Introduction

Charter schools have spread rapidly in Ohio. Starting with just 15 schools in 1998, the Buckeye State is now the sixth-largest charter school state in the nation. It had 210 charter schools serving 52,197 students as of September 2004, and an additional 33 schools were scheduled to open in the fall.

Yet, that growth has happened in a combative political environment. The Republican Party, which has dominated state government for the past decade, has been generally supportive of charter schools and other forms of school choice. But Ohio's strong labor unions have organized vocal opposition to charter schools. There are three lawsuits attempting to stop charter schools in the state (most recently a federal lawsuit filed by the Ohio Education Association). And a major public awareness campaign orchestrated by charter school opponents has generated reams of negative press about the charter movement and raised suspicions among many public school educators and Democratic lawmakers.

"What was surprising about Ohio was that they were able to get a charter school law through at all, given how strong the unions are there," says Mike Petrilli, deputy director of the Office of Innovation and Choice at the U.S. Department of Education. "They have been under a steady attack from the unions, more so than in any other place." Because of that contentious political atmosphere, Ohio's early charter school laws were passed in sometimes contradictory fits and starts. First, there was a pilot project for distressed school districts. That was quickly replaced with a broader program for the state's biggest urban areas. And that program was later broadened again, with rules covering sponsoring authorities changed several times along the way.

Shaped by these and other dynamics, Ohio's charter school sector is somewhat different than in other states: Sixty-six percent of charter school students in Ohio attend schools run by education management organizations; 25 percent of charter school students are enrolled in online schools; and more than one-half of Ohio's charter schools were at somepoint sponsored by the State Board of Education. (A regional education service center and a university-affiliated council of charter schools have sponsored most of the remainder.)

Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that the performance of Ohio's charter schools themselves has been uneven. In the aggregate, Ohio charter schools have lower test scores and proficiency rates than Ohio public schools overall. But they also serve much higher percentages of disadvantaged and minority students, who are more challenging to educate. A few noteworthy Ohio charter schools are emerging as promising success stories, and overall charter school performance in the state appears to be improving. A great deal more improvement is still needed, though, because there are far too many cases of charter schools performing poorly.

Many of the structural obstacles to improvement have been removed, however. Kinks in Ohio's early charter laws have now been ironed out, and the charter movement seems poised to move into a period of more stable growth. For many observers, a state of alarm has turned to cautious optimism.

Ohio's charter schools are in a fragile state of transition, to be sure, and ensuring the best results for Ohio's charter school students will require sustained energy and new policy commitments. Specifically, this report recommends ways to build the quality and supply of new charter schools; strengthen accountability and improve oversight; and improve political support and advocacy.