PARENT POWER!

The Parent Power! Index

Because no family’s income level, zip code, or child’s level of academic achievement should dictate education opportunity.

About PPI:

For nearly three decades, CER has argued that parents are the most important ally in any effort for education. Whenever parents are engaged, change occurs. Time and time again, we’ve seen that information in the hands of parents is power. We witnessed this in the earliest days of CER’s existence, from actions directly connected to the publication of the School Reform Handbook to the response from readers of our very first Parent Power! newsletter in 1999. And since the maturity of the World Wide Web, we’ve seen parent engagement soar each year. And coming out of the disastrous reality of the education policies created during the Covid pandemic, parent power is growing in strength in every state. But what does it take for all parents to get it?

The Parent Power! Index exists to answer that question. It exists to ensure that any parent, guardian or caring adult understands how education is shaped, and what they can do to ensure it works for all kids.

Great schools come about when parents have power. Parent Power comes about when states give parents enough information and the discretion to exercise control over their children’s schooling.

The Parent Power! Index measures the extent to which each state:

  • has policies in place that put students ahead of systems;
  • values the diversity of need and condition of every family;
  • provides vital accessible information, and
  • by doing so affords parents the power to exercise fundamental decisions regarding how their kids are educated.

The Parent Power! Index gives parents an interactive tool to discover to what extent their state affords them this power – and if not, what they can do to get it.

The first Parent Power! Index in 1999 focused primarily on evaluation of educational opportunities available, teacher quality and transparency. In 2018, personalized and digital learning was added to gauge the growing recognition and research that individualized learning is a fundamental determinant in student success. Subsequently CER added Innovation as a key metric, and with COVID-19 fundamentally disrupting how education operates, in 2021 it was important to add an element related to how well states responded in the crisis. While PPI no longer measures state’s COVID-era responses, it was left on PPI for guidance, and perhaps as a cautionary tale, so that parents can make sure their states are prepared for anything the future holds.

In fall 2022, recognizing the growing number of 21st century learning approaches that ensure education is tailored to the needs of individual students, the renamed category of “Innovation” took on even greater significance. It not only includes how states handle or encourage digital and persnalized learning, but also mastery and competency-based approaches. The extent to which states reduce barriers to and promote innovation merits 15% of a state’s overall score.

In recognition of the growing role of legal challenges by opponents to education opportunity measures, PPI also evaluates whether states have constitutional issues that impact a parent’s ability to possess power, primarily focussed on state Blaine Amendments.

PPI also includes a regularly updated, curated list of state and national resources to help parents find more local groups that are ready, able and willing to support them.

Following is more detail about how PPI is organized and what it means. Please read, learn and share, and get going to your state to find out what you can do to ensure that all parents, our children’s first teachers, are driving their education.

Parents everywhere want choices and diverse learning approaches. Teachers in every kind of school want autonomy and welcome accountability. States can ensure that they are providing maximum opportunities for kids, teachers and families by ensuring that money is available to fund students wherever they are, regardless of the kind of school they attend. All data and policies must be highly transparent, understandable and meaningful to our citizens, at every level. Opportunity is just that. PPI measures how well states provide a multiple array of tools, resources and options that provide a parent with the ability to decide how best to educate their children, across any public or private education choice programs a state provides.

Charter Schools

Charter schools are public schools, open by choice, free from most rules and regulations that hamper traditional public schools and held accountable for results.
Since 1991, when charter schools were first established in Minnesota, the principle has remained the same — increased operational autonomy in exchange for…
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Choice Programs

Educational choice is best defined as the availability of a multitude of public programs that provide parents with the ability to include private and religious entities – schools, tutoring, and other organizations – in their choices.
…

Teacher Quality

Teacher Quality (2020): While a critical factor in school quality, the PPI 2022 no longer factors in Teacher Quality as a measure of Parent Power.
In 2020 and prior, the scores for how well states provide for and manage teacher quality elements were developed based on several data points found in the National Council on Teacher Quality State Teacher Policy Database…
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Today there exists a world of education technologists and entrepreneurs who are developing new and varied approaches to teaching, managing, leading and learning on a minute-by-minute basis. We also know more now than ever before about how the brain functions, what kinds of learning environments work best for individual students, and how non-cognitive attributes can determine a student’s trajectory in life. This unprecedented knowledge gives us the ability to radically transform education so that it meets the personalized needs of every student. To do so, we as a nation must find and seat the best innovations in America in the educational process and give the people license to explore and learn. States must break down barriers that prevent this to occur. The PPI measures whether a state is encouraging or discouraging innovation through its support, implicit or explicit, of providing the flexibility and motivation educators and schools need to transform a static learning process to one that is highly responsive to the student’s needs and growth.

Innovation

States are measured on their increasing commitment to and practice of innovative approaches to education that include digital learning models and pathways, full or in part, encouraging personalized learning through focus on competency and mastery.
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COVID-19 Response (2021)

When COVID-19 reached our shores in early 2020, states were forced to close their schools for in-person instruction. Whether and how to continue teaching and set expectations for continued learning outside of the classroom was a big debate.
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Public School Choice

COMING SOON! Several new components were introduced this year to evaluations making up the PPI! Index, including new innovation measures. Details forthcoming
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States are responsible for the most important laws governing education, and your governor and state legislature make the difference whether students in your state have access to great learning opportunities or not. CER assessed every governor and state legislature, taking into consideration what they said on the campaign trail about education, what legislation they have fought for or against, and whether or not they are actively working to ensure that every student, regardless of family income level, zip code, race, or anything else, has the opportunity to choose and attend the best school for them.

In addition to the state’s elected officials, CER also looked at what barriers the state’s constitution contains, including Blaine Amendments, that could get in the way of programs or laws that would provide students with expanded educational opportunities.

The third component we analyzed here is transparency — how easy is it for parents to find school test scores, graduation rates, and other important data? Some states prioritize transparency and others make it nearly impossible to find useful information about school and student performance.

Leadership

Improving education opportunity and innovation requires leaders who boldly and courageously push forward to create or expand successful programs that allow a wide variety of educational choice and individualized programs to thrive. Governors and state legislators are the most important entities in each state to pave the way, or deter, expanded parent power.
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Constitutional Issues

The ability for states to enact educational change can be significantly limited depending on certain provisions in state constitutions.

The most common clause that limits educational opportunity in most states are “Blaine Amendments”…
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Transparency

Transparency is a key element of providing great opportunities for students. Every parent needs and deserves full transparency of school-level data to allow them to make informed decisions and drive changes in how their students are educated.
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Thank you for learning about the Parent Power! Index.

Select Your State

Charter Schools

Charter schools are public schools, open by choice, free from most rules and regulations that hamper traditional public schools and held accountable for results.

Since 1991, when charter schools were first established in Minnesota, the principle has remained the same — increased operational autonomy in exchange for increased accountability for outcomes. This freedom to innovate allows academically excellent charter schools to flourish.

As of 2020, there were more than 7,300 charter schools across the country with more than 3.3 million students, with demand higher everywhere they are located. Forty-six states, including Washington, D.C. have charter school laws. West Virginia enacted the most recent law in 2019. All charter laws are not created equal, however, and in fact, many are so flawed that they allow for only minimal opportunity for parents. PPI draws from CER’s newest Charter School Law Rankings and Scorecard, produced in the summer of 2020. For the US as a whole, the glass is more empty than full when it comes to meaningful charter choices.

Since 1996, CER has researched, analyzed, and ranked charter school laws, taking the content of each law into consideration as well as how it impacts charter schools on the ground. This Parent Power Index looks at four main areas of each state’s law:

If it allows for multiple authorizers, and if applicants have the ability to appeal a denial; whether it allows for growth, particularly with no caps on number of schools or enrollment; if schools and teachers have freedom to innovate; and if there is equitable funding of schools, including for facilities and transportation.

Charter schools are the most analyzed public school reform in decades. Since 1996, CER has studied their impact, their environment, and their practice and made recommendations for how to improve each law. The Parent Power Index charter score is based on whether the law allows for freedom and flexibility that can ensure parents, teachers and the general public are able to build vibrant, successful charter schools without undue interference from flawed state regulators, with equitable funding and parents in the driver’s seat. More about how this works can be found in CER publications, most notably Charting a New Course and The Future of School.

In addition, past rankings document how states have grown or confined charter schools and what best practices should be followed. Finally CER has provided a model charter school law for policymakers that is the standard bearer for advocates who believe that parents, not systems, should drive education.

Choice Programs

Educational choice is best defined as the availability of a multitude of public programs that provide parents with the ability to include private and religious entities – schools, tutoring, and other organizations – in their choices. Those programs are enacted at the state level, allowing in a wide variety of ways that the funds allocated for education in a state either follow the student to the institution the parent chooses or, as in the case of tax credits, public funds are redistributed to support the choices parents make, rather than automatically going to government based school districts.

These options are often referred to as scholarship programs, vouchers, tax credits, education accounts and more.

The existence of a higher degree of educational choice in a community or state, particularly for lower income students, has been found to be a significant factor in improving education and ensuring all students have access to the best school that meets their individual needs. Where once private options were only available to the more advantaged, most choice programs today ensure that those without resources have the power to shape their student’s education and invest in their future.

PPI 2020 assesses the extent to which every state gives families better and more abundant educational options through various mechanisms. Choice programs are analyzed and evaluated on their potential to reach all children across a state and for the degree to which they can actually support the full choice of parents, as opposed to only providing a modest amount of financial support. Programs where a significant population of parents can obtain scholarships or vouchers to send their children to the school of their choice score higher than those that have limitations based on geography, income, and student eligibility constraints.

To determine scores, PPI relies on well-established organizations which study, advance and support such programs. The scores were developed with this lens, and on information and ratings from EdChoice’s School Choice in America Dashboard, American Legislative Exchange Council’s Report Card on American Education: 23rd Edition, and American Federation for Children’s School Choice Interactive Map.

Teacher Quality

Teacher Quality is an equally important facet of ensuring greater educational opportunity. There is a direct correlation between quality teachers and student achievement, and teachers have the power to foster highly effective learning environments and leave a lasting impact on the future of their students. State teacher policies are critical in ensuring that students have the opportunity to receive the best education possible. Without schools full of well-prepared teachers who are held accountable either directly to the parent or to taxpayers for student achievement, opportunity can be meaningless. Most states vary widely in the criteria used to train, hire, retain, evaluate, reward and advance teachers, and local rules also influence that criteria greatly, as do teachers unions. PPI looked again to the expert analysis of the National Council of Teacher Quality, and from several aspects of their work PPI extrapolated final teacher quality scores. (NCTQ does not grade each state.)

Relying solely on the rich data collected from the National Council on Teacher Quality, states are measured by across a wide range of policy categories: Training and Recruitment, Staffing and Support, Evaluation, and Compensation. The score is by no means comprehensive about teacher quality across every community and state, but it is based on the extent to which states rigorously expect, manage and measure different aspects of teacher training, hiring, evaluation and compensation. States score higher when they have strong, data-driven, performance-based accountability systems that ensure teachers are rewarded, retained, and advanced based on their effectiveness. Likewise, states that establish rigorous teacher preparation programs and offer alternative licensing programs earn higher scores.

For more information about the Teacher Quality landscape, please see the National Council on Teacher Quality’s detailed analysis in their State Teacher Policy Database.

Innovation

States are measured on their increasing commitment to and practice of innovative approaches to education that include digital learning models and pathways, full or in part, encouraging personalized learning through focus on competency and mastery – even on a pilot level – or by allowing flexibility in schools and school districts that want to do it. Personalized learning models value mastery of material over traditional subject matter time tests, and competency over end of course grades. While these practices are best decided locally, closest to the student, states can motivate, incentivize, fund, discourage or encourage.

To determine scores, the PPI drew heavily from ExcelinEd’s 2019 State Progress Toward Next Generation Learning, Aurora Institute’s 2020 Future-Focused State Policy Actions to Transform K-12 Education, and KnowledgeWorks’ 2019 State Policy Framework for Personalized Learning.

COVID-19 Response

When COVID-19 reached our shores in early 2020, states were forced to close their schools for in-person instruction. Whether and how to continue teaching and set expectations for continued learning outside of the classroom was a big debate. Many states and schools quickly pivoted to delivering education remotely, either through technology enabled tools or with low-tech paper packets and phone calls, or a combination of both. The response from schools and school districts varied widely, with some being willing to adapt and some actually discouraging both teaching and learning. CER tracked those responses (and continues to do so, given the fluidity of the situation). States that were encouraging, set expectations, and demanded that schools figure out whatever they could to keep moving students forward, tended to have more schools and districts that responded well and worked to deliver education regardless of challenges. Many states that had digital or virtual learning programs in place were able to make a more seamless shift. Innovative leaders at local and state levels rose to the occasion. But many states and localities dragged their feet and, in some cases, outright discouraged schooling to keep going, including forbidding teachers in some areas to be required to do any face to face teaching via technology.

States were evaluated based on reviewing their official notices and declarations, and by reviewing a broad array of surveys and data many groups have been maintaining. This score also factors in states’ prior commitments to expanding broadband and internet access and how they worked to provide devices to keep students learning and engaged.

What was, and is, a challenging and unprecedented time for schools, teachers, and parents was also an opportunity to look at states’ and schools’ abilities to adapt, be flexible, and innovate.

For more on Education Innovation, check out the CER ACTION Series:

  • Virtual Events & Videos
  • Key Data
  • Resources
  • Publications

Public School Choice

COMING SOON! Several new components were introduced this year to evaluations making up the PPI! Index, including new innovation measures. Details forthcoming

Leadership

Improving education opportunity and innovation requires leaders who boldly and courageously push forward to create or expand successful programs that allow a wide variety of educational choice and individualized programs to thrive. Governors and state legislators are the most important entities in each state to pave the way, or deter, expanded parent power. Some leaders pay lip service to issues, while others wake up with a fire in their belly to ensure that they are doing what they can every day to push through conventional wisdom and demand 21st century schooling opportunities for all students.

Whether or not your governor is the bold, fire-in-the-belly kind, or a passive applauder of others’ efforts, is evaluated to help you push or prod or applaud. PPI looks at their positions AND actions on charter schools, choice programs, innovation, and commitment to increasing educational opportunities for all students at every level and summarizes it for you here. You have the power to elect leaders who prioritize parents and students!

Constitutional Issues

The ability for states to enact educational change can be significantly limited depending on certain provisions in state constitutions.

The most common clause that limits educational opportunity in most states are “Blaine Amendments” – named after 19th century Congressman James Blaine nearly 150 years ago. Historically, these provisions in 37 state constitutions were either interpreted to restrict educational choice programs that include private schools or have been a deterrent for many programs being considered, let alone enacted.

This issue received a great deal of press leading up to and following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 30, 2020 decision in the case of Espinoza vs Montana Department of Revenue, a case that dealt with Montana’s Blaine Amendment. That landmark decision found that the U.S. Constitution “forbids states from excluding religious schools as options for families participating in educational choice programs, including through Blaine Amendments.”

As a result, most states have a new path to enact programs that provide options for families, including religious schools. Their individual versions of Blaine Amendments can either be nullified with attorney generals’ opinions, with legislation or with both. Additional restrictions on expanded opportunity are often dedicated by what is called a Compelled Support Clause where dated constitutional language restricts public funding to government entities.

We look at each state’s particular constitutional issues, utilizing a number of sources, CER attorney analysis and the Institute for Justice’s research as our guide. Additional information about Espinoza and Blaine Amendments can be found here.

In addition, if states have other constitutional barriers to more opportunity, they are evaluated in this area.

Transparency

Transparency is a key element of providing great opportunities for students. Every parent needs and deserves full transparency of school-level data to allow them to make informed decisions and drive changes in how their students are educated. School report cards empower parents in their decision making by giving them access to meaningful and quality education data about a particular school or district. Report cards often provide information on student performance, student growth, attendance, graduation rates, demographics, teacher quality, school environment, assessments, and more. States that have greater transparency and accountability provide the public with data that is current, readily available, and easy to understand.

States are measured based on the transparency and accessibility of data for the average person looking to learn about their child’s school. States have more gas in the tank when school report cards are easily accessible from their state DOE homepage; report cards are comprehensive, user-friendly, and easy to understand; and information about educational options are readily available. Additionally, states score higher when they hold School Board Elections during the General Election cycle, as opposed to off-times of the year when turnout is low, because this tends to afford parents more power in their decision-making.