Access To Opportunity: Experiences of Minnesota Students In Four Statewide School Choice Programs 1989-1990

December 1990
By: Joe Nathan and Wayne Jennings
Price: $7.50

Summarizes parent and participating students' response to the Post-Secondary Options law and "second chance" choice laws. Shows that the "second chance" choice laws helped bring thousands of students who had dropped out back to school, and helped many youngsters increase their educational aspirations.

Charter School Handbook, Second Edition. A Comprehensive Guide to Charter School Development

Minnesota Association of Charter Schools and The New Twin Cities Charter School Project, Center for School Change, 1998
Price: $10.00

Practical guide for parents, educators, and community people who have developed a vision to create a charter school to transform the way children achieve. Will guide charter planners through the process of starting a new school. Handbook is divided into three sections: First Steps describes what a prospective charter operating group needs to do prior to drafting a charter proposal. Elements of a Strong Charter Proposal discusses the steps toward creating a strong charter proposal. After Approval addresses what needs to be done after approval to start and run a successful charter school. Contains useful and updated materials that will also be of interest to current charter school operators.

Charter Public Schools: A Brief History and Preliminary Lessons

October 1995
By: Joe Nathan
Price: $7.00

Provides a brief history, offers a rationale, and explains critical features of charter public schools. Concludes with key lessons learned at charter schools in several states.

Charter Schools: What Are They Up To? A 1995 Survey

August 1995
By: Alex Medler and Joe Nathan (Co-sponsored by Education Commission Of the States and Center for School Change)
Price: $10.00

Survey of 110 charter public schools in seven states. The report found that charter school officials' "number one" request of policymakers is that charter schools be given real autonomy in exchange for their responsibility to improve education. The report also describes lessons learned so far by charter schools, including advice officials would give to policymakers and people considering establishing a charter school.

Expanding the Circle: Charter Schools and the News Media

Download a copy of Expanding the Circle: Charter Schools and the News media

This 2004 publication was written by Gary Larson, Vice President of Communications for the California Charter Schools Association, and Joe Nathan, Center for School Change Director. The publication includes 10 Principles for Communicating with the News Media, a discussion of messages schools may want to use, advice about drafting a press release, working with editorial boards, and dealing with negative news. The publication is intended to be extremely practical. Readers are welcome to copy all or part of the booklet.

Expanding the Circle was produced with the support of the Shirley and Barnett Helzberg Foundation, the Johnston Education Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation, The Cener for Innovative Education in New York City, the Bloch Family Fund and an anonymous donation.

Making a Difference? Charter Schools, Evaluation and Student Performance

Download a copy of Making a Difference:makeadifference

March 1998
By: Stella Cheung, Mary Ellen Murphy and Joe Nathan
Price: $12.00

Examines the questions: How are charter schools assessing student achievement? What are charter schools doing to meet accountability requirements? Are charter schools improving student achievement? Thirty-one charter schools in eight states were interviewed. Twenty-one charter schools in the sample have administered at least two rounds of the same test and appear to be making academic gains. This report summarizes the success of these 21 schools. It also discusses the methods used to assess student achievement and other aspects of accountability such as student behavior and attitudes, parental involvement and school climate.

Policy Makers' Views On the Charter School Movement

April 1996
By: Joe Nathan and Jennifer Power
Price: $5.00

Explains why the Charter Public School Movement has spread in less than five years to almost half of the states. Fifty legislators and policy leaders in seven states were asked why they had proposed charter legislation. Major reasons cited are to help youngsters who have not succeeded in existing schools, provide opportunity for educational entrepreneurs, expand the range of schools available, increase student schools available, increase student achievement and pressure the existing system to improve. Policymakers have five central recommendations for strengthening charter laws: 1) Give charter schools the same per pupil allocations as other public schools; 2) Permit more than one organization to sponsor charter schools; 3) Eliminate the cap on the number of charter schools; 4) Give charter schools a great deal of independence; 5) Provide some start-up funds.

What Really Happened? Minnesota's Experience with Statewide Public School Choice Programs

Download a copy of What really happened - final version

May 2002
By: William Boyd, Debra Hare and Joe Nathan
Price: $7.00

A major new study of Minnesota's Public School Choice Laws, conducted by Penn State University and University of Minnesota educators, reveals important and sometimes surprising developments that could have national implications. The two-year study examined Minnesota's Post-Secondary Options, open enrollment, Second Chance and charter schools.

What Should We Do? A Practical Guide to Assessment and Accountability in Schools

intro chapter1 chapter2 chapter3 chapter4

Executive Summary by Joe Nathan and Nicola Johnson

This report shows how families and schools can have a more accurate picture of student achievement. The report also presents a model program of academic accountability for each of the nation's public schools. This two-year, federally funded project involved 21 schools from 13 states. This is one of the first national projects that convened charter public schools and district run schools to learn from each other.

The authors recommend that each school have an explicit contract for improving student achievement between itself and either a local school board or other supervising organization (such as the state, a university or other entity). The project suggests six vital and three valuable features for each accountability contract. The report describes how schools have used these components to help produce clear, measurable improvements in student achievement.

The vital components are:

• Clear, measurable outcomes for each school
• Goals that are understood and supported by families, students and educators
• Multiple measures, including standardized tests and performance measures
• Measurement all students academic work
• Assessments which measure growth of students who don't speak English at home
• Use of assessment information to inform school improvement efforts

The valuable features are:

• Using a person or persons outside the school to help assess student work
• Measuring experiences and attitudes of school graduates
• Creating a parent/educator/community committee to supervise assessment efforts

The report shows how families and schools can have a more complete accurate view of what students are learning. The report offers practical, research based approaches for holding all public schools accountable for results, and it shows how schools can do a better job of informing, involving, and working with families.

Perhaps most important, this report describes some of the most successful accountability and assessment practices of successful schools. We can have higher student achievement, higher graduation rates, and better student attitudes toward learning and active citizenship. We hope this report helps educators, parents and community members see how these goals can be achieved throughout the land.

Making a difference?
Charter schools, evaluation and student performance

Executive Summary

This report attempts to help answer three critical questions people are asking about charter schools:

1. How are charter schools assessing student achievement?
2. What are charter schools doing to meet accountability requirements?
3. Are charter schools improving student achievement? This report is not definitive. However, it is possible to begin answering important questions about student achievement. The answers in this report come from 31 charter schools in eight states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas). This study found that:
   • contracts have been renewed for several charters because of evidence that the schools improved student achievement. These charters are in California, Colorado, and Minnesota.
   • charters use a variety of measures to assess student achievement. The most frequently cited combinations are standardized tests, student portfolios, and teacher evaluations.
   • in addition to student achievement, accountability plans include areas such as student behavior and attitudes, staff development, parental involvement and satisfaction, school climate, fiscal management, and program activities.
   • the charter school and its sponsor share responsibility for a reliable, valid assessment. In most of the charters, but not all, this responsibility had been carried out well.
   • charters are showing that they can improve student achievement. This report cites 21 charter schools which have improved achievement including:
     • Fenton Avenue Charter School in Lake View Terrace, California enrolls 1295 students, 97.5 percent are students of color, and over 95 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch. One of its initial goals was to raise reading, math, and language scores by at least five percentile points. This goal has been accomplished in many grades and subjects.
     • New Visions School in Minneapolis, Minnesota serves 180 inner city students, many who had individual education plans and behavioral problems in previous schools. Over the last five years, students have gained more than one year of academic growth per year on average as measured by two different norm-referenced tests.
     • SABIS International Charter School was one of the lowest performing schools in Springfield, Massachusetts. Sixty-two percent of the students scored below grade level when the school opened in 1995. At the close of the second year, 62 percent of the students tested at or above grade level.
     • West Houston Charter School serves 120 students, 41 percent of the students are classified as "at risk", and 37 percent are identified as Special Education. Results from the Wide Range Achievement Test – Third Edition administered in the beginning and at the end of the 1996-97 school year show that 89 percent of the students gained at least one year of academic growth.

Is it possible for charters to improve achievement of students from low income or limited English speaking families? The results from these schools suggest that the answer is "yes."

---

Asking the Right Questions: Minnesota Teacher Supply and Demand

Executive Summary

Does Minnesota face a shortage of public school teachers during the next decade? That is the question this report was designed to help answer. Researchers examined data about the number of public school teachers projected to retire and to leave teaching before retirement. The number of people leaving teaching was compared with the number of teachers who are being prepared in Minnesota. The report concludes:

• Minnesota currently does not face an overall teacher shortage.
• Projected supply does not match the demand for some specific curricular areas, such as special education, math and science.
• As the state's enrollment becomes more racially diverse, districts are expressing a desire to hire more teachers of color. Supply of such teachers does not appear to meet the demand.
• Some districts in Minnesota may encounter greater challenges in attracting teachers than other districts.
• Changes in state policy can have a dramatic impact on the teacher demand/supply situation. For example, if the state decides to significantly reduce elementary class sizes, this will increase the demand for elementary teachers.
• The state loses almost twice as many teachers to attrition as to retirement - that is, almost twice as many teachers leave the profession for reasons other than retirement. The report recommends:
• The state should examine ways it can create incentives to attract teachers in "high demand" areas, including those teaching certain subjects, and those representing certain racial/ethnic groups.
• The state should conduct research on the financial impact of projected retirements. This information should be available to state and district decision-makers so they can make the best possible choices about how the additional resources created by retirements are used.
• The state should examine reasons teachers leave the profession other than retirement.
• The state should analyze information it already has about patterns of teacher retirement and early leaving, gather additional information and publicize the findings.
• The state should regularly gather information from school districts about their needs in particular teaching areas and publish this data.
• The state should complete a five-year projection on the need for teachers in certain curricular areas. This data should be shared with colleges of education and with prospective teachers.

A report produced by the Center for School Change, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota. Authored by Joe Nathan, Debra Hare and Stella Cheung.

---

The Need is Now

Executive Summary

Hundreds of Minnesota urban, suburban and rural principals had major problems when they tried to hire strong teachers for the current school year. Their experiences and their suggestions about what should be done to attract and retain strong teachers open this report. We offer the views of 710 Minnesota public school principals, representing schools serving more than 50% of Minnesota public school students.

More than 90% of the principals reported a serious shortage of strong candidates in at least one curriculum area. Thus, the possible future shortage of teachers discussed in several recent reports is not just a projection. It's a reality, now, today.

Principals confirm that there is not an overall shortage of strong candidates. The largest number of shortages are in fields such as math, science, special education and industrial arts, as well as teachers of color. In addition, principals are much more likely to describe the average teacher leaving the profession as effective or highly effective (57%), rather than ineffective (6%).

Principals made several suggestions about what should be done. More than 80% of the principals responding endorsed a variety of proposals, including

• loan forgiveness and scholarships for people entering high need fields of teaching
• creation of mentor programs to help retain people once they enter teaching
• higher placement on salary schedules for people with specialties in high demand
• greater flexibility of salary schedules

This report discusses recommendations made in several recent reports. We also discuss Minnesota' experience with what has come to be know as the "opportunity agenda." In some programs like Post Secondary Options, the state legislature provided strong incentives for school districts to improve their programs.

Our report concludes that the state has not made improving student achievement the highest priority of public education. This has led to significant problems in attracting and retaining enough strong teachers.

The report concludes with eight key recommendations. Our single strongest recommendation is that the Legislature take further steps to create a public education system which makes it imperative for school systems to attract and retain excellent teachers. At best, our political and economic system rewards creativity and competence, while penalizing mediocrity and failure. Our public education should do the same. This means, for example, we should

• Hold individual schools accountable for measurable improvement over a three-five year period
• Give individual schools 80-90% of the resources and more authority to make key decisions about staffing and salary levels, so that they can make the needed improvements
• Encourage school boards to see themselves not only as employers of people in schools, but as organizations which can contract with groups of educators for services, just as school districts often contract for transportation, testing and other services.

We also recommend that the state recognize unique problems of retaining educators who work with disabled students. We urge creation of a state group - and possibly a national group -which develops recommendations about ways to make special education teaching more rewarding.

One expert compares public education to a pool with large leaks. Just putting more water into the pool, or increasing public education funding, won't solve the problems. We urge plugging the leaks to attract and retain the excellent educators every Minnesota student needs.

A copy of the full report can be found on the Center for Rural Policy's web page.