Researchers Create Charter School Information Site

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Education researchers at the University of Arkansas have created a new Web site to provide information about charter schools, a relatively new type of public school.

Patrick Wolf, holder of an endowed chair in school choice at the University of Arkansas, and a team of researchers in the College of Education and Health Professions’ department of education reform recently created the site. It is located at http://www.uark.edu/ua/der/SCDP/Arkansas_Charter_Schools.php.

Wolf holds one of six endowed chairs in the department that was formed in 2005 and directs the School Choice Demonstration Project based at the University of Arkansas. He and his team are performing longitudinal evaluations of the Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., school voucher programs in which low-income families receive publicly funded scholarships to send their children to the private school of their choice. The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program is the oldest and largest urban school voucher program in the nation, and the Washington, D.C., Opportunity Scholarship Program is one of the newest, established in 2004.

Arkansas doesn’t have a school voucher program, but another form of school choice – public charter schools – is growing in availability throughout the state.

The charter school Web site provides a brief introduction to the vital statistics and history of charter schools in the state as well as links to individual pages for each of the 20 charter schools that enrolled students in the 2006-07 school year in Arkansas. The profiles include contact information, student test score data and school demographic information.

The team plans to update the site each summer.

“The popularity of charter schools has increased in recent years, both in Arkansas and the rest of the nation,” Wolf said. “The goal of the Web site is to provide factual descriptive information about these schools that can be of use to parents, the media and the broader public.”

Establishment of charter schools in Arkansas started slowly with six years passing between the first law allowing them and the opening of the first school, but interest is picking up. Ten organizations signaled their intent earlier this month to propose 11 new charter schools, and the state Board of Education expects to begin acting on the proposals in November.