Practicum: Chicago Public Schools Charter School Renewal Process

Course Number: 
50807

By application process only.

As of the current academic year (SY12 – 13), there are in excess of 100 Charter Schools operating in Chicago, either as single campuses or part of a larger network of campuses, serving approximately 50,000 students. All of these Charter Schools operate under a contract established with Chicago Public Schools to ensure that each Charter holder and campus:

  1.  Achieves the high academic expectations common to all public schools within the City
  2.  Safeguards the education it provides to its students through sound fiscal management
  3. Provides all students the education to which they are legally entitled

Charter contract terms vary depending on a number of factors, but most generally run five years. At the end of each Charter contract term, The Office of New Schools (ONS), as the Authorizer, must weight a wide variety of evidence to determine whether to renew the contract with the Charter holder through a rigorous Charter Renewal Process. A critical component of the Charter renewal process is an evaluation of whether the Charter Holder achieved high academic expectations as defined by the School Performance Policy articulated in their contract. Given that Charter Schools are schools of choice, a particularly important analysis within this evaluation centers on the question of whether the students at a given charter school have a better school option (District, Charter, Contract etc.) from which to choose. To be clear, the response to this question clearly has significant impacts on any Charter Renewal recommendation that ONS proposes to the Chicago Board of Education: As the city shifts to a portfolio district in which every student has access to Level 1 Open Enrollment seat, it is incumbent upon ONS and the Board to close schools that are performing poorly both by the standards in their contract and relative to their counterparts.

We would like the Practicum Team to help us strengthen the methodology through which The Office of New Schools can determine whether charter school students have a better school option. The Practicum Team and Faculty Partner would work with the Director of School Performance Evaluation and Compliance to develop this methodology. Moreover, this Team would propose, to the Executive Director of ONS and the Chief Portfolio Officer, that this methodology be adopted as part of the annual Charter Renewal Process.