The charter movement’s “tipping point” strategy isn’t working. What now?
For those in the charter movement who have viewed chartering as a systemic reform strategy (not just an escape hatch for some kids), the prevalent theory of action for the last ten to fifteen years has been a “tipping point” strategy. The idea was to concentrate growth in targeted cities until districts either responded to […]
Returning the Favor: David Osborne Goes Deep in “Reinventing America’s Schools”
22 years ago, I published a RAND report, Reinventing Public Education, urging that all public schools operate under contracts with public officials. (This later grew into a book with the same title written with Larry Pierce and Jim Guthrie.) The core argument came from my earlier studies on school effectiveness—that every public school needed a […]
How Politics Can Enhance the Work of School Reform
I live in Seattle, a deeply “blue,” progressive city. There are a lot of great things about being surrounded by people passionate about public policy and willing to exert their political muscles to fight for the things they care about, whether that may be protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policy or fighting for a higher […]
Evidence Isn’t Enough: Good Policy Needs Good Politics
I’m a researcher at university-based center that prides itself on following the evidence. That means I spend most of my time thinking about “what works.” I’m not alone. Federal and state policymakers, advocacy groups, and philanthropists have spilt a lot of ink on the value of evidence. Because I live and breathe evidence every day, […]
How Denver Is Working to Improve Its Portfolio of Schools
CRPE recently analyzed Denver’s portfolio of public schools—the curricular themes, instructional approaches, and extra programmatic offerings—as part of a new report (it also looked at New Orleans and Washington, D.C.). In this blog, Brian Eschbacher, Executive Director of Planning and Enrollment Services at Denver Public Schools, shares the district’s goals and progress using enrollment data […]
What if Education Policy Were More Like Astronomy? The Value of ‘Soft Power’
As my family heads down to eastern Oregon today to watch the solar eclipse, I can’t help but think about how different things might be if education policy was akin to astronomy. You see, while eclipses are rare events, they are entirely predictable ones—shaped by well understood physical phenomenon like the orbit of the earth […]
Disability Rights Advocates Are Fighting the Wrong Fight on School Choice
Many respected national groups have recently set their sights on school choice as the new battlefront for disability rights. They are anywhere from open to highly skeptical to adamantly opposed to charter schools and private school choice, often aligning with teachers unions to try to block new proposals or to re-regulate existing policies. This opposition […]
A Matter of Perspective: Charter Schools From the Inside Out
When a career school district educator takes a position leading a charter school, her former district colleagues say, “She’s gone to the dark side.” And when a charter leader is offered a position in a district, she thinks, “How can I work with an office full of incompetent people?” Yet these “boundary spanners” quickly realize […]
Want a Truly Effective School Choice System? Have High-Quality Options in Every Neighborhood
In their efforts to expand school choice, city leaders have good intentions and lofty ambitions. They want to allow for diverse approaches to education, offering schools and programs that meet the demands and interests of a wide variety of students and families. They want to give both students and educators the opportunity to find their […]
“It’s Not My Problem!” Why Charter Schools and Districts Need to Work Together on the Politics of School Closure
District budgets are badly strained when many of their schools are under-enrolled. This is one of the biggest reasons that districts with growing charter enrollment hit financial hurdles. Meanwhile, charter schools can’t expand without access to facilities, and in a growing number of cities, suitable facilities are in very short supply. Understandably, charter leaders bristle […]