Old tensions complicate charter partnership trial
(District of Columbia) An innovative grant program initiated by the Gates Foundation aimed at cultivating partnerships between charters and traditional schools has produced only mixed results.
Longstanding tensions over facilities and disagreement over basic instructional outlook proved hard to breakdown during the two-year test period, according to analysis from Mathematica Policy Research released this week.
“Nearly half the respondents who believed that collaboration activities had successfully broken down misperceptions across sectors added the caveat that the impact was limited to school staff who were participating in collaboration activities,” the research team reported, noting that some participants said that some “effective practices simply do not translate across different school types due to differences in structures and human capital.”
They also found that agreements between traditional schools and charters sometimes “suffered from a lack of buy-in” from school staff. “Some respondents perceived certain charter partners to be unwilling to share knowledge, either within or across sectors; other respondents in both sectors expressed concern about sharing being concentrated in only one direction, from charter to traditional public schools,” the evaluation said.
In an effort aimed at bringing innovations learned in the charter movement to a boarder cross-section of the education community, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a total of $25 million in 2012 to seven cities: Boston, Denver, Hartford, Connecticut, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia and Spring Branch, Texas.
The intent of the grants was to help each community carry out existing partnership programs between charters and traditional schools including teacher training; implementing the Common Core State Standards; creating personalized student learning experiences; creating universal enrollment systems; and development of common metrics to help families evaluate all schools on consistent criteria.
To evaluate how well the program has worked, the evaluators conducted both telephone and in-person interviews with school administrators and teachers as well as on-site observations.
Staff at both charters and traditional schools said one key to driving collaboration was when both entities shared the same building. “Co-location spurred teamwork,” the report authors said, “particularly when implemented as intentional, purposeful partnerships between two schools (including compact partnerships).”
They also found, however, instances where sharing space wasn’t successful and “sometimes increase tension across sectors, particularly when facilities are scarce and co-locations are the result Old tensions complicate charter partnership trial :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:
