Ch. 5: Encouraging Diverse Suppliers (HFR '08)

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December 2008
Frederick M. Hess, Bruno V. Manno

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A more sophisticated understanding of the diverse constituent demand is needed to effectively grow the charter sector

In this chapter, Rick Hess and Bruno Manno make a compelling case that, by focusing on creating a strong supply of new schools, charter school funders, policymakers, and advocates have largely ignored the different needs of the various constituencies on the “demand side” of charter schooling. Understanding what various types of students, parents, teachers, principals, school districts, and others want and need could allow greater targeting of charter schools and would also give focus to philanthropic investments and policy changes. In the long run, the authors argue, greater effort to match schools to expressed needs could pay off in increased student achievement.

Though charter schools are already highly diverse, Hess and Manno suggest that meeting the requirements of parents and other constituencies could make them more so by “mapping and unbundling choice.” They argue that because providers are encouraged (and routinely seek) to develop “whole-school” solutions, they wind up replicating the traditional services and structure of existing schools. While there is a demand for unbundled products that focus on discrete units—for example, human capital improvements; organizational, pedagogical, operational, and technological issues—the current charter movement is unable to encourage demand for these services because it is “expected to solve the entire problem of K–5 or 6–8 or 9–12 schooling.” Lowering this “high and unrealistic bar,” argue Hess and Manno, would permit many new, entrepreneurial problem-solvers to take their place at the table.