Charter vs. Non-Charter schools

In the past three years we have worked in 24 non-charter and 8 charter schools. This is roughly representative of the percentage of charter schools in LAUSD (148 out of 658 schools = 22%).
The table below rates the various partners (from 1-5, 1 being very poor and 5 being awesome) on the quality of administrative support, the partner teacher and parental involvement.

In general what I have observed is that there really is no difference between charters and non-charters. The three things that determine school performance and quality are:

1. The principal’s dedication to the students, resourcefulness, courage and leadership abilities.
2. Small class sizes
3. Parental involvement (which is linked to point no.1)

Charter schools tend to perform better (as seen in the slides from our USN Map) primarily because of small class sizes.Some charter schools also mandate parental involvement and that results in improved performance as well.

In my interactions with researchers and funders I have seen a distinct bias towards charter schools which is not founded on hard data. On the other hand, I have also seen school administrators in non-charter schools be very hostile towards charter schools without basing their opinions on any credible evidence. I would like to change that! As we partner with more schools, I hope to populate the above Factual table with more data. As it is an editable table, you are invited to discuss any content.
In addition I hope the USN map will help users make more data-driven decisions about partner schools.