9 May 2018
ESSA

ESSA │Charter Schools and School Choice

While state policy shapes the school choice landscape within individual states, there is a long history of federal support for choice options at the state and local levels. The Every Student Succeeds Act continues this support. Specifically, ESSA updates and expands the federal Charter Schools Program and the federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program. As competitive grant competitions first authorized in 1994 and 1984 respectively, these programs provide funding to support the creation and continuation of high quality magnet and charter schools. In addition to these programs, ESSA provides increased flexibility, especially regarding the use of federal funding. This increased flexibility positions states, districts, and key stakeholders with an historic opportunity to develop, revise, and/or refine school choice efforts and activities.

AIR has a history, reputation, and track record for supporting states, districts, and stakeholders with school choice efforts and activities. Additionally, our team of technical assistance providers draws on the expertise of our many national centers and internationally-renowned experts—in education, as well as in related fields like health and the workforce.  

Key Resources
AIR Centers with Related Content

AIR operates a number of national, regional, and state centers that produce publicly available resources. The centers that have a specific focus on charter schools and school choice are as follows:

 

Related Work

27 May 2015
Report

What Happens When Schools Become Magnet Schools? A Longitudinal Study of Diversity and Achievement

Magnet schools are best known for offering unique programs or curricula to attract students from outside a school’s neighborhood; many started off as neighborhood public schools but converted with the goals of increasing student diversity and achievement. A nine-year AIR study of 21 magnet schools found that while there was limited evidence that the schools were successful in increasing diversity, there was inconclusive evidence of increased student achievement.
Topic: 
Education, District and School Improvement
15 Dec 2015
Blog Post

Meet Three Charter Schools Successfully Serving Students with Disabilities

Charter schools were created to give parents more options for their children. With greater freedom to innovate than traditional public school classrooms, some charter schools may hold particular promise for students with disabilities, who by law are entitled to receive an education tailor-made to their needs. Zena Rudo tells the stories of three charter schools where students with disabilities exceeded district achievement averages for reading and math.
Topic: 
Education, Charter Schools and School Choice, Special Education
31 Jul 2014
Brief

Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) Implementation: Early Lessons From the Field

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) represents a fundamental transformation of the way California allocates state funds to school districts and the ways the state expects districts to make decisions about (and report on) the use of these funds. This brief identifies some early lessons about how best to use the new system to meet student needs, especially the traditionally underserved.
Topic: 
Education, Charter Schools and School Choice, District and School Improvement, School Finance
23 Jun 2013
Report

Evaluation of Hawaii's Weighted Student Formula

In June 2013, AIR completed an initial evaluation of the patterns of resource allocation and the attitudes and perspectives of various stakeholders about the implementation of Hawaii's weighted student formula (WSF). The findings of this evaluation show that implementation of Hawaii's WSF appears to have gained widespread acceptance among school leaders and some key stakeholders within the state.
Topic: 
Education, Charter Schools and School Choice, School Finance
12 Feb 2013
Toolkit

Special Education Start-Up and Implementation Tools for Charter School Leaders and Special Education Managers

This user-friendly guidebook and toolkit was developed by special education experts to support charter school leaders and special education managers as they build special education programs to serve students with disabilities.

Topic: 
Education, Charter Schools and School Choice, District and School Improvement, Special Education
1 Apr 2018
Journal Article

Taking Stock of Private School Choice: Lessons Learned from Indiana

The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, launched in 2011, offers a rich opportunity to study how a large-scale tuition-voucher program works and to analyze the results it has produced in its first few years. This article describes the results of a four-year study of the Indiana program.
Topic: 
Education, Charter Schools and School Choice
1 May 2010
Report

Out of the Debate and Into the Schools: Comparing Practices and Strategies in Traditional, Pilot and Charter Schools in the City of Boston

The findings of this study suggest that middle and high school students who attend charter schools significantly outperform their counterparts attending traditional schools, while the differences in student performance between charter and pilot schools were mixed.

Topic: 
Education, Charter Schools and School Choice, District and School Improvement

Further Reading