How States Can Hold Schools Accountable: The Strong Schools Model of Standards-Based Reform
This paper is the result of a review of efforts across the country, and specifically in five states, to introduce performance accountability into education reform strategies.
Stimulating the Supply and Building the Capacity of New Schools and School Developers: Recommendations for the Design and Implementation of a New Schools Incubator
An increasingly pressing issue impacting the quality of educational services in the United States is the country’s growing need for new public schools equipped to meet the unique demands of this generation’s students and policy environment. Factors such as enrollment growth, the threat of school reconstitution, the expanding charter school movement, and an increasing preference […]
Making Standards Stick
This report documents Washington State’s attempts to ensure students meet new, higher standards for student learning. It is part of a trio of reports on this topic. The other reports are: Making Standards Work (1999) and Making Standards Meaningful (2001).
Making Standards Work: Active Voices, Focused Learning
This report works at identifying steps Washington state schools can take to improve new state assessment scores and meet higher state standards. Follow-up reports include Making Standards Stick (2000) and Making Standards Meaningful (2001).
Toward a K-12 Education Accountability System in Washington State
This report sketches a strong and unique accountability system for Washington State, one that is driven by measurements of student performance and incentives to improve, creates clear lines of responsibility, gives every school a chance to perform and improve, employs powerful incentives, and doesn’t stop until every child is in a good school.
What It Takes to Start A Pennsylvania Charter School: A Guide for Applicants
This report was written in anticipation of the passage of House Bill 1834, a charter school statute considered and ultimately rejected by the Pennsylvania legislature in the fall of 1996. The information and advice contained herein has broader application to charter schools and the charter movement.
Supplying a System of Charter Schools: Observations on Early Implementation of the Massachusetts Statute
This report examines the “supply side” of education reform – the extent to which proposals to decentralize public education can be implemented by the individuals, groups, or institutions prepared to operate schools in the new system. Charter schools are the focus of this study, and particularly the early development of the system of schools permitted by the charter school statute that Massachusetts enacted in 1993.
A Nonprofit Technical Assistance Activity for Charter Applicants in Pennsylvania: Mission, Functions, Capabilities and Plans
This Report describes the mission, functions, capabilities and plans of a potential nonprofit Technical Assistance Activity (TAA) for charter school applicants under House Bill 1834, the Charter School Act previously under consideration by the Pennsylvania legislature. We have published the report to advance understanding of the Pennsylvania initiative and because the information and advice contained herein has broader application to charter schools and the charter movement.
A Guidebook for Chartering Agencies
This is a guidebook for school boards and other government agencies given the power to permit private individuals and groups to operate autonomous public schools under state charter school legislation.
So You Want to Start a Charter School? Strategic Advice for Applicants: Recommendations from an Expert Workshop
In September of 1995, the Program on Reinventing Public Education invited twelve experts to Seattle for a workshop about the business side of charter school start-up. This report summarizes the strategies for charter school start-up recommended by the workshop participants.