Charter School Authorizing:
Are States Making the Grade?
Published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute with support from the Walton Family Foundation
This study is the first major effort to examine U.S. charter-school authorizing practices and policy environments, with special focus on 24 states. The following links lead to the final report, which can be downloaded in full or in sections, and also to a supplemental data table for each state.
All files are in PDF format. A hard copy of the full report (and other Fordham Institute reports) can be obtained by calling 1-888-TBF-7474. (Single copies are free.)
Individual State Reports (3-4 pages each)
Overall Summary Table of Criteria and Grades, by State (8 pages)
Supplemental State Tables (depicting survey responses for each state, broken down by 3 respondent categories; 4 pages each)
Survey Instruments: On-line surveys were developed for each of three respondent groups within each state (authorizers; charter operators; and charter school observers). Each state survey was customized to include names of major authorizers. The following links take you to uncustomized “sample” surveys for each of these groups. Note that not all survey questions were ultimately used in the analysis.
Authorizer Survey | Charter Operator Survey | Charter Observer Survey