To Survive, Charters Cannot Ignore the Bottom Line
by Marguerite Roza By now, most people in the education world have come to terms with the notion that resources are likely to be highly constrained in the years ahead. Charters, too, have faced the unsavory consequences of tight budgets as they have seen their state funds squeezed or delayed. Most charters have focused their […]
Charters Branch Out: Do Moves Into Affluent Areas Signal an Important Trend?
by Jeffrey Henig Twenty years ago, in the early days of the charter school movement, the hot controversy was “creaming.” Critics worried that charters would target more advantaged suburban populations, skimming off the students most likely to succeed and leaving traditional public schools in low-income and minority neighborhoods even more isolated, underfunded, and burdened with […]
Tech-Based Learning: The New Frontier for Charters?
by Michael Horn When charter schools were created in the 1990s, they were intended to spur innovation in America’s K–12 school system. Charters, it was thought, would look radically different from what we knew: schools divided into conventional classrooms in conventional grades. Some charter schools fulfilled that hope. All too often, however, charter schools looked, […]
New Frontiers: An Overview of Charter Schools in 2012
by Robin Lake The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has been producing Hopes, Fears, & Reality since 2005, after a set of major studies showed conflicting results about charter school performance and caused quite a dustup. CRPE created this annual report and its overall research program on charter schools with two goals in mind: […]
Incubate for America?
by Ethan Gray If you have a winning idea for a new business, the United States has the needed infrastructure to get the business off the ground. There are venture capital markets, economic development councils, mentorship programs, chamber of commerce programs, and myriad other supports to help your business idea become a reality. But what […]
Ch. 4 – Innovating Toward Sustainability: How Computer Labs Can Enable New Staffing Structures and Savings (HFR ’12)
Suzanne Simburg and Marguerite Roza lay out the cost savings possible if blended learning were adopted by all U.S. public elementary schools, not just charter schools.
Ch. 3 – Innovating at Last? The Rise of Blended Learning in Charter Schools (HFR ’12)
Michael Horn writes about how and why many charter schools in California have innovated through technology and asks what it will take for more to follow nationwide.
Ch. 2 – Incubate for America? (HFR ’12)
Ethan Gray argues that cities should incubate their own high-performing charter schools rather than wait for charter networks to build schools in their area.
Ch. 1 – Charter Inroads in Affluent Communities: Hype or Turning Point? (HFR ’12)
Jeffrey Henig explores the growth of charter school in suburban and affluent areas.
Overview – WIll the Charter Movement Rest on Its Laurels or Innovate and Expand? (HFR ’12)
Editor Robin Lake introduces the key areas explored in this year’s volume of Hopes, Fears, & Reality.
