H.R. 4330, the All Students Achieving through Reform (All-STAR) Act, introduced by Education and Labor Committee Member Rep. Jared Polis, would help close our nation’s achievement gap in education by expanding and replicating successful, high-quality public charter schools serving at-risk students.
H.R. 4330:
- Establishes a new competitive grant program in the Department of Education to enable successful public charter schools that serve at-risk students to replicate, expand and serve more students who are currently in underperforming schools.
- Eligible grantees include School Districts that have or intend to authorize a public charter school, States, Authorized Public Chartering Agencies, and Non-Profit Organizations with a mission and proven track record of success in replicating high-quality charter schools.
- Charter schools are eligible only if they have made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) the last two consecutive years or exceeded their state graduation rate (where applicable).
- Encourages new rigorous levels of reporting, oversight and accountability for charter school authorizers, including intervention or closure of low-quality charter schools.
- Allows funds to be used for replication and expansion costs, including:
- Transportation
- Hiring additional staff and teachers
- Special education programs
- Facilities acquisition & development
- Requires that students must be enrolled via a lottery in charters, but also allows expanding schools to matriculate their current students into the new grades.
- Focuses resources on serving those areas most in need by giving priority to eligible entities that serve a large share of low-income students who are enrolled in underperforming schools.
- Gives priority to states that do not have caps restricting the growth of public charter schools and have policies in place that support academically successful charter schools, provide autonomy to schools, promote strong authorizing policies, and ensure quality control through performance-based accountability.
- Focuses resources on replicating the best models of public education by giving priority to top-performing charter schools that:
Source: Rep. Polis
- Have significantly closed the achievement gap and:
- Serve a large percentage of low-income students and rank in at least the top 25th percentile in the State assessment in math and reading or have an average student score on a national exam that is at least in the 60th percentile in reading and at least in the 75th percentile in math; or
- Serve low-income students through a cooperative agreement.
