By Abel McDonnell
July 27, 2009

Over the past 18 years, charter schools have grown to play an important role in American public education. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have laws allowing for charter schools, which receive public money, but are run independently and are free from many of the rules and regulations that govern traditional public schools. There are currently over 4,000 charter schools that educate about 1.4 million of the nation's 50 million public school students. More and more cities have charters and several mayors have played a very large role in promoting and creating charter schools.

Many cities have had great success with charter schools. An examination of charter schools in three cities: Indianapolis, New York City, and Pembroke Pines (FL) reveals that the mayor has played a major role in promoting charters and that these schools have demonstrated significant gains in student achievement.

In 2002, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took control of the city's 1.1 million student'school system. A major part of Bloomberg's reform initiatives included a significant expansion of the city's charter schools. When Bloomberg took office there were only 17 charter schools in the nation's largest school district. In September 2009 there will be 98.

Charter schools in New York City have been quite successful. In 2009, 90 percent of New York City charter school students passed the state math exam. This is noticeably better than the citywide average of 81 percent at traditional public schools and the New York State average of 86 percent.

Two of the most successful charter schools created under the Bloomberg Administration are Promise Academy and Promise Academy II, both run by the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ). Founded in 1997, HCZ is a unique approach to community development. The organization seeks to address all needs of children in a 100-block area of Harlem. This includes education services from pre'school to college counseling, parenting classes for expecting and new parents, health services, mentoring programs, and more.

The two Promise Academies have shown remarkable results. According to a Harvard University study released in April 2009, not only are Promise Academy middle school students making more gains than most students in traditional public schools, but they are actually reversing the achievement gap between African American and white students in math and reducing the gap in English Language Arts. What this means is that African American 6th graders enter Promise Academy significantly behind their white counterparts in math, and leave 8th grade actually ahead of them. It would appear that Promise Academy is doing what so many educators have been working towards and thinking about for decades: eliminating the achievement gap.

The partnership between the New York City Department of Education and HCZ is truly changing the lives of kids in Harlem.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has played a large role in the expansion of charter schools in his city. In May 2001, the Indiana state legislature authorized the mayor to charter schools. This places Ballard in a unique position as the only mayor in the country to actually issue school charters. The “charter” is a kind of agreement that lays out the school's mission and how the school's success will be measured. The mayor established the Charter School Advisory Board to review charter school proposals and assist the mayor's office in deciding which proposals to accept and which to reject. Charters are granted for seven years, at which point the school is rigorously reviewed by the mayor's office and its charter is either renewed or revoked. There will be 18 Mayor'sponsored schools by fall 2009, and 20 the following year.

Ballard's office oversees a rigorous accountability system to review charter schools and evaluate their effectiveness. Charter school performance is assessed annually through a variety of measurements, including frequent school visits, surveys, analysis of student performance data, and a review of school finances.

Representatives from the mayor's office are very active in supporting the schools. Staff members make a pre'school visit to ensure the school is ready for students in the fall, meet monthly with school leaders, and attend every school governing board meeting. The mayor's office contracts with an outside accounting firm to analyze each school's finances.

After eight years, mayor'sponsored charter schools in Indianapolis have shown some impressive results. For each of the past four years, the most improved school in Marion County—based on gains made on the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress'Plus—has been a mayor'sponsored charter school. And although mayor'sponsored charter schools comprised only seven percent of all public schools in the county, they made up six of the top ten most improved schools in the 2008-2009 school year. Furthermore, the three public high schools in Marion County that made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2008-09 were mayor'sponsored charters: The Charles A. Tindley Accelerated School, Fountain Square Academy and Herron High School.

When asked why Indianapolis charter schools have been so successful, Ballard emphasized the power of entrepreneurship. “Providing the opportunity for social entrepreneurs to create new schools, giving them full autonomy to innovate, and mandating strong accountability for results—these continue to transform public education in Indianapolis,” the mayor stated.

Ballard also offered some advice to cities and districts considering creating charter schools. “These three pillars—cultivating talented people, giving them full autonomy to continuously create schools that actually work, and holding them accountable for the promises they make to kids and families—must be embraced for such reforms to actually work,” he said.

Public demand for mayor'sponsored charters in Indianapolis has grown in recent years. Enrollment increased by 900 students last year and there are currently more than 700 students on waiting lists to attend.

Pembroke Pines (FL) has also had a great deal of success with charter schools. Mayor Frank C. Ortis has been a tireless promoter of charter schools in his city. Ortis sits on the five-member Charter School Board, which authorizes and oversees the city's charter schools.

Results from Pembroke Pine's charter schools have been solid. Last year, charter schools in Pembroke Pines out-performed the local district and state average on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) by a significant margin. The charter high schools boast higher graduation rates and college attendance than the local district schools. The city's charters have also received a stamp of approval from the state of Florida, which last year evaluated and ranked the city's charters grade “A.”

According to Ortis's office, several factors have contributed to the charters' success. The city hires “the best principals” they can find who are able to effectively manage their schools, offers equal or better pay than local schools to attract top teachers, integrates technology into the classroom, and focuses on maintaining a small class size.

The mayors in these three cities— New York City, Indianapolis, and Pembroke Pines—have demonstrated that mayors can play a critical role in promoting education and using charter schools to make impressive gains with students.