Update: Charter Closures Decline As Number Of Schools Surges

Either charter schools have gotten a lot better over the past decade during which they've grown enormously in number -- this is what CER's Jeanne Allen tells HuffPost reporter Joy Resmovits -- or, well, they've just gotten better at avoiding being closed.  Graph to the left, story here.

Interesting to see that even in the recent SIG era, during which charters were eligible to be closed for academic reasons (not just at the discretion of the authorizers), academic closures remain rare and overall closures are actually declining.  

Note that the percentage of noncharter schools closed over this same period was pretty damn miniscule, too.  There were precious few outright closures or conversions during the NCLB era except in a few big cities.  Even restructurings (restaffings) were rare.  

Still no official comment from the National Alliance on Public Charter Schools, or NACSA, or any of the other pro-charter folks, far as I've seen.  Maybe they're already on vacation -- or the reporters who would be calling them have already flown the coop. CORRECTION:  NAPCS was there at the CER event and gave remarks.

Comments

[Van]

This is a huge problem. Those of us that are charter advocates are going to have work harder and be more public about closing failing schools regardless of their governance structure. I do think schools have gotten better in some communities but there will always be some schools that don't succeed for any number of reasons.

[Bruce]

I continue to have difficulty understanding why "charter school advocates" would ever advocate closing schools that the schools' patrons, by their continued attendance at the schools, obviously think aren't failing. This amounts to some citizens thinking they are smarter and better informed than their fellow citizens who happen to be sending their children to a particular school. The parents in traditional public schools, failing or not, are not treated with such disrespect -- they are allowed to continue sending their children to such schools without fear of closure -- why should charter school parents be thus hounded? Charter school parents are often seeking alternative choices because they don't approve of the direction of the current establishment; must they be chased out of charters as well, and into private schools or, if they can't afford them, off to other states or countries?