Ensuring Transparency & Accountability In the Charter School Renewal Process
By: Laura Mogg | June 4, 2010
Part of ensuring the quality of charter schools lies in the authorizing process, an important part of which are the decisions about the renewal or non-renewal of charter schools currently in operation. While Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), one of the state’s charter school authorizers, has gone through the process of evaluating and renewing charter school contracts before, this year is the first in which the board will consider the renewal of Type 5 charter schools (the low-performing schools taken over by the Recovery School District and chartered by BESE). It also marks the beginning of a number of upcoming years in which many Type 5 charter schools will come up for renewal. With these critical decisions approaching, it is important to review Louisiana law, as well as BESE and Louisiana Department of Education Charter School Office policies on the charter renewal process and their implementation thus far, and to consider them in relation to nationally-recognized laws and best practices.
The Cowen Institute recently released a brief in which we review national best practices and compare Louisiana’s laws and policies to what well-respected national organizations recommend. We also describe the current year’s renewal policies and offer observations about how BESE’s policies have or have not been implemented, as best we can determine from public documentation. Lastly, we make recommendations for how the process can be improved for schools that will be applying for charter renewals in the coming years.
What follows is a summary of our brief which can be downloaded in its entirety here.
According to the best practices and model laws promoted by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), the quality of Louisiana’s law and policies governing charter school renewals is mixed. The state received eight out of the possible 12 points, and two of four possible stars, from NAPCS in the category of “Clear Processes for Renewal, Non-renewal, and Revocation Decisions.” Louisiana received points for requiring schools to apply for renewal, having clear criteria for renewal or non-renewal, making decisions based on evidence of a school’s performance, and varying the length of renewals based on performance. The state’s law and policies fell short by, among other things, not issuing performance renewal reports to schools up for renewal the following year, not issuing guidance for the renewal application that would provide schools the chance to discuss their improvements, and not having established school closure protocols.
Despite the praise it received from these national organizations for some of the state’s charter school renewal policies and processes, BESE and the Louisiana Charter Schools Office (CSO) failed to implement their written policies for the initial renewals for Type 5 charters for 2010. Most importantly, schools were not provided the renewal application and timeline in a timely manner, which pushed back the entire decision-making timeline. BESE’s decision on renewal or non-renewal can come no earlier than two months before the start of the school year. This late decision leaves students, parents, and school employees in limbo, unsure of where they will attend school or whether or not they will be employed. It also strains other schools forced to accommodate the students of a non-renewed charter school at the last minute. And, as the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools notes, there is no policy for the transition of student records or the disposition of property and assets of a closed school, should BESE decide to close P. A. Capdau, the only Type 5 school up for renewal this year.
It is troubling that the timeline established in BESE Bulletin 126 seems to have been ignored, creating a process that may result in hurried, and therefore lower-quality, decisions about the renewal of charters. It is imperative that in future years the process for renewal begin in a more timely manner and that BESE and the CSO work together to establish procedures for dealing with schools whose charters are not renewed.
The process of establishing additional policies and revising problematic ones should begin immediately. Many Type 5 charter schools that were opened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina are entering their fifth full year of operation this fall, which also means that they will be applying for renewal this fall. The following steps need to be followed by BESE and the CSO to ensure that the process for the upcoming year is timely, transparent, and reflects the key principles of quality charter school authorizing.
- The procedures that will guide the application process for these schools must be in place well in advance of the required October due date for the applications, which is currently only four months away. The Charter School Office should immediately begin working to create this application and should release it no later than the beginning of August 2010, in order to give schools a minimum of two months to complete the application.
- The CSO must be prepared, with sufficient staff and resources, to quickly but thoroughly assess the applications and other data and evidence required to make a quality recommendation to BESE. These recommendations should be made by January 2011.
- BESE must be prepared to quickly make final decisions about the renewals or non-renewals of charters. These decisions should be made by March of 2011, prior to the April 2011 deadline for parents in New Orleans to apply to schools via the Common Application process. Schools that will be closing due to non-renewed charter contracts cannot be allowed to accept and enroll students for the following year.
- Finally, BESE and the CSO must work together to create a process for the closure of schools, the notification of parents, the handling of student records and the disposition of school property and assets. These procedures should also be in place prior to the March 2011 decision on renewals and non-renewals of charters.
Failing to make these needed changes could lead to poor decisions regarding evaluation of charter operators, resulting in the closure of high-performing or consistently improving schools and the continued operation of schools that are failing students.
To download the entire brief that this blog post was excerpted from, click here.
Ensuring Transparency & Accountability In the Charter School Renewal Process
By: Laura Mogg | June 4, 2010
Part of ensuring the quality of charter schools lies in the authorizing process, an important part of which are the decisions about the renewal or non-renewal of charter schools currently in operation. While Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), one of the state’s charter school authorizers, has gone through the process of evaluating and renewing charter school contracts before, this year is the first in which the board will consider the renewal of Type 5 charter schools (the low-performing schools taken over by the Recovery School District and chartered by BESE). It also marks the beginning of a number of upcoming years in which many Type 5 charter schools will come up for renewal. With these critical decisions approaching, it is important to review Louisiana law, as well as BESE and Louisiana Department of Education Charter School Office policies on the charter renewal process and their implementation thus far, and to consider them in relation to nationally-recognized laws and best practices.
The Cowen Institute recently released a brief in which we review national best practices and compare Louisiana’s laws and policies to what well-respected national organizations recommend. We also describe the current year’s renewal policies and offer observations about how BESE’s policies have or have not been implemented, as best we can determine from public documentation. Lastly, we make recommendations for how the process can be improved for schools that will be applying for charter renewals in the coming years.
What follows is a summary of our brief which can be downloaded in its entirety here.
According to the best practices and model laws promoted by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), the quality of Louisiana’s law and policies governing charter school renewals is mixed. The state received eight out of the possible 12 points, and two of four possible stars, from NAPCS in the category of “Clear Processes for Renewal, Non-renewal, and Revocation Decisions.” Louisiana received points for requiring schools to apply for renewal, having clear criteria for renewal or non-renewal, making decisions based on evidence of a school’s performance, and varying the length of renewals based on performance. The state’s law and policies fell short by, among other things, not issuing performance renewal reports to schools up for renewal the following year, not issuing guidance for the renewal application that would provide schools the chance to discuss their improvements, and not having established school closure protocols.
Despite the praise it received from these national organizations for some of the state’s charter school renewal policies and processes, BESE and the Louisiana Charter Schools Office (CSO) failed to implement their written policies for the initial renewals for Type 5 charters for 2010. Most importantly, schools were not provided the renewal application and timeline in a timely manner, which pushed back the entire decision-making timeline. BESE’s decision on renewal or non-renewal can come no earlier than two months before the start of the school year. This late decision leaves students, parents, and school employees in limbo, unsure of where they will attend school or whether or not they will be employed. It also strains other schools forced to accommodate the students of a non-renewed charter school at the last minute. And, as the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools notes, there is no policy for the transition of student records or the disposition of property and assets of a closed school, should BESE decide to close P. A. Capdau, the only Type 5 school up for renewal this year.
It is troubling that the timeline established in BESE Bulletin 126 seems to have been ignored, creating a process that may result in hurried, and therefore lower-quality, decisions about the renewal of charters. It is imperative that in future years the process for renewal begin in a more timely manner and that BESE and the CSO work together to establish procedures for dealing with schools whose charters are not renewed.
The process of establishing additional policies and revising problematic ones should begin immediately. Many Type 5 charter schools that were opened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina are entering their fifth full year of operation this fall, which also means that they will be applying for renewal this fall. The following steps need to be followed by BESE and the CSO to ensure that the process for the upcoming year is timely, transparent, and reflects the key principles of quality charter school authorizing.
Failing to make these needed changes could lead to poor decisions regarding evaluation of charter operators, resulting in the closure of high-performing or consistently improving schools and the continued operation of schools that are failing students.
To download the entire brief that this blog post was excerpted from, click here.