Robin Lake to LAUSD: Stop searching for the next superhero — hand your schools the cape
For the fifth time in the past 10 years, LAUSD is searching for a new superintendent. The school board’s list of required qualifications likely include: Able to drive and execute on an academic improvement vision for more than 640,000 students. Able to turn around or close hundreds of low-performing schools. Able to head off looming […]
Lessons Learned About District-Charter Partnerships: How Sharing Instructional Practices Can Pave the Way for More Collaboration
An overview of the district-charter collaboration landscape and one strategy that many cities are pursuing: sharing instructional practices across district and charter schools.
Reflecting on the Portfolio Strategy and School Improvement in San Antonio
A 15-minute drive from the Alamo, Ira C. Ogden Elementary School is in its first year of an ambitious turnaround effort. At the beginning of March, as part of CRPE’s 15th Portfolio Network Meeting, I toured the school with a group of educators and advocates. The school is a partnership between the San Antonio Independent […]
Wanted: District Leaders Who Can Make Tough Choices
The many big cities now looking for school superintendents—Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Newark, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., among them—need to pay attention to what has happened in Chicago. Like Chicago, these districts face big and persistent achievement gaps, with many troubled and low-performing schools. Unlike Chicago, they aren’t the one city in the country […]
The Special-Education Graduation Conundrum
As the recent debacle at Washington D.C.’s Ballou High school showed, it’s not always clear whether graduation rates mean anything about whether a student is prepared for college or career. But when it comes to students with disabilities, we have reason to believe high school graduation rates are simply a farce. This past November, The Hechinger […]
Creating District-Charter Partnerships in the Lone Star State
The State of Texas passed an innovation law (Senate Bill 1882) in summer 2017 to foster partnership schools, much like those profiled in CRPE’s recent brief. CRPE research analyst Sean Gill spoke with Molly Weiner, director of policy at the Texas Aspires Foundation, about her thoughts on the creation of the bill and its potential […]
New NACSA Study, A First Step to Address the Critical Need for Evidence in Authorizing
One of the essential features of a charter school, what most distinguishes it from a district school or voucher-receiving school, is that it is “authorized” by a public agent and held accountable for results promised in its performance contract. When Paul Hill and I first started writing about charter schools, we expected that these “authorizers,” […]
How Personalized Learning Models Can Meet the Needs of Students with Disabilities: Thrive Public Schools Case Study
This brief examines how students with special needs are being served by an innovative San Diego charter school network.
How School Culture and Support Systems Can Improve Disciplinary Outcomes for Students with Disabilities: Mott Haven Academy Charter School Case Study
This brief examines how students with special needs are being served by an innovative New York City charter school.
Four Ways Philadelphia Can Keep Its Schools Moving in the Right Direction as District Prepares to Retake Local Control
The nominating panel charged with selecting candidates for Philadelphia’s new nine-member school board has received its last application. Now, as the district prepares to retake local control of its schools July 1, the panel’s 13 members must identify the 27 best candidates for Mayor Jim Kenney to choose from. It will be a daunting and […]