The Presence of Correlates of Effective Schools in Select Minnesota Charter Schools with Longevity

Abstract Minnesota enacted the nation’s first charter public school law in 1991. Since that time, the charter school movement has grown in Minnesota and across the United States. In Minnesota alone there are 165 charter schools operating according to the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools in the school year 2016-2017. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) reported that there were more than 6,700 public charter schools enrolling about 2.9 million student nationally in the 2015-16 school year. Since state statute defines charter schools as public schools funded by the state of Minnesota, and represent taxpayer investment, there is interest among advocates and governmental officials that these schools continue to operate. That is, not fail. Toward that end, it is valuable to increase the body of knowledge about organizational characteristics displayed by a sampling of Minnesota charter schools, which have been in operation for ten or more years. Between 1992 and 2015, 268 Minnesota charter schools were created while 83 such schools closed. Of particular interest to the researcher were the underlying reasons for such closures. According to a 2014 Minnesota legislative auditor\u27s report, the majority of closed charter schools had experienced financial concerns including low student enrollment that resulted in insufficient revenue to support the schools. With continued investment of public funding in the creation of new charter schools in response to increased parental demand, it would seem prudent for charter school planners to examine characteristics that are consistent with those found in charter schools that have demonstrated operational longevity. Such data may provide start-up charter school planners with insights that are beneficial in averting future school failures. The purpose of the study is to examine a select sample of veteran Minnesota charter schools, educational organizations that have been in existence for ten or more years, to ascertain the presence and importance of effective schools’ characteristics in their organizational operations. Through surveying charter school administrators, school board members, and teachers, the researcher intended to identify the presence and extent to which the respondents believe their organization displays all or some of the Correlates of Effective Schools (Lezotte, 1991)