PRESS RELEASE:

Study challenges myth that charter school parents not well informed

---

12/06/2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Parents who choose charter schools for their children use the same methods for making their selection, and are as well informed, as parents who choose private or traditional public schools, a new study reveals.

The study challenges the stereotype that low- to moderate-income ($0–$50K annual) urban parents are ill-informed consumers led unwittingly to select charter schools or other schools of choice.

“Families with children in charter schools are proactive in gathering information and informed about the choices they make,” said Robin Lake, director of the National Charter School Research Project at the Seattle-based Center on Reinventing Public Education. “These parents care about quality and they have an appetite for information.”

“Some have questioned,” Lake continued, “whether charter school parents are sophisticated enough and have access to enough information to make good school-choice decisions. We now know they are just as sophisticated and well-informed as parents who make different choices.”

Like parents who do not choose a charter school, charter parents obtain information from other families with children in schools they are considering, look at information provided directly by the schools, visit schools with their children, and also take into account their children’s opinions.

As part of the report Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2006, the study of how charter school parents do their homework surveyed parents in three cities with many school choice options: Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and Denver. The study also found that charter school parents report greater satisfaction than parents who made a different school choice.

The growth of charter schools in the United States continued strong in the 2005-2006 school year, according to the report, up 10 percent from the previous year, to a total of 3,638. Most charter schools are located in urban areas.

While some have seen charter schools as a threat to traditional district-sponsored public schools, the growth of charter schools has sparked a healthy competitive response in many communities. Chapter 2 of this year’s Hopes, Fears, & Reality report examines how the public schools in Dayton, Ohio, have responded to this competition.

“We are not going to fold,” Superintendent Percy Mack told local news media. “We are going to be the system of choice in this community.” To be that, Dayton Public Schools took the initiative by offering parents more school choices, reaching out with more and better information, strengthening oversight of schools and addressing policies that stand as barriers to improvement.

The ‘06 edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality contains an intriguing Chapter 3 on a one-day “ceasefire” conference that brought together teachers union and charter school leaders.

The discussion revealed that the two sides have substantial conflicts and yet they also share common interests: particularly creating attractive new opportunities for good teachers and providing options for children whom traditional public schools do not serve well.

Much of the discussion centered on how best these two opposing sides can coexist. As one charter leader said, “I believe that there really has to be reconciliation between teachers unions and the charter community in order for both to develop in a healthy, successful way.” A union leader offered this observation: “The scorched earth stuff of we versus them hasn’t worked up until now, and it probably won’t work.”

The report’s four other chapters concentrate on how government institutions can do a better job measuring and judging charter schools’ performance. These chapters identify new methods and yardsticks, including an emphasis on gathering better data that will yield a much clearer view of charter schools’ performance.

The full report will be released on December 6 at a policy luncheon at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

Cities and states referenced in this report:

• Denver, Milwaukee, and D.C.: How low-income parents choose charter schools
• Dayton and Detroit: How districts can help their schools compete
• Los Angeles: The future of charter schools and teachers unions
• Chicago: Tracking charter high school graduation rates

The National Charter School Research Project was established at the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education in the fall of 2004 with support from a consortium of foundations.