Overview – Can Charter Schools Become a Crossover Hit? (HFR ’09)
In this overview of the 2009 edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality Robin Lake explores whether attention from President Barack Obama and his Department of Education will help move charters from the margins to the mainstream.
Ch. 6 – Missed Opportunity: Improving Charter School Governing Boards (HFR ’09)
In this chapter, Christine Campbell explores an underutilized opportunity for strengthening charter schools: addressing the quality of charter school governing boards.
Ch. 5 – Achieving the Ripple Effect: How Can Charters Prompt District Improvement? (HFR ’09)
In this chapter, Robin Lake takes up the questions of whether and how charter schools can prompt school districts to become more innovative and performance-oriented.
Ch. 4 – Still Negotiating: What Do Unions Mean for Charter Schools (HFR ’09)
In this chapter, Mitch Price considers whether charter schools can coexist with teachers unions and perhaps even provide innovative models for shaping productive new union contracts.
Ch. 3 – High Performing Charter Schools: Serving Two Masters? (HFR ’09)
In this chapter Katherine Merseth of Harvard University looks at charter schools as an important new model for urban schooling, outlining the essential components found in a number of high-performing Boston charter schools.
Ch. 2 – A Cautionary Tale: School Turnarounds and Charter Leadership (HFR ’09)
In this chapter, Terry Ryan of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation looks into charters as a school turnaround strategy drawing on Fordham’s experience with sponsoring a charter school in Ohio.
Ch. 1 – The Charter Landscape, 2004-2009 (HFR ’09)
In this chapter, Jon Christensen, Jacqueline Meijer-Irons, and Robin Lake lay out the basic data on charter school growth from 2004-2009.
Have States Disproportionately Cut Education Budgets During ARRA? Early Findings
This analysis explores how state education spending has changed or will change given the application of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2009
This edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality explores the lessons high-performing charter schools offer for other public schools, including the alignment of lesson content with state curriculum, frequent formative assessment mirroring high-stakes tests, and the importance of a school culture that exudes “a palpable urgency that communicates that the work is important.”