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In the era of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, charter schooling holds out the promise of meaningful accountability without the heavy hand of assessment systems based on standardized testing. As an alternative to state-designed systems that apply to all schools, school charters can provide more nuanced accountability models that address particular issues raised by a school’s mission, the nature of its student population, and so on.

In fact, a great irony of education reform is that many critics of standardized accountability have also often opposed choice-based reform. The reality is that choice-based reform offers a way to address the public’s demands for accountability without leading to the standardization that has characterized test-based statewide systems.

Recognizing the promise of the charter school model, many proponents have sought to refine its accountability mechanisms and authorization processes. These are good and useful steps. However, given that charter schools are publicly funded and ultimately accountable to public entities, the largest hurdle to effective accountability may be the political challenge--one that has too rarely been given its due consideration. Consequently, the current system for shuttering ineffective charter schools is compelling in theory but uneven in practice, and most proposed remedies do not address the root of the problem.

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Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and the director of education policy studies at AEI.