The two-year research study reveals that education leaders and policymakers are not doing enough to ensure students with disabilities receive a high-quality education at charter schools and highlights how state policymakers, authorizers, nonprofits, charter management organizations, and individual schools can improve the educational experiences of students with disabilities.
After two years of extensive research, The Center for Learner Equity (CLE) published the Charter School Equity, Growth, Quality, and Sustainability Study, first-of-its-kind report that examines the learning experiences of students with disabilities in charter schools and documents policies and practices that foster access and success.
The research, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, consisted of an extensive review of education policy literature, a quantitative growth analysis, a media scan, legislative analyses, and more than 150 interviews with education leaders and policymakers. Researchers at CLE found that with dedicated collaboration from decision-makers and various external partners, charter schools can harness their freedom and flexibility and shed outdated models that are currently holding students with disabilities back.
“We pursued this research because too many students with disabilities, especially students of color and students from low-income communities, are being failed by their public schools,” said Lauren Morando Rhim, Executive Director of CLE. “Our research findings provide a roadmap for charter schools to address this crisis and live up to their promise of educating all students equally.”
The findings reveal that education leaders and policymakers are not doing enough to ensure students with disabilities receive a high-quality education at charter schools — a blight on the sector’s otherwise strong record of educating historically marginalized students. The research provides insights and recommendations, including highlighting models and approaches that can provide a guide for policymakers, education leaders and funders at the national, state, regional, and local levels to create the conditions for charter schools to enroll and enable students with disabilities to succeed.
“Students with disabilities need to be placed at the center rather than the periphery of charter education,” said Lauren Morando Rhim. “We’re seeing political support for charters weaken, fueled by largely valid concerns that the sector is not living up to its promise to educate all students. Charters have the opportunity to right this ship by capitalizing on their flexibility. Still, we need our leaders at every level— from state policymakers to authorizers, nonprofits, charter management organizations, schools, and funders—to step up and help remedy these inequities.”
Comments are closed.