The strength of the charter model is in its autonomy, which allows schools to tailor their approaches to the unique needs of their student communities.
Read the full story from The Tennessean here.
Data from a new study out of the University of Kentucky highlights what the public charter school model makes possible for students: the ability to recover faster, achieve more and reach their full potential when given the right opportunities and support.
The recent study looks at the advantages of attending a Tennessee public charter school during and immediately following the worst years of the pandemic. The results show that while charter school students performed similarly to a matched group of traditional public school peers during the pandemic, charter students significantly outperformed these students in the years following.
Effects were seen across grade levels and districts. Some students achieved scores comparable to their district peers, while others experienced the equivalent of over 100 days of extra learning.
As the Sr. Director of Research and Membership at the Tennessee Charter School Center, I’ve spent years studying data like this and working directly with our schools. The more I’ve learned, the more convinced I’ve become that charter schools are one of the most exciting opportunities in public education. They are bringing fresh solutions to old challenges, creating new opportunities for students, and proving that every child deserves — and can thrive in — a great school.
How charter schools accelerate learning
For those of us who work with public charter schools, the study results from the University of Kentucky come as no surprise. Every day we see the great work charter school leaders and educators are doing to serve students.
And because nearly half (44%) of Tennessee’s charter school students are economically disadvantaged, which research has shown often correlates with additional obstacles to student learning, the fact that they were able to rebound more quickly and thoroughly after the pandemic speaks volumes.
Public charter schools are less a type of school and are, instead, an approach to school operation. They are free to attend and open to all students. They also operate independently and with greater flexibility, accountability and autonomy than schools operated at a district level.
That flexibility allows school leaders to be nimble and put best practices into action, whether by adopting new curricula, designing schedules or structuring staffing in ways that best serve their students and communities.
Accountability for charter schools is high stakes: If a charter school fails to perform well academically, or cannot attract and retain enough students, it will be closed — something that rarely happens with traditional district schools, even if they struggle to meet student needs.
This study highlights that charter leaders must, and do, find creative solutions to persistent educational challenges where more traditional approaches may fall short.
Flexibility helps charter students thrive
The strength of the charter model is in its autonomy, which allows schools to tailor their approaches to the unique needs of their student communities. After students returned to classrooms in fall 2021, many charter schools used their flexibility to meet students exactly where they were and accelerate growth. That meant adjusting schedules to create more learning time, reshaping curricula to close new gaps and responding quickly to family challenges that emerged in the wake of the pandemic.
These flexible environments are often incubators for innovative ideas. At the Tennessee Charter School Center, our mission to support and advocate for the state’s public charter schools involves digging into areas of success and identifying best practices that can benefit other schools.
Through a case study series, we’re documenting key successful practices of several high-performing charter schools, like Compass Community School-Berclair. There, school leaders tackled a rise in chronic absenteeism following the pandemic with practices that brought their chronic absences rate from 56% in 2021 to nearly 0% in 2025.
At Leadership Prep, school leaders have used scheduling flexibility to create skill-based intervention blocks to help students struggling with certain skills tackle those together, regardless of grade level or age. The changes have resulted in some of the state's highest meeting/exceeding rates among economically disadvantaged students.
Creative practices in Tennessee’s charter schools have been key to driving results like those seen in the University of Kentucky study. They also shine a bright light on what can happen when you take passionate and creative leaders and give them the freedom to do what is best for their students.
In many cases, great results for all students await.
Robert Vagi serves as Senior Director of Research and Membership at the Tennessee Charter School Center.