Published in: CSP Grant

Idaho’s Communities of Excellence CSP Grant: Year 4 Evaluation

Author Sarah Meskin

Published on: August 24, 2023

Prepared by the Idaho Policy Institute

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Idaho’s Communities of Excellence (COE) consortium a $17.1 million Charter Schools Program (CSP) grant. The amount of the award increased to $22.5 million in 2019. Grant funds will be distributed over five years with the intent to achieve Idaho’s COE objectives.

The following questions drive Idaho Policy Institute (IPI)’s evaluation of Idaho’s COE:

How are subgrantee schools using funds for school-site implementation?
How do students and parents perceive the quality of schools vis-a-vis their prior school experience?
What are school and staff perceptions of the successes, improvements, and challenges at subgrantee schools?

Performance data is omitted from this report as standardized testing was not completed in the 2019/20 school year.

This evaluation uses:

Demographic data received from the Idaho State Board of Education.
Financial data received from Bluum (the non-profit organization that serves as a fiscal agent for the grant).
Parent and teacher survey data from the Farkas-Duffett Research (FDR) Group.

Key findings include:

Of the $18.3 million subgrants awarded across the six CSP cohorts, approximately $15.2 million, or 83%, was spent through September 2022.
Staffing is the most common expenditure (33%), followed by technology (23%), furniture and fixtures (19%), and curriculum (11%).
More students from each subgroup score proficient on both the math and ELA ISAT than statewide. When looking at individual schools, there are schools with exceptional performance and some that perform similar to the state, but very few schools have lower than the statewide average for subgroup performance.
When looking at growth targets among subgroups, more COE students reached the growth targets than statewide, however for some subgroups, the difference is within 5%.
Four of the five cohorts with operating schools experience higher student and parent engagement than the statewide rate, according to the 2022 Idaho Engagement and Satisfaction Survey. Three CSP cohorts have higher staff engagement than the Idaho average.Of the $18.3 million subgrants awarded across the six CSP cohorts, approximately $15.2 million, or 83%, was spent through September 2022.
Staffing is the most common expenditure (33%), followed by technology (23%), furniture and fixtures (19%), and curriculum (11%).
More students from each subgroup score proficient on both the math and ELA ISAT than statewide. When looking at individual schools, there are schools with exceptional performance and some that perform similar to the state, but very few schools have lower than the statewide average for subgroup performance.
When looking at growth targets among subgroups, more COE students reached the growth targets than statewide, however for some subgroups, the difference is within 5%.
Four of the five cohorts with operating schools experience higher student and parent engagement than the statewide rate, according to the 2022 Idaho Engagement and Satisfaction Survey. Three CSP cohorts have higher staff engagement than the Idaho average.

This report provides a baseline evaluation of the first two cohorts of the Communities of Excellence program. $52,051.00 (100%) of this report was funded by Federal CSP Grant dollars; $0.00 (0%) of this event funded by non-governmental sources; total cost $52,051.00.