New study from the Center for Learner Equity (CLE) highlights how public charter schools use their autonomy to build robust teaching and learning plans that close opportunity gaps.

A new research report released today by the Center for Learner Equity (CLE) highlights the work of 29 charter schools and charter management organizations (CMOs) in building systems of support for students with disabilities. Through interviews with 59 school stakeholders, site visits, and focus groups, the report describes how charter schools and CMOs can use the benefits of the autonomy granted to them under the law to build teaching and learning systems that drive stronger outcomes for students with disabilities and make those improvements more sustainable over time.

As part of the larger Charter School Equity, Quality, Growth, and Sustainability Study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the report aims to identify the systemic challenges contributing to the shortcomings in educating students with disabilities within the charter sector. The project has previously released reports on how states, charter school authorizers, and non-profit organizations can improve outcomes for students with disabilities, and a study of how these organizations came together in Washington state to produce a more coherent, equity-focused system. This final report in the series focuses on the efforts schools and CMOs undertake, with a particular focus on the benefits of autonomy.

“Students with disabilities experience systematic opportunity gaps and profound inequities in their schooling experiences, across all types of public schools” said Lauren Morando Rhim, Co-Founder and Executive Director of CLE. “Our new report finds that charter schools can help to close these gaps by investing in the systems that make inclusive educational practice sustainable over the long term.”

Key findings from the new report include:

–Participating schools mixed multiple instructional strategies into unique models that support the assets and needs of their school populations. While none of these strategies were unique in themselves, what distinguished participating schools was their ability to prioritize including students with disabilities when identifying and executing those strategies.

–Leaders from participating charter schools used rigorous teacher hiring and strong teacher retention practices as opportunities to build a staff culture focused on equitable practice for students with disabilities.

–While the scale provided by a CMO or a traditional district local education agency (LEA) can provide schools access to additional supplemental services and expanded professional development opportunities, some participants expressed concern these affiliations may limit their ability to quickly implement new practices.

Building on these findings, the report recommends that charter school authorizers work to support efforts at bringing inclusive education to scale by offering shared technical assistance services like teacher professional development and a central hiring pool. The report also urges public schools of all kinds to create deliberate opportunities for general and special education staff to collaborate, access common professional supports, and attend to data about the educational experiences of students with disabilities.

For more information about the study and its findings, please click here.