Mixed news on charter schools

This week has been a newsy one for charter schools.

The Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C., kicked off the week with an evaluation of state charter school laws as states prepare to compete for awards from the competitive $4.35 billion Race to the Top education innovation fund.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said states that don't allow charter schools put themselves at a competitive disadvantage when vying for Race to the Top funds. States that allow charter schools but limit their proliferation are also at a disadvantage, the secretary has said.

The Center for Education Reform says Minnesota, Michigan and Washington, D.C., have the highest quality charter school laws. Those states:
• allow entities other than local school boards to authorize charter schools;
• fund their charters equitably;
• allow charter schools to operate independently from restrictions that apply to most public schools; and
• allow the proliferation of charter schools.

Take a look at the report (PDF). You won't find Maine or any of the other nine states that don't allow charter schools listed anywhere. They don't have charter school laws to evaluate, after all.

And just as the Obama administration is singing charter schools' praises, a report from Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes finds mixed results on charter schools' academic success. The study finds 17 percent of charter schools offer "superior education opportunities" for students; 46 percent deliver academic results that "are no different" from traditional public schools'; and 37 percent show results that are "significantly worse" than those of traditional, locally funded public schools.

One of the report's findings shows that states that allow multiple authorizers of charter schools -- one of the traits the Center for Education Reform touts in its examination of state charter school laws -- see worse results from their charter school students. The report leaves the causality argument to others, but says charter school operators might be searching for the most lenient authorizers.

The report also finds that charter school laws that allow operators to appeal authorizers' decisions to deny license renewals lead to "a small but significant gain in learning" at charter schools.

Maine education observers might remember charter school proponents, during the Maine Legislature's debate this spring on a bill that would have permitted charter schools in the state, offered a compromise that would have offered no such appeal provision in the law.

The Stanford study found that In Minnesota -- a state with one of the best charter school laws, according to the Center for Education Reform -- charter school students overall lagged their traditional public school peers' performance.