Good morning, CharterFolk.
Today we are pleased to share a Contributor Column from Robert Vagi, the Senior Director of Research and Membership at the Tennessee Charter School Center.
We provide a bio for Robert below.
Robert Vagi is the Senior Director of Research and Membership at TCSC. Prior to joining the Center, Robert worked in a variety of research roles in both the public and private sectors. He has spent his entire career in public education and for nearly a decade he has worked to support charter schools, specifically.
His research has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Teacher Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Teachers and Teaching, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, and the Social Science Journal. His work has also appeared in several popular media outlets including the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center Chalkboard, Arizona PBS, the Arizona Republic, as well as numerous presentations to state and local boards.
Prior to a career in research, Robert was a classroom teacher in Phoenix, AZ where he developed innovative music programs designed to engage at-risk youth. He is the author of “Fresh Beats: A Standards-Based Hip-Hop Curriculum” available through Alfred Music and has presented on the intersection of popular music, music education, and adolescent identity development at venues across the country.
Robert earned a PhD in education policy analysis and evaluation from Arizona State University.
Turning Research Into Action: How Data Can Help Support a Thriving Charter Sector
When I was a teacher, it was easy to tell people about my work—nearly everybody understands and appreciates a teacher’s work. Add to that the fact that my role involved leading a thriving music program in a community that didn’t receive much positive press, and people often loved hearing about what I did.
After several years in the classroom, I enrolled in grad school, completed a PhD in education policy with a focus on quantitative research methods, and started a career in education policy research. Suddenly, I began to dread the question “What do you do for work?” The responses changed from “Oh great! We need more people like you!” to “Oh… cool… [confused silence].”
Through those conversations, I realized something important about my job: while I do research for a living, my job is really about helping people do thoughtful work. That insight not only helped me communicate what I do more clearly, it also clarified how I could have a greater impact. At this point in my career, I see my work as giving people the information they need to make informed decisions.
At the Tennessee Charter School Center, our state’s primary charter support organization, this work means using data and research to help Tennessee’s charter leaders and advocates build effective strategies for their schools. Keep reading if you’re curious what that looks like, and how data could inform similar work in your state.
Advocating When Your Data Tells a Complicated Story
As an advocacy organization, our primary mission is to support and strengthen a high-quality charter sector in Tennessee. It’s tempting to think that we can analyze charter school data, compare it to district peers, and then showcase how strong charter schools are overall. But in practice, the data story is seldom this simple.
Charter schools often serve higher percentages of traditionally underserved student groups. On paper, serving a student population that started out behind can sometimes make school performance data look worse—even when they’re serving students exceptionally well. Sector performance may also vary significantly by geography or even within a single region. That complexity means that, if we rely only on averages and broad comparisons, we may struggle to tell a compelling story – or even potentially open ourselves up to criticism.
Our approach has been to blend numbers with stories. Each year, we identify a handful of charter schools that rank among the top performers statewide on a policy-relevant outcome. For example, the year Tennessee’s mandatory 3rd-grade retention law for students not meeting ELA assessment standards went into effect, we focused on reading outcomes. We then conduct case studies with the selected schools to understand the policies and practices that drove success, highlighting how the charter model—autonomy, flexibility, accountability—made it possible.
These reports serve two purposes: they spread the word about effective practices to educators throughout the state, and they allow us to engage policymakers with real examples of how charters are successfully serving students. Instead of just saying, “Charters outperform district schools,” we can show: “When you empower passionate leaders with flexibility, here’s what happens.”
“How Are We Doing?”: Comparison Dashboards
When I first started as Senior Director of Research and Membership at TCSC, I looked for opportunities to combine these areas of work. Since much of my career had been in consulting, I gravitated toward large, high-impact projects. But after completing a few, I noticed a consistent theme: almost every school leader, after reviewing our research, asked, “This is great—thank you! But what I really wish I knew is how our school is doing compared to our neighborhood schools, or maybe other charters?”
That question came up so often it became clear that answering it would be one of the most valuable services we could provide. So we built a data comparison dashboard that does the heavy lifting of data analysis itself, taking work off of school leaders’ plates, and allows schools to benchmark themselves against others—by geographic distance, district, school type, grade level, subgroup, and more.
The applications have been powerful. Leaders use the tool for reauthorization and replication applications, student recruitment, setting outcome goals, and even identifying peer schools to learn from. In some cases, schools have used district comparison features to make the case that expanding into new counties would provide families with higher-quality options.
The demand has grown so much that we’ve been asked to replicate this work for schools in other states. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most “basic” questions are also the most important—and answering them well can change the conversation.
“Where Are Our Students Going?”: Enrollment Dashboards
Enrollment is the lifeblood of public schools. Because funding follows students, any decline in enrollment threatens school stability. Understandably, leaders want to know not just if they are losing students, but where those students are going.
In Memphis, for example, overall enrollment has declined in recent years. But is every neighborhood experiencing the same loss? Not necessarily. By comparing enrollment shifts across neighborhoods, we can see whether students are leaving the area entirely or simply choosing different schools. And as our data have shown, though there is an overall decline in enrollment, some areas are stable, while others are declining and some are even growing!
This type of analysis helps schools make smarter decisions. A school that is losing students can identify nearby schools that are thriving and study their practices. Conversely, schools experiencing growth can better understand which schools their students are coming from. Both insights inform not just strategy, but also community engagement, hiring practices, and even academic planning.
Conclusion: From Research to Real Impact
When I left the classroom, I thought my work would revolve around datasets and regression models. What I’ve learned is that the real work is storytelling, and helping people—leaders, policymakers, families—dig deeper into the stories data is telling to find inspiration, clarity, and motivation..
In Tennessee, that has meant building tools, writing case studies, and celebrating success in ways that blend hard data with human story. My encouragement to other advocates is this: don’t be afraid of the complexity in your data. Lean into it, and then use it to elevate the voices and examples that make your sector strong.
If you or your schools would like to discuss ways to solve problems with data and research, or even support in building out data and enrollment dashboards for your state, please reach out. Together, we can make sure the numbers tell a story that matters.