Agents of Change: The Portfolio Strategy CEO
Leaders of big-city portfolio strategies last longer on average than other school superintendents. But all eventually leave their jobs, whether for career or personal reasons or because local politics has turned against them. What makes for a successful portfolio strategy CEO? When city leaders need to find a CEO what should they look for? The […]
Title I: Time to Get It Right
This brief presents five clear principles on which Title I formulas should be based and progress measured.
Accountability and the Federal Role: A Third Way on ESEA
In this paper, two different “camps” on school reform find common ground on how to improve educational accountability.
In-Depth Portfolio Assessment: Spring Branch Independent School District, Texas
This report examines Spring Branch Independent School District’s progress on implementing the portfolio strategy.
The Portfolio Strategy CEO: The Job and How to Prepare for It
This primer for portfolio strategy leaders identifies the main challenges of the job and how to approach them.
Making Sense of Charter School Studies: A Reporter’s Guide
This guide educates the media and decision-makers about what questions to ask regarding charter school research, and provides them with information about the limits of any new research.
Tulsa: Emergent District-Charter Collaboration
Tulsa, which operates in a state not widely receptive to charter schools, has set a bold course of collaboration between the district and charter sectors. Following a difficult history that included anti-charter litigation in 2007 by Tulsa Public Schools, TPS and three district-authorized charter schools signed a District-Charter Collaboration Compact in January 2014. Superintendent Keith […]
What We’re Missing on Community Engagement
To wrap up our 2-day Portfolio Network Meeting in January, a meeting focused on good educational options and choices for all families, we asked Raymond Jetson to address these questions: “Why is community engagement not working? Why are families and communities unhappy with reformers’ efforts to improve low-performing schools?” Raymond A. Jetson is pastor at […]
Let’s Kill Innovation
In the past couple of years I’ve probably used the word “innovation” thousands of times and read or heard it thousands of times more. Naturally. I worked in an Office of Innovation (inside the Division of Talent, Labor and Innovation) running “Innovate NYC Schools” (Twitter handle @innovatenycedu), which was funded by a grant from the […]
Walking in Memphis: A Reality Check on Civil Rights and Education
As an education reporter, I frequently inserted this oft-uttered phrase into my articles: “Education is the civil rights issue of our time.” I did so because it is very difficult to engage readers, even parents, on education topics. There’s a dearth of education reporters and a tendency for education stories to focus on over-tested kids, […]