Charter School Management Organizations: Diverse strategies and diverse student impacts

Charter-school management organizations (CMOs) establish and operate multiple charter schools. CMO schools have increased rapidly in the past decade and today account for about 20 percent of the nation’s more than 5,000 public charter schools.

A November 2011 report by Mathematica Policy Research and the Center on Reinventing Public Education finds that CMOs vary wildly in organizational structures, educational practices and academic achievements. According to the report, high-performance CMOs tend to emphasize school-wide behavior policies and intensive teacher coaching.

CMOs consistently have smaller schools than their local districts and slightly smaller class sizes than their host districts. Additionally, CMOs commonly offer a longer school day, a longer school year and summer school programs. CMO schools are also are more likely to pay teachers based on performance.

CMOs are less likely than their host district to prescribe a particular curriculum, but CMO principals report more often than district principals that they implement a school-wide behavior strategy. Clear behavior expectations are outlined and call for signed agreements with students and parents. 

On average, students at CMOs outperform their peers at traditional schools. Of the 22 charter schools with sufficient student achievement data, 10 CMOs are outperforming their traditional schools in math and reading achievement, eight are on par and four fall short. 

The National Study of CMO Effectiveness is an ongoing study designed to measure how nonprofit CMOs affect student achievement. The study began in May 2008 and will conclude in 2012.

Read the report (pdf).