Real-Dollar Spending Analyses: One of the best things we ever did
In our 20th anniversary publication, Russlynn Ali wrote about CRPE’s research on real-dollar spending within school districts. Russlynn was the perfect person to assess the impact of our work in this area, because she had drawn on it twice to great effect: once in California to advocate successfully for a more transparent state funding system, […]
District-Charter Texas Two-Step
You may have caught John Merrow’s PBS show featuring a Texas school district’s interesting partnership with KIPP and YES Prep! charter schools. Today in Education Next, Richard Whitmire highlights the same district and other district-charter “compacts.” Spring Branch Independent School District (SBISD) is a large semi-suburban school district in Houston. About two years ago, the […]
Chartering Schools: We Have to Get It Right
A core insight behind the school reform movement is that no single entity should both operate a school and be the sole judge of its performance. Any entity, public or private, that both operates and judges is in conflict of interest, and can be expected to accept levels of performance and service to children that […]
Taming the Many-Headed School Choice Monster
I’ve been closely following the Detroit Free Press series on charter schools, having spent time in the Motor City recently. The series concluded somewhat sensationally that charter schools spend $1 billion per year with little transparency or accountability. Predictably, charter advocates in Michigan and elsewhere have dismissed these conclusions while those in favor of traditional […]
Comprehensive Social Services Can’t Substitute for Strong Schools
New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio has announced his big inequality-reducing school improvement initiative, a commitment to community schools. Citing Cincinnati’s community schools as their inspiration, DeBlasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña pledge to start 40 new “wrap-around services” schools and add nearly 300 organizations to the list of approved after-school service providers. DeBlasio is […]
Do Federal Regulators Need to Get Out of the Way?
State leaders and policymakers are working hard to figure out how to bolster the capacity of state education agencies to meet the unprecedented demands they face to drive improvements in K-12 performance and productivity. In a report released Friday by the Center for American Progress, Patrick Murphy argues that SEAs could better meet those demands […]
Market-Based Accountability Won’t Be Enough
This blog was first posted on 6/11/2014 at redefinED, as part of their series on the future of parental choice and accountability. Like it or not, many cities are moving toward nearly universal school choice. In cities like Detroit, Cleveland, and Milwaukee, nearly all families have the opportunity to choose among district schools, charter, and […]
Time Flies When You’re Reinventing
The time has flown. This year marks CRPE’s 20th anniversary. Tonight we’re celebrating in D.C. with some old friends and colleagues, and we’ll be sharing a compilation of essays about how leading researchers and reformers view our impact so far. We’re also wrapping up our “Buried Treasure” blog series highlighting staff’s favorite CRPE publications. I […]
Charter School Quality: Policy Matters, But So Does Implementation
This blog originally appeared on Fordham’s Flypaper on June 4, 2014. Mike Petrilli over at Fordham raises a question that I get all the time from policymakers: what explains the pretty extreme variation we see in charter school outcomes across states? The easy answer is that it’s policy, and by changing policy we can ensure […]
Keeping Personalized Learning Schools on Track
This blog was originally published by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, June 5, 2014 Charter schools are leading the nation in seeking new ways to personalize learning with a blend of teacher-led and technology-based instruction. If they are successful, these schools will dramatically accelerate student learning and use their funding much more strategically. […]