On January 10, 2012, the US Department of Education released the Annual Performance Reports (APRs) for the first 12 states awarded Race to the Top (RTT) funds. The Department uses the APRs to monitor the implementation of their grant programs by grantees. It allows Department staff and members of the public an opportunity to follow the grantees’ progress and review certain metrics of success.
NAPCS has just released our summary and analysis of each state’s APR. In reviewing the APRs, we were pleasantly surprised with the efforts a number of states have made to support charters:
In Georgia, the Governor found state funds to support the RTT goal of strengthening charters (after a State Supreme Court decision threatened the operations of a number of schools). The State used RTT funds to support a competitive grant program for innovation, through which a majority of the awards went to support charter-related programs.
Rhode Island extended their High Performing Charter Schools project to allow for smaller grants to support four schools, rather than larger grants supporting only two schools.
There are also states with promising opportunities on the horizon:
Tennessee created a public-private fund to support charter schools, and kicked it off with $14 million in RTT funds.
Florida continues to require LEAs to offer charters within their districts the opportunity to participate in RTT with equity to other traditional public schools.
There are, of course, also states which NAPCS feels have made little to no progress in their support of charters: In Hawaii, the Department has noted a number of concerns regarding RTT implementation across the board. Since these reports were completed, they have taken steps to address these concerns, most notably by placing the grant on high risk status. Charters are only one of the sectors not receiving adequate support under RTT in Hawaii. In New York, the State used the RTT amendment process to drastically change a program that would have provided a competitive facilities funding to charters. Instead, the State transferred a majority of the funds to a program that encourages EMOs to take over failing public schools and turn them into charters. While this creates new charter schools, it does nothing to support those currently operating in the state. We will continue to monitor RTT implementation in these and all of the RTT states very closely!
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