Can Charter Schools Balance Growth With Independence?

Growing numbers of charter schools are operating as networks through nonprofit groups called Charter Management Organizations. This raises the question of whether charters can balance rapid growth with independence.

A comprehensive national study maps the landscape of 25 CMOs around the country - such as Green Dot Public Schools in Los Angeles and the nationwide Imagine Schools - by gathering data on how these management organizations operate and how they plan for and implement growth. In the first of what will be a series of reports, researchers focused on CMO’s age, origin, geographic scope, grades served and number of schools that are part of each organization’s structure.

CMOS provide an umbrella structure for three or more charter schools to operate under, according to the criteria of the research study. In this initial study, researchers created a framework for defining a CMO and found that most CMOs are striking a balance between oversight and independence of the individual schools; The question remains as to an optimal size for CMOs.

The focus on CMOs is relevant to broader discussions of education policy and reform because a major reason behind the creation of charter schools was to avoid the entrenched bureaucracy that stifles innovation in many school districts around the country. Since 1991, when Minnesota passed the nation’s first charter school law, “mom and pop” stand-alone charter schools have been the norm. Starting in the late-1990s, however, charters have found greater power in numbers operated through CMOs. This changes the discussion about “schools of choice” – now, there are “networks of choice.”

“CMOS have been touted as a way to overcome financial and operational hurdles that stand-alone charter schools often struggle with, as well as a way to create pressure on districts for systems change,” said Joanna Smith, Assistant Director of USC’s Center on Educational Governance. “But there is a general lack of knowledge about what CMOs actually are, how they operate and how they grow, so our study increases that knowledge so that policy makers, foundations, charter authorizers and others can make informed decisions.”

The Center on Educational Governance is at the USC Rossier School of Education. Study researchers conducted over 50 interviews with leaders from 25 CMOs currently operating in 26 of the 41 states with charter school laws. The research was funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, and it aims to create a baseline of information about this newly emerging form of chartering.

“With the proliferation of charter schools, currently numbering around 4,300 nationwide, there has been a growing awareness of the need for a more financially viable model for charter school management and organization, as well as the desire to replicate successful programming,” said Priscilla Wohlstetter, Professor in USC’s Rossier School of Education.

The research team at USC’s Center on Educational Governance came up with specific criteria to define CMOs in order to prevent overlap or confusion. They defined CMOs as nonprofit organizations that manage a network of charter schools, in order to differentiate them from for-profit education management organizations that may provide only one of a menu of school needs. The sample included only CMOs that have at least three campuses in operation during the 2008-2009 school year, and that have plans for further expansion.

The team started with a pool of 40 CMOs, but some of these management organizations didn't meet the definition criteria, others declined to participate and the rest didn't respond to requests to participate in the study.

Some of the key findings:

- CMOs provide more infrastructure than stand-alone charter schools but are smaller and have fewer levels of hierarchy than traditional school districts.
- CMO home offices generally support, rather than direct, the individual schools they oversee by giving them significant autonomy while expecting them to adhere to the CMO’s mission and vision.
- The CMOs studied spent significant time and dedicated extensive resources towards teacher recruitment, training and leadership development.

The CMOs in the study included those with ties to California, New York, Texas, Oregon, Louisiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Washington D.C., among others. They were typically comprised of small networks of ten or fewer schools that served a student body of between 1,000 and 5,000 students. (A list of CMOs is available upon request).

Ten of the 25 CMOs started out as a single charter school that expanded to a network due to demand or success. In the other 15 CMOs, founders established the network structure prior to or concurrent with opening the first charter school. More than half of the CMOs studied have developed within a city or region of one state, and only two CMOs have opened schools nationwide (in five or more states).

The majority of the CMOs had a K-12 configuration. Six CMOs focused on middle and high school grades (e.g., 6th-12th grades). Three CMOs had an elementary/middle-school model and two CMOs had high school only configurations.

Excluded from the study were charter organizations that ran online charter schools, and school districts in which all public schools were charter schools. Also excluded were agencies that were created to serve a broader purpose but which also ran one or more charters.

___________________________

Priscilla Wohlstetter is the Diane and MacDonald Becket Professor of Educational Policy at the University of Southern California’s Rossier (pronounced ross-EAR) School of Education. She directs the Center on Educational Governance, an interdisciplinary research center focused on the linkages between policy, educational governance, and the improvement of urban schools and systems.

Joanna Smith is the Assistant Director of the University of Southern California’s Center on Educational Governance.

Also involved in the research were Caitlin Farrell and Michelle Nayfack, doctoral students at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education and Research Associates with USC’s Center on Educational Governance.

The study is available from the Center on Educational Governance website at http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/cegov/focus/charter_schools/publications/other/Intro%20to%20CMOs.pdf