2009 Brown Center Report on American Education

The 2009 Brown Center Report on American Education | Brookings Institution.

2009 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are American Students Learning?

Released in March 2010, the Brown Center Report includes an examination of conversion charter schools, drawing on two decades of data from California, the state with the most and among the earliest conversion charter schools.

Published by the Brookings Institution, the report found student test scores largely unchanged before and after conversion, but identified several key characteristics where conversions more closely resemble traditional public schools than start-up charters, including the tendency to have larger student enrollments and staff more experienced teachers who are more likely to hold teaching certificates, particularly in bilingual education.

The report’s authors argue that future research of charter schools will need to differentiate between conversions and start-ups because of the “significant institutional differences between the two types of charters.”