Charter School Accountability: Problems and Prospects

Today, public school accountability depends mostly on compliance. This accountability-via-regulation will only make charter public schools like district public schools. A different approach to charter accountability is envisioned, designed to help these schools succeed as genuine education alternatives. This accountability-via-transparency is based on giving charter schools operational, financial, and program autonomy in exchange for holding them accountable for results. Furthermore, rather than bureaucratic control from higher levels within the system, charter accountability is propelled mostly by public marketplaces in which a school’s clients and stakeholders reward its successes, punish its failures, and send it signals about what must change. In what follows, approaches to accountability in today’s charter world are reviewed; how a transparent charter accountability system following Generally Accepted Accountability Principles for Education (GAAPE) would work for charter schools, their sponsors, and statewide programs is described; and three accountability dilemmas that charter schools face are discussed in the conclusion.