School Choice or Best Systems_ What Improves Education_ - Margaret C. Wang [17]
Knowledge and Opinion about Charter Schools
Public Views
The public knows little about charter schools, but the more people learn, the more favorable their attitudes become. A national survey of registered voters in the spring of 2005 showed that nearly two-thirds of the public said that they knew “very little” or “nothing at all” about charter schools. However, “the percent of registered voters reporting they know very little or nothing at all about charter schools is down 16 percentage points since 1999.”37
After hearing the definition of charter schools, “those reporting that they favor them increased by 23 points (from 37 percent to 60 percent); those reporting that they oppose them increased by 13 points (from 17 percent to 30 percent); and those reporting that they don’t know (or refused to answer) decreased 36 points from 46 percent to 10 percent.”38 Half of the parents in the sample reported interest in enrolling their children in a charter school after hearing the definition (or, in a small number of cases, already had a child enrolled in a charter school).
Even in a short span of two years, public opinion toward charter schools became measurably more favorable:
Between 2000 and 2002, the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll asked Americans whether they had heard or read about charter schools. The percent of individuals saying “yes” increased to 56 percent in 2002 from 49 percent in 2000, while the percent saying “no” went down from 50 to 43 percent (and the percent answering “don’t know” remained constant at 1 percent). When asked about whether they favor or oppose charter schools, those favoring increased from 42 percent in 2000 to 44 percent in 2002, while those opposing decreased from 47 percent to 43 percent (with those who don’t know increasing from 11 to 13 percent).39
Parent Views
A survey of 300 New York City parents concluded that they are “extremely satisfied with charters in almost every aspect of schooling.” Nearly half of parents in the survey (42 percent) gave their charter school an A grade overall compared with only 21 percent who gave their child’s prior school an A. About half (51 percent) of parents responding said that their charter school deserves an A for quality of instruction, and 28 percent gave their charter school’s instruction a B.
Nine of 10 parents reported satisfaction with charter school safety and 87 percent indicated satisfaction with parent-teacher relationships, 86 percent with the amount and quality of homework, and 85 percent with class size. Most parents (84 percent) indicated satisfaction with the school’s academic quality, and similar high numbers (81 percent) were satisfied with discipline and communications from school personnel. Reenrollment is a primary indicator of a charter school’s success, and, indeed, 79 percent of New York charter school parents reenrolled their children in the same charter school for the current school year, according to this study’s findings.40
Parents with children enrolled in charter schools are satisfied, but do they accurately evaluate charter school quality? Lewis Solmon and colleagues compared the ratings of 239 charter schools by parents and experts at the Arizona Department of Education. “Across the board, state officials and parents gave nearly identical grades to the charter schools in question.”41 Parents and state educational agency staff similarly agreed on charter school ratings. The Solmon study also revealed that parents’ primary reasons for choosing a charter school were “better teachers at this school” (44.8 percent), “unhappy with curriculum