. This data collection effort will include two steps: 1) identifying state and district standardized assessments used by both the fieldwork charter school and the surrounding district(s) and state, and if state and/or district tests are utilized 2) gathering standardized assessment results on each assessment for students in the state, the district, the charter school, and a school within each district that is as similar as possible on demographic characteristics to the fieldwork charter school.

4. Longitudinal Assessment of Student Achievement in a Sample of Charter Schools. The Study offered to provide achievement tests for all students at selected grade levels in the three cohorts of charter school fieldwork sites discussed above. The tests are criterion referenced, developed by teachers, and geared to assess the students' skills, knowledge and problem-solving abilities in language arts and mathematics. They are called Level tests because students take a short locator exam to place them at their appropriate academic level and then take a full test suitable to their level. In this approach, students are less likely to be bored and more likely to be challenged; consequently, the tests provide more in-depth information for each child and teachers can better diagnose the students' strengths and weaknesses. The testing will be done with the same pupils over a number of years (contingent on school and student participation), and thus provide longitudinal data about each student's progress. The Study trains teachers at Study field sites in test use and analysis of results.

5. Content Analysis of State Charter Policies and Interviews with State Officials. Since charter legislation differs dramatically by state and states differ in their administration of charter schools, the Study has and will continue yearly to collect and interpret state charter school laws, administrative policies, and court rulings for all states with charter legislation. For a selected number of states, the Study will interview state level players--including knowledgeable officials and non-governmental influential actors who are pro, con, or neutral in regards to charter schools. The purpose of these interviews is twofold: (1) to identify state-level factors that affect local charter development and implementation, and (2) to broadly assess the possible positive or negative impacts of charter schools on statewide public education policy.

6. Intensive Fieldwork and Data Collection at Selected Charter Sites in Order to Assess Effect on Public Education. Beginning in 1998 and following every year throughout the project's life, the Study will purposively select a sub-sample of the Study sites in several states to examine the impact of charter schools on local and regional school systems. At each site, the Study will interview district and regional school personnel, community members, and representative interest groups. Team members will also collect news stories and other artifacts that bear on what, if anything, can be discerned about the extent and ways in which charter schools impact public education. This local data collection will be combined with state-level information gathered as discussed above. The field sites for these policy studies will only be in those states for which state-level interviews will be done.

[VI. Challenges in the Implementation of Charter Schools (part 3 of 3)]

[Appendix B: State Legislative Overview]