New proposals to open “no excuses” charter schools have dropped sharply over the past five years and so, too, have the number of approvals for such schools, according to a new report from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.
In a sweeping and rare look at the types of charter schools that are being proposed and approved to open across the country, the authorizer organization found that no-excuses charters made up 7 percent of all charter proposals last year, down from 14 percent five years ago.
The decline in approvals for no-excuses charter schools was even more drastic. In 2017-18, no-excuses schools made up just 7 percent of all approvals, a drop from 22 percent in 2013-14. The “no excuses” model—defined for serving mostly low-income students of color in prep-school-like environments with high academic expectations, strict behavior codes, and extended school days or years—has been both praised for raising test scores and getting more disadvantaged students into college and criticized for harsh disciplinary practices and excluding students with disabilities.
