Assessing Charter Schools’ Impact on Districts: Too Important to Get Wrong
Several months ago I critiqued a report by Dr. Gordon Lafer and published by In the Public Interest (ITPI). Unfortunately, the report continues to inform policy deliberations in California, where a commission is weighing charter school policy changes and lawmakers are considering a five-year moratorium on new charter schools. The author has said that he […]
Back to the Future for Charter School Research
A recent analysis from Education Week carried a grim headline: “In Many Charter High Schools, Graduation Odds Are Slim.” Its core finding, “Charter high schools make up an outsized share of the number of public schools persistently graduating less than half of their students,” led the authors to question why charter high school graduation rates […]
Learning Outside of School: Lessons from ReSchool Colorado’s First Year
The start of spring brings a source of stress for some parents; it’s time to figure out what their children will do over the summer. Summer activities can provide necessary childcare—and vital support for student learning—during the months when school is closed. But lining up those activities for children can cause headaches for many families. […]
Sustaining Improvement after State Takeovers: Lessons from New Orleans
This report examines how New Orleans education officials have managed the return of nearly all of the city’s public schools to the control of the local elected school board for the first time since the state takeover of public schools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Expanding Access to Out-of-School Learning: Lessons from Year 1 at ReSchool Colorado
This brief provides an initial, formative assessment of lessons learned in the first year of ReSchool Colorado’s initiatives to expand access to out-of-school learning opportunities for children in the Denver area.
Can Teachers Bridge the Divide Between Unions and Charter Schools? Strikes in Chicago and L.A. Are Test Cases
As teacher strikes swept across the country this year, union leaders in many cities painted charter schools as the enemy. But the narrative that pits charter schools against unions largely ignores the fact that district teachers aren’t the only ones walking off the job; charter school teachers in Chicago and Los Angeles went on strike […]
Six Things We Learned about Charter Schools and Unionization
From California to West Virginia, teachers unions have squared off with charter school supporters in fights framed as fundamental struggles over the future of public education. Meanwhile, some charter school teachers have launched unprecedented strikes of their own—and sometimes drawn shows of solidarity from leaders of teachers unions. Unionized charter school teachers complicate the usual […]
Learning Inside and Outside of School: What Can the Four-Day Week Teach Us?
Thousands of students in about half of Colorado’s school districts attend school four days a week. These small, rural districts try to do in four slightly longer days what others accomplish in five. Why? Some say they are trying to save money. Others say a shorter work week helps recruit and retain teachers. For others, […]
Resilience, Hope, and the Power of the Collective: What Puerto Rico can Teach the States about Education Reform
Hurricane Maria’s wrath created new urgency to address Puerto Rico’s long struggling education system. As soon as electricity was back on, policy types immediately started making analogies to New Orleans. Indeed, new legislation created sweeping new authorities to restructure public education and create new public school options, including charter schools and vouchers. Puerto Rico’s secretary […]
An Unlikely Bargain: Why Charter School Teachers Unionize and What Happens When They Do
This report examines national and local trends in charter unionization, describes the reasons charter school teachers unionize, and analyzes charter school bargaining agreements.