Though they are both relative latecomers to the charter school movement, New York City and Indianapolis show how municipal leaders can use the independently run public schools to spur inno vation and broaden educational options in their communities.
and are available online from The Progressive Policy Institute. (Requires .)
That鈥檚 the message of a pair of reports released last week by the Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that is affiliated with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and is supportive of charter schools. In both places, the reports say, city leaders have championed charter schools, and their policies are yielding mixed but promising early results.
Nearly six years after New York state became the 36th state to allow charter schools, it has become home to 61 of the publicly financed but autonomous schools, 31 of them in New York City.
Last year, the head of the city鈥檚 mayorally controlled school system, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, unveiled a plan to start 50 new charter schools in five years while making the city the nation鈥檚 most 鈥渃harter friendly.鈥�
That effort is off to a slow start and faces tough challenges, including the task of reorienting the bureaucracy of the 1.1 million-student district to support autonomous schools, according to the report. Still, the city鈥檚 charter schools are accumulating a solid record of improving student achievement and are starting to exert pressure for changes in the district in areas such as labor negotiations and accountability, the report says.
鈥淣ew York City鈥檚 record shows how urban school district leaders can take a sophisticated and thoughtful approach to a reform tool instead of responding defensively or antagonistically, as some have in other cities,鈥� writes Robin J. Lake in 鈥淪eeds of Change: Chartering Schools in New York City.鈥� Ms. Lake is the associate director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Indianapolis鈥� Unique Approach
Meanwhile, Mayor Bart Peterson of Indianapolis has used his status as the nation鈥檚 only mayor with the power to authorize charter schools to open 10 schools to date, with more in the works.
Since Indiana became the 38th state to allow charter schools in 2001, the mayor鈥檚 office has put in place 鈥渢he groundwork for a high-quality initiative,鈥� according to 鈥淔ast Break in Indianapolis: A New Approach to Charter Schooling.鈥�
The approach, the report says, includes a push to recruit educators who want to copy successful charter models in the city; a program to train leaders to run the schools; a facilities-financing fund; a rigorous application process; and a comprehensive system of monitoring and reporting on schools鈥� results with students.
The report concludes that mayors bring unique advantages to authorizing and advocating charter schools, including skills in mobilizing resources, winning public confidence, and leveraging their knowledge of the community.
But chartering can make sizable demands on a mayor鈥檚 time and energy if it is to be done well, says the report, which was written by Bryan C. Hassel, the president of the Raleigh, N.C.-based consulting firm Public Impact. As the ppi notes in its preface to the report, Mr. Hassel has served as a consultant to the Indianapolis mayor鈥檚 office in developing its charter initiative.
