Cleveland, OH: District-Charter Improvement on a Countdown Clock
This fall, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation named Cleveland as the twenty-first city to participate in its District-Charter Collaboration Compact initiative. Cleveland serves approximately 56,000 students; about 16,000 of them are enrolled in 73 charter schools. While the collaboration between Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and 14 charter partners focuses on similar challenges as […]
Collision Course: School Discipline and Education Reform
The education reform debate can be like a spinning top. It changes course abruptly and without warning but it remains largely focused inward. The dizzying debate around education policy is on a collision course with another spinning top: the overuse and impact of harsh school discipline practices. The clash may feel like it came out […]
Inclusiveness, Simplicity, Flexibility Are Key to Next-Generation Accountability
One theme that emerged in our discussions on the next generation of school accountability is that tensions inherently arise when developing accountability systems that need to serve multiple interests and stakeholders. As the sole authorizer of public charter schools in Washington, D.C., the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board has been wrestling with these […]
What’s Next for Detroit’s Troubled Schools?
Today Education Next published an article by Ashley Jochim, Michael DeArmond, and me about the state of the Detroit public school system. Given single-digit academic proficiency scores, a weak and splintered charter sector, and a crumbling urban infrastructure, it’s tough to be optimistic about Detroit. But we are, especially given the news that Detroit’s plan […]
Setting the Record Straight on Charter Schools and Achievement: A Reply to Francesca Lopez
At CRPE, we appreciate and encourage scholarly debate. However, a recent review by the National Education Policy Center of one of our reports went well beyond that to misrepresent the report and malign the analysis. I’ve offered the authors of our report—Dr. Julian Betts and Dr. Y. Emily Tang of the University of California San […]
Time to Take Stock on Charter Authorizing
I had the opportunity to speak about the future of charter authorizing to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), the agency staff and board members who select, oversee, and regulate charter schools. It was a nice chance to reflect on how far performance-based charter oversight has progressed, and where it needs to go. […]
Accountability: It’s In the Eye of the Beholder
When it comes to school accountability, different people see the same events differently. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. When a school district closes a school with persistently low student outcomes, is it punishing the teachers? Or is it acting to protect the children in the school from a damaging experience? The answer […]
What’s Next for Accountability?
Today, we wrap up our blog series on accountability prompted by a paper and statement of principles released last week. Thanks to guest bloggers and co-signers James Merriman, Joanne Weiss, Sandy Kress, and Jane Hannaway for weighing in with their thoughts about where accountability systems need to go next. Join the conversation on Twitter: #TheNewAccountability […]
Measuring the Health of the Charter Movement Is Important to Get Right
Today the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released a report looking at what outcomes charter schools are achieving in different states and what might explain the variation. This report is the first of its kind and offers a starting point for tackling these important questions, but I can’t say I have any real confidence […]
It’s All About Improvement
Schools have long been held accountable for how they carry out their activities. State and local authorities require students to take certain courses, minutes of classroom instruction are specified, limits on the ratio of students to teachers are set, textbooks are approved, and teachers leading instructional activities are certified by the state. Such procedural standards […]