The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools?


Starting in 2012, the $250,000 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools will be awarded annually to the public charter school management organization that demonstrates the most outstanding overall student performance and improvement among the country’s largest urban charter management organizations in recent years while reducing achievement gaps among poor and minority students. The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools is the sister award to The Broad Prize for Urban Education, which is given to traditional school districts. The awards are similar in structure and intent.

What were your goals in creating this new award?


The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools was created to reward the most outstanding academic progress among urban charter management organizations serving the largest number of students.

The first public charter school opened in 1992 to provide parents and students a choice of schools outside of traditional public schools. Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that receive public funds and are held to the same federal and state academic standards as traditional public schools. However, they are granted more flexibility in operating, in exchange for agreeing to be academically accountable.

Since 2000, the number of public charter schools in the U.S. has increased more than 250 percent, and the number of students they serve has increased by 400 percent. As of the 2010-11 academic year, 1.8 million students—4 percent of all American public school students—attended charter schools.

Given that public charter schools have reached a critical mass, The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools seeks to: • Recognize those charter models that show the most outstanding academic outcomes, particularly for traditionally disadvantaged students • Create an accessible repository of high-quality data on student achievement and policies and practices in the largest charter management organizations across the country • Showcase the best practices of successful public charter management organizations so that other public charter schools and traditional public schools can learn from their success.

What are the eligibility criteria? Why did you establish those criteria?


Charter management organizations that have been operating a minimum of five schools for at least four years and which serve sizeable percentages of urban, poor and minority students are automatically eligible. Organizations cannot apply or be nominated for the award.

 

To be eligible for the award in 2012, a charter management organization must have: 
• Five or more charter schools in operation as of 2007-08 • 1,500 students or more enrolled each year since 2007-08 
• At least 40 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch since 2008-09 
• At least 40 percent of students from minority groups since 2008-09 
• At least 75 percent of its schools with an urban designation (Locale Code 11, 12, or 21 in the Common Core of Data) since 2008-09 

Going forward, winners from the previous three years will be ineligible. 

These criteria were established to ensure that the charter management organizations considered for The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools are comparable, in that they serve a significant number of students, share similar demographics, have been in existence long enough to yield multiple years of data and organize multiple schools under the same management organization. 

Most charter schools that are ineligible for the award are single-operators that are not affiliated with a charter management organization. Although many ineligible individual charter schools have made strong student gains and have important lessons to share, the practical need to collect and run comparable data made the inclusion of all charter schools impossible at this point. 

Only models with schools in existence for at least four years – long enough to establish a robust set of data – will be eligible. And organizations that outsource school operations to other charter management organizations do not qualify. 

As the number of charter management organizations and schools continues to grow in future years, it is likely that many more charter management organizations will become eligible for the annual award. 

The Broad Foundation will continue to review the eligibility criteria and will make revisions to future eligibility requirements deemed necessary to establish the most appropriate, fair and useful comparison possible.  

What do you mean by "charter management organization"?


Given that commonly used terms and definitions in the field are still developing, The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools uses “charter management organization” to refer to organizations that operate multiple public charter schools under a shared management strategy or organizations or firms with one clear educational model that covers multiple public charter schools. The schools at issue also must receive public funds and operate schools under the same admissions rules as traditional public schools. 

The term “charter management organization” is intended to be consistent with the definition of “charter management organization” used by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ charter school database.

What percent of all public charter schools do the eligible schools comprise?


During the 2007-08 school year, which is the first year of student achievement data that will be considered under the award, there were 4,299 public charter schools in the U.S. Of these, roughly 5 percent were run by the 20 charter management organizations eligible for the 2012 Broad Prize (listed below). 

During the 2010-11 school year, there were 5,277 public charter schools in the U.S. Again, some 5 percent of these schools were operated by the eligible charter management organizations.

Which organizations are eligible?


The following management organizations are eligible for the 2012 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools: 

  Achievement First (Northeastern U.S.) 
  Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools (Los Angeles) 
  America CAN (Texas) 
  American Quality Schools (Midwest U.S.) 
  Aspire Public Schools (California) 
  Baltimore Curriculum Project (Baltimore) 
  Concept Schools (Midwest U.S.) 
  Cosmos Foundation Inc. (Texas) 
  Edvantages (Ohio) 
  Friendship Public Charter Schools (D.C.) 
  Green Dot Public Schools (Los Angeles) 
  ICEF Public Schools (Los Angeles) 
  KIPP Foundation (U.S.) 
  Lighthouse Academies (D.C., Illinois, Indiana) 
  Partnership to Uplift Communities (California) 
  School of Excellence in Education (Texas) 
  UNO Charter School Network (Illinois, Louisiana) 
  Uplift Education (Texas) 
  Winfree Academy Charter Schools, Inc. (Texas) 
  YES Prep Public Schools (Texas)

Click here for more information on eligible charter management organizations.

Who will decide the winner?


A review board of prominent education experts from across the country—many of whom also serve on the review board that analyzes data on the school districts eligible for The Broad Prize for Urban Education —will review student achievement data received from the eligible charter management organizations and their states and collected by MPR Associates, a national education research consulting firm. The review board will select the winning charter management organization. Click here for a full list of review board members.

[Note: The Broad Foundation and MPR Associates do not play a role in voting for the winner.]

What is the methodology for evaluating eligible CMOs? What quantitative data will decision-makers review?


Typically, states report student achievement data for charter management organizations at the school—rather than aggregate—level. Consequently, The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools’ methodology will aggregate school-level student achievement data for all schools affiliated with each of the eligible management organizations to generate organization-wide results and statistics that will be presented to the review board. The data will be collected, checked and analyzed by MPR Associates, one of the nation’s leading education research and consulting firms, based in Berkeley, Calif.   

The review board will consider the following student achievement and demographic data: 
• Performance and improvement results on mandated state tests in reading, math and science 
• Performance and improvement results on mandated state tests in reading, math and science adjusted for poverty 
• The reduction and magnitude of achievement gaps between ethnic groups and between low-income and non-low-income students 
• In the case of high schools: 
  -State-reported graduation rates 
  -Advanced Placement exam participation and passing rates 
  -SAT and ACT exam participation rates and scores 
• Demographic data (e.g., student enrollment, income, language, special education, ethnicity) 

No formula will be used to choose the winner. Members of the review board will select the winner based on their analysis of publicly available student achievement data, their professional judgment, experience and mutual discussion.

How will the review board compare high school management organizations to elementary school management organizations? How will the review board analyze the results of charter management organizations that operate schools in different states?


Assessment data will be standardized so that it can be comparable across organizations. For example, performance and improvement levels will be compared to all public high school and elementary school students in the state, respectively, and compared to predicted levels based on poverty. The resulting degrees of performance and improvement versus students at the same school levels will make the data comparable across management organizations. For charter management organizations that operate schools in different states, analyses will first be summarized at the state level. National aggregations to reflect management organization-level results will be presented where methodologically sound

Will there be site visits? What qualitative data will be evaluated?


Once the winner has been chosen and announced, a team of experienced researchers and practitioners led by RMC Research Corporation, an education consulting company based in Denver, will conduct a site visit to gather qualitative data. RMC Research Corporation also conducts the site visits for The Broad Prize for Urban Education. The site visit team will analyze organization-wide policies and practices related to student achievement, according to a transparent, research-based rubric (currently under development). The site-visit framework will be grounded in the research literature regarding school and organizational practices found to be effective in raising student achievement. The framework will cover three key areas: teaching and learning, leadership, and operations and support systems. 

The site visit team will gather evidence through extensive document collection and analysis, classroom visits and through interviews with the management organization’s leadership, principals, teachers, staff, students, parents and community representatives during a four- to six- day visit in the fall.

Who will collect the quantitative student achievement data?


MPR Associates will manage the rigorous and comprehensive quantitative data collection and analysis process required. MPR Associates plays the same role for the traditional school district award, The Broad Prize for Urban Education.

When and where will the winner be announced?


The winner of the 2012 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools will be announced at the National Charter Schools Conference, which is convened by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The conference will be held June 19 - 22, 2012 in Minneapolis.

What will the winner receive?


The winner of The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools will receive $250,000 for college-readiness efforts for low-income students, such as scholarships, speaker series or campus visits.

How will this award be different from the existing Broad Prize for Urban Education?


The Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools closely mirrors the process used for the existing Broad Prize for Urban Education given to traditional school districts. For example, similar categories of student achievement data and analytical methodologies will be considered. Also, some of the same decision-makers play a role in both awards. However, the quantitative methodology used for the charter prize will be modified as necessary to account for differences in the availability and quality of school-level data. In addition, unlike the school district award, because there are fewer eligible management organizations, no finalists will be selected, and the review board will select the winner. A site visit will also occur after the winner is announced to inform the field, rather than as part of the selection process.

What will the entirety of the annual process look like?


The annual Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools’ process encompasses the following: 
1. Each fall, charter management organizations will be identified as eligible candidates based on size, demographics, urban environment and years of available data. 
2. Publicly available student achievement data for eligible organizations will be collected during the fall and winter. 
3. The review board will analyze publicly available data and determine the winner. 
4. The winner will be announced in the summer and data showing the overall student gains, performance and achievement gap closures that formed the quantitative basis for the decision will be released. 
5. A site visit to the winning charter management organization will be conducted in the fall by researchers and practitioners to gather qualitative data on policies and practices regarding teaching and learning, leadership, and operations and support systems. 
6. Best practice findings from the site visits will be released by the foundation in the winter. 
7. Efforts will be made to improve all aspects of the process on a continuous basis.

What is The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation?


The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is a national philanthropy established by entrepreneur Eli Broad that invests in the bold and innovative transformation of K-12 urban public education in the U.S. so that students of all backgrounds are academically prepared for college, careers and life. The Broad Foundation supports efforts to put in place working conditions and innovations that empower teachers and students to succeed in the classroom, that attract and retain top talent into the classroom, and that ensure resources reach the classroom. The Broad Foundation’s Internet address is www.broadfoundation.org, and foundation updates are available on Twitter.