Last month, the Center for Education Reform (CER) released The State of Charter Schools: What We Know—and What We Do Not—About Performance and Accountability, a report analyzing the nation’s charter schools. The report found that historically, charter schools have a 15% closure rate. Charter school closure is usually the result of a failure to meet accountability standards set by the charter school authorizing body.
The report contradicts a commonly-heard criticism that low-performing charter schools are never closed. “The truth is charter schools that don’t measure up are closing at a rate of 15 percent. Regrettably, the same can’t be said for traditional public schools,” said Jeanne Allen, president of CER.
Additionally, the report found that of the approximately 6,700 charter schools that have opened in the US since 1992, 1,036 have been closed. An additional 500 charters have been consolidated back into the district or received a charter but never opened. Moreover, most charters that close for financial or operational deficiencies do so within the first five years, or within their first charter contract. Academic closures take longer because the whole charter term is required to collect enough useable data and make comparisons.
Another interesting find is that there are five primary reasons for charter closures:
–Financial (41.7%)
–Mismanagement (24%)
–Academic (18.6%)
–District obstacles (6.3%)
–Facilities (4.6%)
Allen sums up the report by observing that writing off charter schools by saying there are too many bad ones is too simplistic and is inaccurate. “The real story about charter school closures and accountability is that strong state charter laws and strong authorizers give schools a better chance at success because they hold them accountable and can offer them tools to succeed.”
To read the full report, please visit http://www.edreform.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/StateOfCharterSchools_CER_Dec2011-Web-1.pdf
