Archived Information

Preface

This document is the Second-Year Report of the National Study of Charter Schools (the Study), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education as authorized by the 1994 amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Report updates information on charter schools reported in the Study's First-Year Report, published in May 1997.^[1] The Study is a four-year research effort (September 1995-September 1999) to document and analyze the charter school movement. By means of both annual reports and a series of occasional papers, the Study will provide information about how many and what kind of charter schools become operational, about those factors that facilitate or hinder the charter schools' development and implementation, and about how schools are implementing their charters. The Study will also collect data and conduct analyses of the impact of charter schools on student achievement and on local and state public education systems.

The Second-Year Report (the Report) presents information about charter schools for the school year 1996-97. It is based on a telephone survey designed to collect data from the 428 charter schools in operation across the nation as of January 1, 1997. The Study completed 89 percent of the phone interviews by June 30, 1997, and summaries of a selected number of those responses are reported here.

The Report is also based on information collected during site visits to 91 charter schools. The schools were selected within states and within categories of grade level, school size, and their charter school status as either newly created schools or schools that converted from a pre-existing public or private school. The field visits were conducted to: (1) develop a deeper understanding of why charter schools are started, how they are being implemented, and what barriers they have encountered to their development and implementation; (2) collect preliminary information about the schools' educational programs, organizational structures, governance and finance arrangements, and student assessment and accountability procedures; and (3) check on the accuracy of the telephone surveys. The Report draws on examples from the field to illustrate the variety of charter schools and how they are being implemented.

The National Study of Charter Schools is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and conducted under contract with RPP International with offices in California, in partnership with the Institute for Responsive Education (IRE), a nonprofit research organization in Boston.

This Second-Year Report represents a collaborative effort of various researchers. Paul Berman, Beryl Nelson, John Ericson, Rebecca Perry, and Debra Silverman of RPP International drafted the actual report. Wayne Jennings of Designs for Learning and Eric Premack of the Institute for Educational Reform prepared the state legislative table, which was reviewed by David Kirp of the University of California, Berkeley. Laura Bloomberg provided support for analysis of the qualitative data. Tony Wagner and Abby Weiss of IRE provided feedback on drafts of the Report.

[Title page]

[Acknowledgments]