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VI. Challenges in the Implementation of Charter Schools

CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS Most charter schools cite resource limitations as a serious implementation difficulty. Lack of start-up funds was the most frequently cited difficulty--58 percent of charter schools reported it as difficult or very difficult. Inadequate operating funds, cited by 41 percent of charter schools, was the second most commonly reported difficulty for charter schools. These difficulties ranked as first and second, respectively, for charter schools opened in every year and for newly created and pre-existing schools. Newly created charter schools are more likely to cite resource limitations as a major difficulty than pre-existing charter schools. Nearly two-thirds of newly created charter schools reported lack of start-up funding as the most difficult obstacle faced by the school while 43 percent of pre-existing schools did so. Inadequate facilities and lack of planning time also posed serious difficulties for newly created schools than for pre-existing schools. Political resistance posed implementation problems for some schools. State or local board opposition and district and state level resistance and regulations were cited as difficulties by 15 to 25 percent of all respondents. Internal conflict posed difficulties for nearly 20 percent of respondents. Early charter schools cite a somewhat different mix of difficulties than schools opening in later years. Schools opening in the early years of the charter movement faced greater implementation difficulties with state or local boards, with district regulations, and with state department of education resistance and regulations than schools opening in later years.

A. Identifying Implementation Challenges

From Exhibit 6-1 we see that fiscal obstacles--including funding for start-up and ongoing operations--created the greatest challenges for most charter schools. This finding replicates results presented in the First-Year Report. Fifty-eight percent of all charter schools reported that lack of funding for the school's start-up was a significant obstacle, and 41 percent reported that inadequate operating funds was a significant obstacle. Inadequate facilities and lack of planning time were also rated as difficult or very difficult by about 38 percent of respondents. State or local board opposition was also reported to be difficult or very difficult by nearly a quarter (23 percent) of charter school respondents.

EXHIBIT 6-1

ESTIMATED PERCENTAGE OF SCHOOLS^[1] REPORTING DIFFICULTIES IN
DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING THEIR CHARTERS^[2]

Barriers		% of schools reporting barriers were difficult or very difficult					Mean score				Standard deviation
Lack of start-up funds		57.6%					3.57				1.51
Inadequate operating funds		41.1%					3.09				1.47
Inadequate facilities		38.6%					2.91				1.51
Lack of planning time		38.4%					3.07				1.38
State or local board opposition		23.1%					2.23				1.39
District resistance or regulations		18.3%					1.99				1.37
Internal conflicts		18.2%					2.21				1.26
State department of education resistance or regulations		14.8%					1.95				1.27
Union or bargaining unit resistance		11.3%					1.65				1.18
Health/ safety regulations		10.4%					1.91				1.16
Accountability requirements		9.7%					1.88				1.07
Bargaining agreements		9.0%					1.30				1.10
Hiring staff		8.8%					1.84				1.07
Community opposition		6.9%					1.65				1.03
Federal regulations		6.3%					1.64				1.03
Teacher certification requirements		4.4%					1.45				0.89

1 The number of respondents across the telephone surveys is 382, which is an 89 percent sample of operational charter schools in 1996-97. Some items had slightly fewer responses. Exhibits in the remainder of this chapter are based on 382 respondents.

2 No year is indicated for exhibits in this chapter because the data are derived from different years. For this exhibit the data are derived from the first year each school was surveyed: the 1995-96 school year for schools operating as of January 1996 and the 1996-97 school year for schools operating as of January 1997. Text accompanying each exhibit specifies the time period for the survey responses.

1. Differences by Year of Opening

Exhibit 6-2 displays the percentage of schools reporting that barriers were difficult or very difficult by the period in which the school began operation: the 1994-95 school year or earlier; the 1995-96 school year; and the 1996-97 school year. Lack of start-up funds and inadequate operating funds pose the greatest difficulties for schools started in every year. We found, however, significant differences by year of school opening on five of the barriers: state or local board opposition, state department of education resistance or regulations, union or bargaining unit resistance, bargaining agreements, and hiring staff.^[2]

Schools opening in the 1994-95 school year or before were more likely to report facing greater difficulties regarding state or local board opposition (28 percent versus 23 percent for all sites), state department of education resistance or regulations (21 percent versus 20 percent for all sites), union or bargaining unit resistance (21 percent versus 11 percent for all sites), and bargaining agreements (30 percent versus nine percent for all sites).

Sixty percent of the schools opening in 1994-95 or before were located in California where the district is the only charter-granting agency. In working with the district, a newly created charter school must work out a relationship with the district and ways to conform to its rules and regulations. For pre-existing schools, the school's relationship must undergo a transformation that affords the school increased autonomy and creates for the district a stronger role in accountability.

EXHIBIT 6-2

ESTIMATED PERCENTAGE OF SCHOOLS REPORTING DIFFICULTIES BY YEAR OF CHARTER SCHOOL OPENING

Barriers	% of schools reporting barriers were difficult or very difficult
	All sites	1994-95 or earlier (N=98)	1995-96 (N=138)	1996-97 (N=145)
Lack of start-up funds	57.6%	51.7%	64.1%	54.7%
Inadequate operating funds	41.1%	41.6%	39.5%	46.6%
Inadequate facilities	38.6%	39.3%	33.6%	43.6%
Lack of planning time	38.4%	43.3%	38.3%	35.4%
State or local board opposition	23.1%	28.4%	22.9%	19.1%
District resistance or regulations	18.3%	24.7%	16.8%	15.6%
Internal conflicts	18.2%	23.6%	30.7%	15.3%
State department of education resistance or regulations	14.8%	20.5%	19.7%	6.9%
Union or bargaining unit resistance	11.3%	21.3%	11.5%	4.9%
Health/safety regulations	10.4%	9.1%	9.8%	11.7%
Accountability requirements	9.7%	5.7%	11.5%	10.4%
Bargaining agreements	9.0%	30.2%	10.2%	2.9%
Hiring staff	8.8%	5.7%	14.4%	5.5%
Community opposition	6.9%	2.3%	7.6%	9.0%
Federal regulations	6.3%	6.7%	6.1%	6.3%
Teacher certification requirements	4.4%	4.6%	5.3%	3.5%

Schools opening in the 1996-97 school year report a different pattern of barriers (see Exhibit 6-2), with a smaller percentage of schools reporting significant difficulties with state or local board opposition (19 percent versus 23 percent for all sites), district resistance or regulations (16 percent versus 18 percent for all sites), state department of education resistance or regulations (7 percent versus 15 percent for all sites), and union or bargaining unit resistance (5 percent versus 11 percent for all sites). Fifty-five percent of these schools were located in Arizona and Michigan, states that allow agencies other than districts to grant charters. Both states allow multiple routes to the granting of charters--in Arizona, two state-level agencies can grant charters and in Michigan, state universities can grant charters. The finding that significantly fewer charter schools opening in this school year reported issues with state agencies, the district, and union resistance suggests that the charter granting process and the state context mitigate some problems associated with these relationships.

2. Obstacles for Newly Created versus Pre-existing Charter Schools

Our fieldwork and the 1995-96 school year survey data showed that newly created and pre-existing schools face different obstacles to implementation. We explored this issue again this year using additional data. We divided the schools into newly created and pre-existing schools and examined obstacles for each group of schools. As seen in Exhibit 6-3, the two groups of schools show different patterns of obstacles.

EXHIBIT 6-3

ESTIMATED PERCENTAGE OF SCHOOLS REPORTING DIFFICULTIES FOR NEWLY CREATED VERSUS PRE-EXISTING CHARTER SCHOOLS

Barriers	% of charter schools that felt barriers were difficult or very difficult
	All sites	Newly created	Pre-existing
Lack of start-up funds	57.6%	65.6%	43.4%
Inadequate operating funds	41.1%	43.2%	37.4%
Inadequate facilities	38.6%	44.2%	28.7%
Lack of planning time	38.4%	40.9%	34.1%
State or local board opposition	23.1%	20.7%	27.3%
District resistance or regulations	18.3%	30.9%	18.9%
Internal conflicts	18.2%	20.3%	14.5%
State department of education resistance or regulations	14.8%	11.6%	20.3%
Union or bargaining unit resistance	11.3%	10.5%	12.8%
Health/safety regulations	10.4%	12.4%	6.8%
Accountability requirements	9.7%	9.5%	10.0%
Bargaining agreements	9.0%	5.8%	14.6%
Hiring staff	8.8%	8.6%	9.1%
Community opposition	6.9%	9.9%	1.5%
Federal regulations	6.3%	6.0%	6.8%
Teacher certification requirements	4.4%	3.9%	5.3%

Larger percentages of newly created schools report having difficulties with lack of start-up funds (66 percent for newly created schools versus 43 percent for pre-existing schools), inadequate facilities (44 percent for newly created schools versus 29 percent for pre-existing schools), lack of planning time (41 percent for newly created schools versus 34 percent for pre-existing schools), internal conflicts (20 percent for newly created schools versus 15 percent for pre-existing schools), health and safety regulations (12 percent for newly created schools versus seven percent for pre-existing schools), and community opposition (ten percent for newly created schools versus two percent for pre-existing schools).

It is apparent from these data that newly created schools typically confront all of the start-up problems faced by those starting a new business. They must locate a facility for their school, purchase equipment, books, curriculum materials, and supplies, plan their curriculum and instruction, create systems, hire staff, create a cohesive team, attract parents to their school, and many other tasks. As the data show, schools struggle with many of these issues. For example, although a few newly created schools have been able to obtain a building from the district, the majority lease their space from a commercial source.^[3] For our newly created fieldwork sites, finding a facility, arranging for a lease and making the up-front payments, and renovating the site to meet the needs of both the school and local health and safety codes were the most common set of start-up issues. The next section illustrates some of these issues with vignettes from fieldwork schools.

A larger percentage of pre-existing schools, on the other hand, report facing difficulties in state or local board opposition (21 percent for newly created schools versus 27 percent for pre-existing schools), state department regulations (12 percent for newly created schools versus 20 percent for pre-existing schools), union or bargaining unit resistance (11 percent for newly created schools versus 13 percent for pre-existing schools), bargaining agreements (six percent for newly created schools versus 15 percent for pre-existing schools), and teacher certification requirements (four percent for newly created schools versus five percent for pre-existing schools). For many pre-existing public schools working out new relationships with the district board and administration, as well as with the union, create challenges. Private schools that convert to charter status often find that they need to establish relationships with state and local agencies and comply with rules, such as teacher certification, that they did not previously have to follow. Again, the vignettes in the next section illustrate some of these issues.

Exhibit 6-4 shows the mean difficulty scores for newly created and pre-existing schools and shows the results of a statistical test that indicates whether the difference in the mean scores is likely to have occurred by chance. These data allow us to ask how barriers differentially impact charter schools.

EXHIBIT 6-4

ESTIMATED MEAN DIFFICULTY SCORES FOR NEWLY CREATED VERSUS PRE-EXISTING CHARTER SCHOOLS

Barriers	Mean difficulty score on scale of 1-5
	Total	Newly created	Pre-existing
Lack of start-up funds	3.57	***3.87[1]	3.04
Inadequate operating funds	3.09	3.17	2.95
Inadequate facilities	2.91	***3.18	2.45
Lack of planning time	3.06	3.16	2.90
State or local board opposition	2.24	2.20	2.30
District resistance or regulations	2.00	1.99	2.00
Internal conflicts	2.22	2.25	2.15
State Department of education resistance or regulations	1.95	1.85	*2.14
Union or bargaining unit resistance	1.66	1.60	1.74
Health/safety regulations	1.91	***2.09	1.59
Accountability requirements	1.88	1.90	1.85
Bargaining agreements	1.54	1.36	***1.84
Hiring staff	1.83	1.86	1.80
Community opposition	1.65	**1.78	1.43
Federal regulations	1.64	1.64	1.65
Teacher certification requirements	1.45	1.46	1.44

1 *** Indicates that the mean difference is significant at the .001 level; ** indicates that the mean difference is significant at the .01 level; and * indicates that the mean difference is significant at the .05 level.

As one might expect, the chart shows that although both newly created and pre-existing charter schools report lack of start-up funds as an obstacle, the problem affects newly created schools at a statistically significantly higher level than pre-existing schools (a mean of 3.87 on a five-point scale for newly created schools versus 3.04 for pre-existing schools). Similarly, new schools report inadequate facilities (3.18 for newly created schools versus 2.45 for pre-existing schools), health and safety regulation issues (2.09 for newly created schools versus 1.59 for pre-existing schools), and community opposition (1.78 for newly created schools versus 1.43 for pre-existing schools) at significantly higher rates than do pre-existing schools. Pre-existing schools report difficulties with state department rules and regulations (1.85 for newly created schools versus 2.14 for pre-existing schools) and with bargaining agreements (1.36 for newly created schools versus 1.84 for pre-existing schools) at relatively low levels but nevertheless at significantly higher rates than do newly created schools.
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[V. Why Charter Schools Are Started and What Attracts Parents to Them (part 2 of 2)]

[VI. Challenges in the Implementation of Charter Schools (part 2 of 3)]