The Case for Public Charter Schools in Kentucky (Part III-School Accountability)
A common question that I get from Kentuckians about public charter schools is this: What if they don't work? I think that's a fair question and one which any concerned parent and citizen should have of an education reform. Here is the answer:
In exchange for the increased autonomy or independence that charter schools receive they are held to high accountability standards. Does this mean that every charter school works? No, they do not all work. The benefit of the charter school, however, is that if it does not work we can close it down. That is a new breed of school accountability. If the school doesn't work, we close it. This is why getting good charter school legislation in Kentucky is so important. With Kentucky being one of the last states to consider adopting charter school legislation we can learn from some of errors that lawmakers in other states have made with drafting charter school laws. For Kentucky, we want a charter school law that has a high threshold; meaning applicants wanting to open charter schools will have to meet a rigorous standard before being granted a charter. We also want the law written so that charter schools that fail to meet their agreed upon expectations will be shut down with minimal difficulty. In addition to this outcomes-based accountability that comes with charter schools, any parent that is unhappy with the charter school that their child attends simply takes the child out of the charter school and sends him/her to another school. That's consumer accountability (Lewis & Fusarelli, 2010).
Let's imagine just for a second if all public schools had to meet this kind of standard; accountability for student outcomes and direct accountability to stakeholders. Any schools that doesn't perform and doesn't give parents what they are looking for would be forced to close. That sounds ideal for me. But that's a far cry from what we have with the current system. Instead, what is much more often the case is it doesn't matter if parents are pleased with the school or not or if the school is performing at acceptable levels or not, we will force kids to go to the school and not provide parents with additional public school options. That scenario would be hard to believe in the United States of America if we didn't all know that it is what happens in many of our school districts in Kentucky today. But it doesn't have to be that way. We get to write the next chapter of our Kentucky education story.
References
Lewis, W. D., & Fusarelli, L. D. (2010). Leading schools in an era of change: Toward a new culture of accountability. In S. D. Horsford (Ed.), New perspectives on educational leadership: Exploring social, political, and community contexts and meanings (pp. 111-126). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
In exchange for the increased autonomy or independence that charter schools receive they are held to high accountability standards. Does this mean that every charter school works? No, they do not all work. The benefit of the charter school, however, is that if it does not work we can close it down. That is a new breed of school accountability. If the school doesn't work, we close it. This is why getting good charter school legislation in Kentucky is so important. With Kentucky being one of the last states to consider adopting charter school legislation we can learn from some of errors that lawmakers in other states have made with drafting charter school laws. For Kentucky, we want a charter school law that has a high threshold; meaning applicants wanting to open charter schools will have to meet a rigorous standard before being granted a charter. We also want the law written so that charter schools that fail to meet their agreed upon expectations will be shut down with minimal difficulty. In addition to this outcomes-based accountability that comes with charter schools, any parent that is unhappy with the charter school that their child attends simply takes the child out of the charter school and sends him/her to another school. That's consumer accountability (Lewis & Fusarelli, 2010).
Let's imagine just for a second if all public schools had to meet this kind of standard; accountability for student outcomes and direct accountability to stakeholders. Any schools that doesn't perform and doesn't give parents what they are looking for would be forced to close. That sounds ideal for me. But that's a far cry from what we have with the current system. Instead, what is much more often the case is it doesn't matter if parents are pleased with the school or not or if the school is performing at acceptable levels or not, we will force kids to go to the school and not provide parents with additional public school options. That scenario would be hard to believe in the United States of America if we didn't all know that it is what happens in many of our school districts in Kentucky today. But it doesn't have to be that way. We get to write the next chapter of our Kentucky education story.
References
Lewis, W. D., & Fusarelli, L. D. (2010). Leading schools in an era of change: Toward a new culture of accountability. In S. D. Horsford (Ed.), New perspectives on educational leadership: Exploring social, political, and community contexts and meanings (pp. 111-126). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Posted by Wayne D. Lewis at 9/13/2011 6:37 AM 
Categories: Accountability, School Choice, Charter Schools
Tags: school accountability charter schools education reform school choice
Categories: Accountability, School Choice, Charter Schools
Tags: school accountability charter schools education reform school choice
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