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A National Study of Charter Schools - July 1998

VI. Challenges in the Implementation of Charter Schools

B. Underlying Themes

For most of the analysis discussed thus far in this chapter, we have relied on charter schools' responses to the list of barriers asked about on the survey of new charter schools; we did so to allow us to compare the responses of schools in their first year of operation. On the follow-up survey, we again asked about barriers to implementation and included a longer list of barriers that represent most of the original barriers along with those that were derived from open-ended responses to the initial survey. To explore further the findings reported above, we conducted a factor analysis on this longer list of barriers, the results of which are shown in Exhibit 6-5.[4] The factor analysis suggests four factors underlie the difficulty scores for the barriers and allow us to group together barriers that are correlated. The first factor, resource limitations, includes barriers related to start-up funding, funds for operation, health and safety regulations, and facilities. The second factor, which we have identified as political resistance, includes difficulties with the district and state boards and difficulties between the school and its board. The third factor, identified as internal conflict, includes conflict within the school, administration and management, and teacher burnout. The fourth factor covers union relationships. The remainder of this chapter will address each of these factors in greater depth, illustrating the factors where possible with examples from our fieldwork.

EXHIBIT 6-5

POSSIBLE DIMENSIONS OF DIFFICULTIES[1]


Barriers

Resource limitations

Political resistance

Internal conflict

Union relationships

Lack of start-up funds

.72

.12

-.04 

-.04 

Inadequate operating funds

.68

.06

.09

.11

Inadequate finances

.66

.12

.16

-.10 

Health and safety regulations

.58

-.03 

.09

.23

Inadequate facilities

.56

.10

.22

-.05 

Locating facilities

.55

.24

.18

-.08 

Difficulty in recruiting students

.42

.17

.19

.13

Federal regulations

.37

-.05 

.04

.33

Lack of planning time

.32

.11

.25

.19

School district board opposition

.21

.76

.13

-.02 

Conflict between school and district

.16

.76

.13

.06

District resistance or regulations

.07

.72

.02

.26

Issues between charter board and school administration

.12

.57

.29

-.16 

State or local board opposition

.12

.56

.04

.17

Community opposition

.05

.38

.23

.11

Communication within school

.07

.01

.75

.00

Conflict over governance

.00

.27

.63

-.18 

Administration and management

.16

.15

.63

-.04 

Staff conflict

.17

.07

.61

.14

Teacher burnout

.18

.00

.60

.23

Disagreement among parents of enrolled students

.15

.18

.58

.06

Internal conflicts

.09

-.01 

.50

.16

Administrator turnover

.14

.03

.50

-.12 

Communication with parents

.08

.11

.49

.24

Teacher turnover

.27

-.07 

.49

.22

Conflict with external partners

-.03 

.10

.45

-.01 

Communication with community members

.06

.28

.42

.13

Lack of parental support

.25

.11

.36

.12

Bargaining agreements

-.17 

.26

-.03 

.66

Union or bargaining unit resistance

-.20 

.32

-.05 

.52

Teacher certification requirements

.11

-.05 

.07

.51

Hiring staff

.23

-.21 

.29

.44

State department of education resistance or regulations

.07

.15

.07

.43

Accountability requirements

.21

.07

.24

.36

1 A number close to one (or negative one) represents a "high correlation" between the respondent's answers on each of the barriers and the factor score. Numbers close to zero indicate there is little correlation between the answers on each of the barriers and the factor score.

1. Resource Limitations

Resource limitations represent a very strong cluster of barriers. Six survey items define this factor, including difficulties related to finances (lack of start up funds, inadequate finances and inadequate operating funds), facilities (inadequate facilities or difficulty in locating facilities), and difficulty with health and safety regulations.

Our fieldwork provides some evidence to confirm these findings. Many schools reported a continuing struggle with resources. While some of the fieldwork schools have developed fund-raising strategies to raise additional funding to support some of their activities, many school leaders reported that the process of fund-raising was time-consuming and often took them away from other important obligations at the school.

The following sections discuss charter schools' obstacles around finances, facilities, and health and safety regulations; we illustrate the discussion with examples from our fieldwork.

Finances. The majority of newly created schools have had difficulties with start-up funding as shown in Exhibit 6-3. Nearly 66 percent of newly created schools, in contrast to 43 percent of pre-existing schools, said that lack of start-up funds was difficult or very difficult. The lack of an established credit history of newly created schools can create difficulties for locating capital funds for start-up. For example, one charter school director of a newly created school reported that she had to put her farm up as collateral to purchase portable units in order to open the school. Sustaining adequate ongoing operating funds is also a greater obstacle for newly created schools (43 percent) than for pre-existing schools (37 percent).

Financing Start-Up

A newly created charter school was designed to meet the needs of elementary school students who were not being challenged by the curriculum in the regular schools. The school began its life in a former retail space. The charter was granted late in the spring before the school was to open in September. The founding parents transformed the space into classrooms, offices, a computer laboratory, and a library. The school's founders borrowed the money to lease the space and parents donated nearly all of the labor and materials necessary to convert the space to a school. Because the school was one of the first charters granted, the state had not set up the fiscal system to support the school. The school hired a staff of teachers who were excited at the possibility of teaching in the new environment, but because the first payment from the state did not arrive until mid-October, the teachers had to begin the year with only the promise of salaries--they worked the first six weeks of school (in addition to a week-long planning period) before they were paid. The lack of operating funds at the beginning of the school's life meant that the school had to finance much of the initial purchases of textbooks and materials on credit. After the first year in a building that did not have either expansion room or a safe place for children to play, the school community made the decision to move to a different retail space and the process began again.

Facilities. Another difficulty for charter schools is inadequate or hard-to-locate facilities. Newly created charter schools are significantly more likely to report difficulty with locating facilities than pre-existing schools. As shown in Exhibit 6-3, 44 percent of newly created schools reported inadequate facilities as difficult or very difficult in comparison to 29 percent of pre-existing schools. Most pre-existing schools that convert to charter status already have a facility. In cases where schools have difficulty finding appropriate facilities, our fieldwork suggests that the entire school start-up process can be impacted.

Our fieldwork suggests an additional hardship related to the ongoing expense and the upkeep of those facilities. As one of the previous vignettes suggests, for some charter schools, locating facilities may surface as an issue again when successful schools are faced with relocating because of expanding enrollment.

Locating a Facility

For one newly created school, finding and securing a location for the school was reported as being one of the biggest obstacles the school faced upon start-up. The school almost did not open on schedule because they had not yet found a facility to house the school. The school was offered space in a local private school very close to the scheduled opening date, causing the entire start-up process to be rushed. Even then, the space is not ideal because of its small size and lack of handicapped accessibility. Thus, the school's plans to grow in size are limited unless it is able to find a more accommodating space.

Health and Safety Regulations. Often, schools which report difficulties related to inadequate facilities also report that they face difficulties related to health and safety regulations. Nearly twice as many newly created schools (12 percent) as pre-existing conversion schools (seven percent) indicated that health and safety regulations were difficulties (see Exhibit 6-3). In many cases, schools are limited by what facilities they can obtain. Although some new schools have been able to move into district-owned facilities or closed private schools, many must depend on retail space in need of refurbishing while still others place portable classrooms on a lot that they lease or purchase.

Health and Safety Regulations

A newly created school, located in a small town within a large metropolitan area, refurbished retail space in a strip mall to create the school. The school staff and their architect set out to find which zoning requirements would apply to the school building. The school engaged in months of negotiations with several city agencies and the fire department before they were able to work out the rules governing the width of the driveways, where to locate the sprinklers, the number of handicapped parking spaces to allocate, and the number of bathrooms the school needed. Although all of the issues were finally resolved, it was at the expense of considerable time and cost to school staff.

2. Political Resistance

The political resistance factor is defined by school district board opposition, state and local board opposition, conflict between the school and the district, central office resistance or regulations, and issues between the charter board and the school's administration. All but one of these specifically deals with opposition, conflict, or resistance between the school and outside political entities. It may initially seem odd that the relationship between the charter board and the school's administration partially defines this cluster. Our fieldwork, however, suggests that conflict between the charter board and school administration often bubbles out into the public arena and results in increased resistance from state and/or local educational agencies.

Conflict With District

A district school board turned down the proposal of a parent-led coalition to start a back-to-basics charter school in the district. The coalition appealed the local board's decision to the state board of education who remanded the charter proposal back to the district board. Seeing that the state board was likely to overrule the board if the proposal was turned down a second time, the district board voted to grant the charter. Because of the issues surrounding the granting of the charter, the charter school and the district did no begin their relationship smoothly - some refer to the relationship as a "shotgun wedding". The district staff was initially disinclined to provide any support for the charter school. The charter school director, hired after the charter was granted, had previously run a private school and saw immediately that he needed to establish a relationship with members of the district staff. He made appointments with all of the district directors and assistant superintendents to explain to them what the charter school was trying to accomplish and to ask for their help and support. The strategy seems to have produced results - the charter school gained the respect and support of the district staff over time and was recently renewed.

Newly created schools were slightly more likely to report difficulties with school district board opposition and issues between the charter board and school administration.

Our fieldwork suggests that political resistance declines somewhat over time as charter schools and districts learn to coexist. Fieldwork suggests that declines in both areas may result from changing leadership in either the charter school or the district, or changes in the composition of the board and efforts on the part of charter schools to improve relations.

Conflict Declining Over Time

This middle school, enrolling students in grades six through eight, was created by a coalition of parents, business people, and community members who were unsatisfied with the local public school. They wanted to create a school environment where kids were treated with respect, listened to, and helped to adjust to adulthood. In addition, they wanted a school where the teachers knew their students well and had the autonomy to run the school and implement a unifying vision. The local community was hostile to the creation of the charter school and expressed some suspicion about the impact of the school on the local district. The situation was exacerbated by the school's first director who came form a business background and was characterized as abrasive toward the local district and community. In the school's second year, the director was replaced by an educator who actively worked to improve the school's relationship with the district, the community, and the local middle school. She opened the school to the community by hosting public open houses four times a year and worked on writing a joint grant proposal with the local middle school. According to the school staff, the district staff and community have come around.

3. Internal Conflict

This factor includes barriers regarding communication within the school, conflict over governance, administration and management, staff conflict, teacher burnout, and disagreement among parents of enrolled students. The data suggest that newly created and pre-existing schools report facing internal process difficulties to somewhat different degrees. As shown in Exhibit 6-3, both newly created schools and pre-existing schools report difficulties with internal conflict (20 percent for newly created schools and 15 percent for pre-existing schools). Our fieldwork allows us to identify examples of both newly created and pre-existing schools which faced these kinds of problems. Fieldwork data suggest that schools that have strong management and leadership structures and that have a strong agreement about the school's vision among school staff and parents seem to have fewer internal difficulties, regardless of whether they are newly created or pre-existing.

The message from our fieldwork is not consistent around internal conflicts. Some schools are plagued over time by a range of internal difficulties. Many schools where internal problems appear to be increasing suffer from a lack of internal capacity to move the program forward or to address sponsoring agency requirements. In some cases, staff are required to handle a broad range of responsibilities because of the small school size and are simply overburdened. This leads to burnout and staff turnover. In other cases, staff appear to lack the skills necessary to run the business aspects of the school.

An additional internal difficulty, based on our fieldwork, seems to be related to the role of parents in school decision-making and the day-to-day operations of the school. Many charter schools build in a strong role for parents, but as parents and staff change over time, role definitions also may need to change to accommodate the wishes of both groups. In addition, leadership to help the school make important decisions about school governance appears to also be vitally important.

Internal Conflict

This middle school began as a district magnet school emphasizing integrated thematic instruction, a multicultural and multi-ethnic curriculum, and extensive use of technology. After one year of operation, the school converted to a charter school. The charter school was begun as a district initiative to develop a local school that would pioneer new teaching methods and relieve overcrowding in area middle school. The school was also intended to serve as a district experiment in site-based decision-making. The district approved a governance structure document calling for a core group of stakeholders to be involved in the decision-making process. This core group was to consist of staff, parents, students, community members, and the principal.

Although the district and a group of parents who were involved in the school's conversion to charter status hoped the school would be progressive and learner-centered, the principal who took over school leadership two years after the school became a charter wanted to implement more traditional classroom and school structures and teaching methods. Although the district-approved governance structure was approved to go into effect in the fourth year of charter operation, the principal delayed the start-up of this new governance structure.

Despite the principal's multi-year contract, the district attempted to remove him from his position for violating the terms of his contract. These difficulties regarding the principal and the shift of the school away from new teaching and learning methods resulted in a lawsuit, negative media coverage, considerable staff turnover, a significant decline in enrollment, the abandonment of earlier parental support for the school, and lack of parental and staff involvement in school decision-making. As a result of the staff turnover, the principal has been able to bring on new staff members who share his ideas about teaching and learning and who are strong in a single academic subject. Although the school has shifted away from the district's intended goals, the district has been unable to remove the principal for contractual reasons and the principal's vision has prevailed.

4. Union Relationships

This factor includes bargaining agreements, union or bargaining unit resistance, teacher certification requirements, and hiring staff. Our fieldwork provided little substantiation for this factor. However, this may be a function of which schools were selected for our fieldwork. Because 11 percent of all schools reported that union resistance was a problem at start-up, we will continue to monitor this issue through continued fieldwork and additional surveys.

Internal Relationships

The charter school shares a site with a district elementary school and the principal of the district school is technically designated as the charter school principal as well. In practice, his involvement in the charter school is minimal. The school's educational program is developmental-classrooms are multi-aged and students are grouped and regrouped during the day to accommodate the differences in their developmental stages. Teachers teach in teams throughout the day and across all grade levels The school was founded by a group of parents and teachers who wanted to provide a developmental education for their children. Parents at the school show a high level of ownership for the school's program, with one parent serving as the school's coordinator.

Almost since its inception, the school has struggled with what role parents play in the implementation of the school's program. Parents feel strongly that they want to have a say in the education of their children. Teachers believe that although parents should have input, they want to be able to control the day-to-day implementation of the educational program in their classrooms. Teachers reported that parents felt free to challenge instructional decisions and to make specific recommendations about instructional methods and materials. The tension between the role of parents in the school is exacerbated by the lack of a full-time administrator who might serve as a buffer between the parents and the teachers.

Teacher turnover has proven to be a real problem at the school. All of the original teachers had left the school by the beginning of the 1996-97 school year. The entire staff (six teachers) planned to leave the school at the end of the 1996-97 school year primarily because of continuing concerns with the role of parents. Teachers at the school retain their rights to return to district schools and most planned to do so. The school had no plans to hire a full-time administrator and the governing board was considering hiring teachers who have experience teaching in charter schools.


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[VI. Challenges in the Implementation of Charter Schools (part 1 of 3)] [Table of Contents] [VI. Challenges in the Implementation of Charter Schools (part 3 of 3)]