Charter Schools

What are charter schools?

Charter schools are public schools funded with public tax dollars. States grant charter schools the right to operate with greater independence and flexibility than most public schools in exchange for assuming greater responsibility for student achievement. Charter schools agree to meet certain achievement goals within a fixed period of time.   These goals and timeframes become part of the written "charter" that is created when a proposal for a new school is approved.

Admission is open to all. Charter schools cannot "select out" the best and brightest.   They are an option for all public school students. Selection is usually done by a lottery.   Typically, each charter school emphasizes a particular theme or approach, and works with a specific range of ages or grades.

Charter Schools in Pennsylvania

In 1997, Pennsylvania enacted its Charter School Law to provide students and the community with innovative, independent public schools. By fall 2003, there were 91 charter schools operating in the Commonwealth1, more than half of them in the City of Philadelphia.   Pennsylvania has the sixth largest charter school population in the nation2.

Applications for charter schools in Pennsylvania are reviewed by the local school board in the district in which the school is located. The School Reform Commission (SRC) was appointed by state and local officials in 2002 to replace the existing Board of Education. The SRC reviews all applications to create new charter schools in the City, and has the jurisdiction to approve, deny or renew charter school applications. If an application is denied, the charter operator has the right to appeal the decision before a state Charter School Appeals Board.   Once an application is approved, the school must use the public funds it receives to find a suitable building, appoint a Board of Trustees, hire administrators, teachers, counselors, nurses and other staff, and purchase supplies, equipment, food and other services that are necessary for school operations.

Although they receive their funding through their local school district, charter schools operate as separate, independent, nonprofit corporations with legal responsibility for their own activities. According to the PA Department of Education, Pennsylvania charter schools are exempt from most state mandates-except those insuring the health, safety and civil rights of students.

However, charter schools are held accountable for meeting annual goals set by the new Pennsylvania Accountability System. This system applies to all public schools and incorporates requirements from the 2001 "No Child Left Behind" Act.   All students attending charter schools take the state's own standardized test, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), just as students do in the traditional public school settings. In Philadelphia, charter schools also must administer the TerraNova test, just as SDP schools do.

Charter Schools in Philadelphia

While charter schools must meet all Pennsylvania academic standards that traditional public schools must meet, they are able to develop a specific purpose or academic focus. Some charter high schools offer an academic focus that is related to a certain occupation (like the Charter High School for Architecture and Philadelphia Electrical and Technology Charter School); others offer a focus based on students' racial or ethnic heritage, like Imhotep, Nueva Esperanza and Mariana Bracetti.

Parents, educators and community members throughout Philadelphia have been quick to embrace the idea of charter schools. From the beginning, Philadelphia has led the state in the creation of charter schools.

Philadelphia schools currently represent more than half of all approved charter schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and almost 60% of the Commonwealth's total charter school enrollment. Nearly 21,000 students attend charter schools in Philadelphia.   Based on the SDP's overall enrollment of over 191,300 students, this means that nearly one in ten public school students in Philadelphia currently attends a charter school.

As a collective population, Philadelphia charter schools represent the third largest school district in the Commonwealth.

Secondary Education Reform

On February 27, 2003, the School District of Philadelphia announced a bold new plan to reform secondary education.   The Reform Plan focuses on seven key areas over the next five years:

•  The transition to high school.

•  Curriculum upgrades.

•  High quality staff development and leadership training.

•  Enhanced support services.

•  Enhanced high school program opportunities.

•  Increased high school options.

•  Facility upgrades.

Highlights of the Reform Plan include:

• The elimination of social promotion from 8 th grade to high school.  
• Targeted class size reduction.
• A new, standardized, structured curriculum that is multicultural and diverse.
• Advanced placement curriculum for 11 th and 12 th grades, and an expansion in the number of high schools offering advanced placement courses.
• Double the number of counselors and counseling support for students.  
• Student government in all high schools and a citywide student government.
• The development of nine math, science and technology academies in neighborhood high schools in four years.  
• The creation of new high schools throughout the City through the conversion of middle schools, new school construction and renovation or replacement of older schools.
• Reduction in the size of high schools from an average of over 1,900 students, to 250 to 800 students per school.  

The intent of this sweeping Plan is to expand the opportunities and choices available to the approximately 60,000 high school students in Philadelphia public schools.   With the potential to put Philadelphia on the "cutting edge of school reform," magnet programs would be initiated allowing for more options for academic programs, music and the arts, athletics and extracurricular activities. Over $620 million would be invested in new construction, renovations, and conversions of existing school buildings.   High school enrollments would decrease, from an average of over 1,900 students to just 200 to 800 students per school with the opening of new high schools across the District.   Transition programs would be established to help students adjust to high school in 9th grade. Social promotion for 8th grade students would end and be replaced with remedial education to prepare them for the rigors of high school.  

This Reform Plan also mentions adding "at least one new charter high school this year and two additional charter high schools to be created over the next four years."   This slow-growth support for charter high schools does not do enough to increase public options for students and their families.   Nor does it take into account the fact that charter high schools meet several of the goals of the Plan – smaller schools, better test scores and fewer drop outs. By further weaving charter schools into the fabric of the District, the SDP can provide the greatest number of options to its students and their families, and improve the quality of education for all.   

This white paper examines Philadelphia's public high schools that are not managed by the SDP, an often overlooked aspect of the City's schools. While much attention has focused on public schools run by private companies and nonprofit groups, these schools mostly serve elementary and middle school grades. There is a group of public high schools in Philadelphia that is not run by the SDP: It is our City's charter high schools. This year there are 19 charter schools serving at least one high school grade (9 through 12). We compare charter high schools with the general admission, comprehensive Philadelphia public high schools city-wide and using the geographic regions defined by the SDP.

Methodology

This white paper compares the test scores, drop-out rates, demographics, attendance rates, enrollment, and rates of students receiving special education in the 19 charter schools serving high school grades and the 22 comprehensive, general admission public high schools.   Magnet schools were not included in the comparative analysis because they admit students based on test scores and academic achievement – charter and traditional public schools are not "special admission."   The analysis was conducted for eight of the SDP's nine geographic regions (the West region of the SDP does not have any charter schools with high school grades).   Except as it relates to test scores, data from the 2001-2002 school year was used, as this is the last year for which complete data was available.   Test scores are based on the 2002-2003 data so as to include more recent information, including both PSSA and TerraNova test results.

Charter high schools, like SDP high schools, do not have admission criteria. While charter schools are open to students from the entire City (in fact, any student in Pennsylvania can attend any charter school in the Commonwealth), a regional comparison is made here because nearly 40% of Philadelphia charter high school students attend charter schools in their own neighborhood3.

During the 2001-02 academic year, Philadelphia contained 22 comprehensive neighborhood high schools. One of these, Strawberry Mansion H.S., served grades eight through 12, while the other 21 served grades 9 through 12. That year, the City contained 16 charter high schools. Several of these schools served grades other than 9 through 12. Only a few of these 16 charter high schools served grades 9 through 12.  

Two additional charter high schools opened in the 2002-2003 academic year.   All 18 charter high schools are listed on the chart below.

Philadelphia Charter High Schools

 

*Charter schools listed in italics opened in the 2002-2003 academic year.

The SDP is divided into nine geographic regions. Each region contains at least one comprehensive high school. The nine regions of the SDP and the comprehensive public high schools and charter high schools they contain are listed in the following table.

Philadelphia Public High Schools by Region

 

As the table shows, all but one of the nine regions contained at least one charter high school during the 2001-02 academic year. The West Philadelphia region (Overbrook and University City high schools) did not contain a charter high school. The Southwest Region (Bartram and West Philadelphia high schools) contained only one charter high school, the Center for Economics and Law. That school's charter was not renewed after the 2002-03 year and it closed.

             

Test scores used throughout the white paper are from the 2002-03 academic year (the most recent for which scores are available). The demographic and other information are taken from the 2001-02 school year (the most recent for which the data are available).   

             

The paper compares the schools on a number of factors to determine the relative comparability of the populations served by the charters and the traditional public schools-racial/ethnic composition of the student body, percentage of student eligible for the federal free and reduced lunch program and the percentage of special education students (excluding gifted students).

The measures of achievement used in the paper include academic achievement, as measured by the PSSA and TerraNova tests and dropout percentage, as reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.   There are many other indicators of school quality for both the traditional public schools and for the charter schools (parent and student satisfaction, curriculum choices, etc.). The criteria used here are based on objective measures, selected to provide information about the types of students served and the indicators of student success.

1- Pennsylvania Department of Education, www.pde.state.pa.us

2- US Charter Schools, www.uscharterschools.org

3- A Directory of Philadelphia Charter Schools, 2003-2004 .   Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition