Archived Information

C. The Push and Pull of Charter Schools

In answer to the telephone survey, 72 percent of the charter schools in the sample said they had more applicants than could attend their school.^[2] These percentages have not changed much for schools that have been operating for several years as compared to more recently opened charter schools, and they are approximately the same for newly created or conversion schools. Small schools are slightly less likely to have a waiting list (69 percent) compared to middle-sized (79 percent) and larger schools (76 percent) but the overall distribution is relatively consistent. Schools started with the primary motivation to attract students represent the exception--94 percent of these schools say they have more applicants than they can currently handle.

If success is judged by parents and students voting with their feet, charter schools are in demand. Though it is premature to rest on this slim evidence without other indicators of success--such as student performance--parents and students are choosing charter schools for a variety of personal and situational reasons. During our visits to charter schools, we systematically conduct parent and student focus group meetings. At these sessions, which last for a minimum of 45 minutes, we ask parents and students separately why they selected their charter school. From the many specific answers, two broad themes clearly emerge--many students and parents feel pushed away from the district public schools and many feel positively pulled toward the charter schools.

1. Dissatisfaction with Public Schools

The most common issue across a wide variety of charter schools concerned academics. Many students, as well as parents, spoke about the low academic expectations that their former teachers and school had of them. Students often didn't feel challenged and generally were frustrated about not knowing why they had to learn "stuff" that didn't matter in life. Students reported having too much seat work, meaningless homework, and boring assignments--at times coupled with material that was too hard because no one explained it to them. Even eager students expressed how their excitement was dashed--for example, one child was ready to read but was always held back because the rest of the class wasn't ready. These complaints came from clearly highly achieving children as well as students who had struggled with basic literacy and mathematics. Our fieldworkers have been struck with the extremes of students--bright and struggling--that had become "square pegs in round holes" in the public system. The memory of special needs students and their tearful parents describing the many ways their previous schools had communicated low expectations to them is vivid. One student with attention deficit disorder put it in a stark way: He felt his previous school was only "baby-sitting" him.

A second major dissatisfaction concerned the previous school's environment and culture. Students were often eloquent about their sense of isolation. Many didn't feel known, close to a teacher, or guided. One student said that once a teacher doesn't "like" you it's "all over." Some students complained that social aspects at their previous schools seemed the most important thing going on and were really a distraction if you wanted to study. At the higher grade levels, teenagers spoke of being ostracized for having different interests, looking different, or getting in trouble with the legal system. Some parents of special education children recalled how their children were neglected or mistreated.

A third related dissatisfaction concerned safety. This issue was raised in a wide range of charter school contexts. Students in about three out of four of our field sites reported that they were afraid of being "picked on," beaten up, or harassed by other students. Parents echoed this concern for their children. Students in all contexts--from urban centers to suburbs to rural areas--reported this concern. The use of drugs and alcohol was mentioned by students in some middle schools. Several students shared their bitter experiences with racially inspired taunting and conflicts.

The last generic category of dissatisfaction came from parents who spoke of not feeling welcome at their children's schools. They said they were ignored when they raised problems about their own children. More poignantly, some said they wanted to help but their offers were not acted on in any meaningful way. Instead, they felt put down and that they didn't have a role in their children's education. Whatever negative experiences parents may have had seemed to weigh less heavily for them than a frustration that their children were not receiving the education or respect that they needed to be successful.

This picture of push factors weighing on some students and parents who chose charter schools should not be taken to represent all students and parents in the public system. Nor are they necessarily the views held by the majority of charter school parents and students.^[3] At this time, it seems apparent that many parents have had disappointing experiences and turn to charter schools in their search for alternatives. As the next section discusses, charter developers often design their schools to address these concerns.

2. The Attraction to Charter Schools from the Schools' Perspective

However, we can report on the perception of the schools as to why they believe parents are attracted to their schools. The telephone survey asked key personnel at the charter schools how powerful each feature on a list of attractions were for parents and students to attend their school. Exhibit 5-5 lists the results, showing the percentage of charter schools that rated a score for each feature. The table also shows the mean score for each feature, which indicates its overall attractiveness. A maximum score would be five. The items are ranked in descending order, and the letter in front of each feature indicates the order in which the features were presented to the school respondents.^[4] The table's last column adds the percentage of charter schools that had rated an item as either four or five. This addition is a convenient way to measure the percentage of schools that felt a feature was powerful or very powerful to parents and students in choosing their charter school.

EXHIBIT 5-5

WHY PARENTS AND STUDENTS MIGHT BE ATTRACTED TO CHARTER SCHOOLS

How powerful is this feature in attracting parents and students to your school?	Mean	% of charter schools for each level of attraction (read % across row) Scale: [0] is feature not applicable,[1] not powerful to [5] very powerful						% rating 4 or 5
Feature		0	1	2	3	4	5
O. Nurturing environment	4.62	0.6	0.3	0.9	5.4	20.7	72.2	92.9
Q. Safe environment	4.48	1.2	0.9	0.6	7.2	26.3	63.8	90.1
P. Value system	4.36	1.5	0.3	0.3	9.9	34.7	53.3	88.0
N. Quality of academic program	4.28	0.6	0.6	2.1	12.3	35.4	48.9	84.3
R. High standards for achievement	4.27	0.6	0.6	1.5	14.2	34.9	48.2	83.1
B. Small class size	4.23	6.9	1.5	2.7	5.7	16.8	66.5	83.3
G. Specialized curriculum focus	4.05	4.2	1.2	2.4	14.5	33.4	44.3	77.7
J. Clear goals for each student	3.93	2.1	2.4	3.3	19.2	38.1	34.8	72.9
I. Central parent role	3.87	2.4	2.7	7.5	19.2	29.4	38.7	68.1
H. Structured environment	3.86	4.9	1.5	6.4	16.7	31.3	39.2	70.5
T. Adaptive environment	3.80	4.7	3.8	6.0	16.7	30.3	38.5	68.8
A. Small School Size	3.75	7.5	2.1	3.0	14.4	41.4	31.5	72.9
E. Extensive use of technology	3.22	5.4	8.1	15.6	24.3	23.1	23.4	46.5
D. Dress/behavior code	3.11	15.5	6.7	6.1	21.0	24.6	26.1	50.7
C. Services for disabled	2.76	11.6	10.1	16.8	27.4	20.4	13.7	34.1
F. Flexible school schedule	2.68	24.8	7.0	8.5	16.4	21.5	21.8	43.3
K. Extensive community service	2.54	17.9	9.7	14.2	29.4	16.4	12.4	28.8
L. Focus on cultural/ethnic needs	2.34	25.8	13.6	11.5	16.7	15.2	17.3	32.5
M. Longer school year	1.42	54.2	8.7	7.1	11.1	8.7	10.2	18.9
S. Support for home-schooling	1.10	59.5	13.1	6.5	6.9	6.5	7.5	14.0

The table shows that the feature with the highest percentage of charter schools considering it to be a powerful or very powerful attraction is a "nurturing environment." Ninety-three percent of charter schools felt this about their school environment. In contrast, 14 percent of charter schools felt that "support for home-schooling" was a powerful or very powerful attraction. These findings are not surprising. Fifteen percent of charter schools reported elsewhere on the telephone survey that their educational program primarily involved home and independent study. Our common experience in the 91 field sites we visited was a pervasive feeling expressed by virtually all charter school participants that they had created a nurturing environment, even when other aspects of operating the charter school was difficult. Thus, some items on the list pertain to more-or-less specific features of the schools--for example, home-schooling--whereas other items represent more general aspects that schools can realize in very different ways. Consequently, rather than analyze the results for each item, we clustered the attractions using statistical procedures to explore the broad themes underlying the more specific features. Exhibit 5-6 shows the results.

EXHIBIT 5-6

UNDERLYING FACTORS ATTRACTING PARENTS AND STUDENTS TO CHARTER SCHOOLS

How powerful is this feature in attracting parents and students to your school?		% of schools rating item as 4 or 5	Academic factor	Small size factor	Flexible program factor	Structure factor
R. High standards for achievement		83.1%	.72	-.12	.22	.20
P. Value system		88.0%	.72	.14	-.07	-.04
N. Quality of academic program		84.3%	.70	-.12	.10	.21
I. Central parent role		68.1%	.52	-.17	-.14	-.22
O. Nurturing environment		92.9%	.57	.39	.02	-.07
Q. Safe environment		90.1%	.48	.25	.09	.15
A. Small School Size		72.9%	-.07	.77	-.04	.03
B. Small class size		83.3%	.02	.77	.13	.13
T. Adaptive environment		68.8%	.29	.46	.21	-.33
F. Flexible school schedule		43.3%	-.05	.10	.66	-.27
E. Extensive use of technology		46.5%	.11	-.16	.63	.06
E. Extensive community service		28.8%	.20	.11	.57	-.05
L. Focus on cultural/ethnic needs		32.5%	-.04	.04	.52	.09
M. Longer school year		18.9%	-.08	.09	.49	.22
J. Clear goals for each student		72.9%	.37	.15	.43	.00
G. Specialized curriculum focus		77.7%	.38	-.04	.28	-.07
D. Dress/behavior code		50.7%	.24	.03	.35	.58
H. Structured environment		70.5%	.35	.02	.39	.50
S. Support for home-schooling		14.0%	.10	-.06	.30	-.64
C. Services for disabled		34.1%	.20	.14	.27	-.15

The features in this exhibit have been reordered to reflect the underlying themes. The alternating shading highlights those features that statistically cluster together and suggest the names of four underlying factors shown at top the last four columns--factors of attraction concerning academics, small size, flexible programs, and structured school environment. The numbers listed in these columns are factor scores, which can be thought of as the weight that a feature contributes to the composition and meaning of the underlying factors.^[5] The scores can range from 1.00 to -1.00, and scores at or above .50 (or at below -.50) contribute significantly to the factor.

The first factor consists of features defining the academic pull of charter schools. High standards for student achievement, a value system that supports achievement, and a quality academic program are core elements of the package that four out of five charters feel they are offering to parents and students. The testimony from our focus groups vividly confirms the schools' perception of the power that the academic pull has for students as well as parents. As manifested in charter schools, parents may also play a central role in a schools' academic focus. Our field data illustrates how parents across a range of charter school contexts advocate for quality programs, participate in standards setting, work with their students both in the schools and at home, and actively support school academic policy. The data as well as our fieldwork suggest that many charter schools as well as parents see a "nurturing" and a "safe" environment as compatible with and often key elements in the implementation of a quality academic program. A "nurturing" and a "safe" environment can be realized in many different ways--as the vignette in the accompanying text box illustrates--and indeed, these feature also contribute to the next underlying factor.

A Focus on Academics This K-12 charter school offers an academically rigorous program following the Paideia model. The school has eliminated tracking. Its educational program consists of a common core curriculum (which meets or exceeds the graduation requirements of its surrounding district) supplemented by intensive instruction in the arts, sciences, and foreign languages. Instruction emphasizes hands on learning, demonstration of mastery, reflection on assignments, and sharing of process and products. The school has adopted the state's content standards and is moving to eliminate Carnegie-based time units in favor of a standards-driven system. The school requires that parents volunteer at least 18 hours a year and proudly reports 100% participation. The school has recently successfully passed its charter renewal process with a unanimous vote from the district's board. Parents reported that the school's focus on academics, inclusion of the arts, and openness towards parents attracted them to the charter school.

"Small size" establishes a context in which programmatic and cultural features can create the nurturing, safety, and adaptive elements that many students seek--and might receive at charter schools. Indeed, the data from earlier chapters clearly show that a much higher proportion of charter schools are smaller than of all public schools. The small-size factor emerges as a defining element of the charter movement. Though it is premature to say whether small size will result in desirable student outcomes, many students and parents who participate in these schools feel convinced that small size is a key to a successful education. The vignette in the accompanying side box illustrates just one of many ways that charter school educators and parents have constructed a program that uses small size to realize educational value.

Small Size This newly created K-12 school is located in a major metropolitan area. It was created to offer an integrated arts curriculum to students who have learning disabilities and/or are artistically inclined. The school is deliberately small. It serves less than 100 students and is only projected to grow to 120. The maximum class size is 15 and some classes have as few as five students. In contrast, the surrounding district's average class size is 27. In addition to morning art integrated core classes, students take electives in the afternoon ranging from theater, visual arts, dance, and music. Parents are required to volunteer time at the school. Parents interviewed report that its small size, individual attention for students, high academic standards, arts program, and openness to parents attracted them to the charter school.

The third underlying factor reflects another characteristic made possible by the freedom afforded in charter legislation--namely, the flexibility to develop programs that meet the needs of diverse students. Unlike the pervasive nature of the features contributing to the two factors above, the flexibility dimensions includes a variety of distinct features that one or another school uses in their context. These flexibility features include a flexible school schedule, the extensive use of technology, extensive array of community service programs, a focus on cultural and/or ethnic needs, a specialized curriculum focus, and clear goals for each student in an individualized setting. This list is not exhaustive, but does indicate a range of features intended to meet particular student needs--and therefore attract them to the school. Less than one-half of charter schools say they consider any one of these features to be part of their attraction, but each element of flexibility may work for its setting. In this sense, the flexibility dimension reflects a niche phenomenon that appears to characterize part of the charter movement. Charter schools are created to fill a niche and attract students on this basis, an approach that most comprehensive public schools either have steered away from or abandoned. The accompanying side box illustrates how one charter school implemented flexible programming, enabling parents and students to choose from options that they felt they could not have in the context of the standard public schools.

Flexible Programming This newly created K-8 school is designed to provide individual student instruction with maximum flexibility. Families choose from several different educational options including: classroom-based programs from two to five days per week, home-schooling with on-site electives one day per week, or a computer-based distance learning program. Each student has his or her own learning goals based on the school developed content standards. Parents interviewed reported being attracted to the school for a variety of reasons. Those in the home school and classroom-based programs cited flexible scheduling, resources for home-school parents, higher level classes for home-schooled kids, and small class sizes. Staff said that students were attracted to the distance learning program due to violence in the local schools and its flexibility. Some of the school's families travel extensively for work and a few students train seriously for competitive sports.

The final underlying factor also concerns a series of features that appears to characterize a sizeable minority of charter schools. The features involves a variety of different forms of codes of dress or behavior throughout the school, often coupled with a structured approach to curriculum and instruction. In a sense, these schools can be defined by their opposites, as reflected in the high negative scores in the last column of the exhibit--a tendency to reject an adaptive school environment or a flexible school schedule and instead rely on a uniform curriculum and instructional approach regardless of differences across the students. The concept of home-schooling, for example, runs counter to the beliefs about education that motivate this structured approach (see the very high negative score for home-schooling on the last factor). But it would be a misreading of the reality of charter school choice to consider this approach as being forced on parents or students. Our focus groups generally confirmed that the families that opted into a structured approach felt solidly behind it, often coming from what they thought of an undisciplined, unfocused, valueless, and unproductive public school system. Moreover, the school administrators generally took great pride in their program, the educational standards they maintained, and the life values and guidance they felt they were offer to the students. In several cases in the field sites, respondents were quick to point out that students--or parents--who did not conform to the rules, or felt uncomfortable, could leave the school and return to the other public schools.

Highly Structured Environment This K-8 school offers parents and students a highly structured environment that emphasizes values and focuses on the core academic subjects. The school stresses respect, order, and discipline, which are reflected in the school's dress code, discipline policy, and flag ceremony. Students are required to wear uniforms and receive demerits, detentions, or expulsion for breaking the rules. The school offers E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge curriculum supplemented with material from the state's curriculum framework. Instruction occurs in traditional classrooms on a Carnegie unit schedule. The school has an "open door" policy towards parents and encourages them to be active in their children's education. Parents interviewed reported its structure, uniforms, values, openness to parents, and small school size attracted them to the charter school.

D. Summary

This chapter has explored why charter schools are started and what their attractions may be for parents and students. The majority of charter schools are newly created, and most of these schools seek to realize an alternative vision of schooling or to serve a special target population of students. Public schools that convert to charter status also seek an educational vision, but often start from an established--and frequently a highly regarded--program. The primary reason why most such schools are begun is to gain autonomy from their districts or bypass various regulations. Private schools that convert to charter status seek public funds so that they can stabilize their finances and attract students, often students whose families could not afford private school tuition.

Schools that are begun to serve an educational vision are more likely to be schools that primarily serve White students, compared to schools seeking to gain autonomy or wishing to gain funds to serve their diverse and often predominantly non-White student body better.

More than 70 percent of charter schools in the telephone sample said they had more applicants than could attend their school. Push and pull factors combine to cause parents and students to choose charter schools. They expressed dissatisfaction with the public system in regards to academics, a dehumanizing culture, fears about safety, and unresponsiveness to serious parent involvement. Pull factors that draw parents and students to charter schools address these dissatisfactions, but are realized in educational programs that are shaped in and specific to the local context. Charter schools tend to focus on one or a combination of the following themes in seeking to attract students--a quality academic program with high standards, a supportive environment often based on small school size,a flexible approach to educational and cultural programming, or, in sharp contrast, a highly structured approach. These underlying themes get played out in many ways in the diverse contexts in which charter schools are implemented.

5 The statistical procedure is a principal components factor analysis using a varimax rotation and a pairwise deletion of missing values.

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[V. Why Charter Schools Are Started and What Attracts Parents to Them (part 1 of 2)]

[VI. Challenges in the Implementation of Charter Schools]