City Spotlight: Collaboration and Resource Sharing in Spring Branch, Texas
In Spring Branch, Texas, co-location of charter and district school programs is an intentional strategy designed to support sharing best practices across sectors; it evolved from a history of school choice within the Spring Branch Independent School District (SBISD). Co-located programs are at the heart of the SKY Partnership, a formal collaboration between SBISD, KIPP […]
A Tale of Two (Charter) Cities
I spent the beginning of last week in Detroit, a city that spawned one of the nation’s early charter laws, now home to one of the most unregulated charter sectors I have seen. I believe that Detroit families are better off as a result of choice. There are some very strong schools that wouldn’t exist […]
Columbus Children Falling Through the Cracks
The recent news out of Columbus—that 17 of the 75 local charter schools had closed in the past year—is bad in so many ways. It throws up a big obstacle for reformers in that city, in Cleveland, and elsewhere who need to use chartering as a policy to create good options for all families. It […]
Asking the Hard Questions about District-Charter Collaboration
Egocentric standoffs between charter and district leaders too often get in the way of smart negotiations and collective action that would benefit students. That’s the reason many cities are pursuing portfolio reforms and district-charter collaboration agreements. But we also know that collaboration between historically hostile parties takes time, and that time is too often not […]
The Big Message from NAEP TUDA
It is tempting to squeeze the urban NAEP scores for evidence about what city is doing better or worse than other cities. But the big messages are that everyone’s scores are very bad, and that cities with the highest concentrations of low-income and minority kids do the worst. Some cities have gotten unstuck from the […]
What the NAEP TUDA Results Don’t Tell Us
The recent NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) had everyone “a twitter” yesterday comparing notes on which districts are leading, which are falling behind. Andy Smarick posted a sobering piece on Flypaper that, among other smart observations, pointed out how badly some of the Broad prize districts had done, while others celebrated promising performance trends […]
State Chiefs Need To Cage-Bust, Too
There is no escaping the idea that state education agencies (SEAs) need to step up their acts. Most are gigantic bureaucracies designed to administer state and federal programs and to hold school districts accountable for reporting and fiscal requirements. It’s not that the work of a typical SEA is totally disconnected from school improvement efforts, […]
Washington’s Charter Schools May Not Be “Common” But They ARE Public
Yesterday, the King County Superior Court issued a ruling on a challenge to the constitutionality of Washington’s State’s charter school law approved by voters last November. Contrary to early media reports that the law was found unconstitutional (setting off a Twitter frenzy), the judge actually upheld the entire charter law, with some minor exceptions. The […]
Don’t Manage Talent by Remote Control
Leaders of portfolio districts agree that schools should be more autonomous and accountable, and that teachers should be judged and rewarded on the basis of performance. Those principles can be complementary, but the actions taken in pursuit of them are sometimes in conflict. In particular, state-mandated teacher evaluation systems can undermine school autonomy. We know […]
Doing No Harm
One of the key arguments of charter school opponents is that charter schools hurt the kids left behind in district-run schools. It is true that as families choose charter schools, district enrollment, and therefore funding, shrinks. But what happens next is up to the districts. If districts choose to preserve expensive central offices and cost […]