Greg Harris, StudentsFirst

A Commitment To Quality Schools is Necessary
By Greg Harris, Ph.D.

As the ongoing investigations into some of Ohio’s charter schools show, state law has enabled a charter system where school quantity too often trumps school quality.

At StudentsFirst, we adamantly believe that every school receiving tax dollars should be held to a high standard, and public charter schools are no exception. Charter schools that fail to adequately educate their pupils—or break the law—should be closed.

That said, these bad actors should not be allowed to define the movement as a whole. Indeed, many public charter school teachers, school leaders, and students are doing amazing work. They give families additional services, as well as provide better educational options for parents of students stuck in poor-performing schools.

In ideal situations, community schools collaborate with local school districts, as we’ve seen in Cleveland and Cincinnati. For example, Cincinnati Public Schools recently worked with two highly reputable charter organizations, Carpe Diem and New Tech, to open two schools in the district. And the highly rated Breakthrough schools in Cleveland work in close coordination with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

There’s no question that underperforming or poorly run schools—including public charter schools—are a disservice to students. That is why StudentsFirst supported the adoption of a clear and comprehensive A-F school report card. This is an invaluable accountability tool for measuring charter school and traditional public school performance in ways that are accessible to the public.

Under a new culture of accountability, it is critical for charter school advocates to take the lead in this discussing and fully embracing best practices to hold underperforming charter schools and their authorizers accountable. We urgently need to cease sending tax dollars and students to poor-performing charter schools, while investing in the best schools for Ohio’s kids.

Ohio actually has enacted some strong charter school accountability laws. The state requires a performance-based contract limited to 5-year term lengths and authorizers are required to conduct annual school reviews. This allows the Department of Education to investigate and take action when necessary. In addition, low-performing authorizers are automatically prohibited from authorizing additional schools if they have schools ranked in the lowest 20% of all schools.

Unfortunately, up to this year there was a loophole that allowed authorizers of poor performing charter schools to get around these laws. But during the recent budget, StudentsFirst worked with our partners who support quality school choice to close that loophole, which Governor Kasich signed into law.

In order to strengthen state law surrounding charter school accountability practice, it is also crucial for charter laws to require the following:

• Performance-based contracts (apart from the application) establishing specific, measurable goals for student outcomes with an initial term length of 5 years;
• Annual performance monitoring and reporting by authorizers for each school in their portfolio;
• Clear triggers and protocols for closing low performing charter schools;
• Annual reviews of authorizers by an oversight body and sanctions for low performance; and
• Specific accountability measures for virtual charter schools.

We want to see all public schools succeed just as much as anyone else, which is why we have always encouraged school accountability in Ohio. At the same time, while we are discussing low performing charter schools, let’s not forget there are many other charter schools filled with hardworking students and educators doing amazing work.

Greg Harris is the Ohio Director of StudentsFirst