Beyond “No Excuses”: Lessons from a Charter School Network’s Transformation

Introduction from CRPE director Robin Lake: I am delighted to introduce a new contributor to this blog and a new Senior Fellow at CRPE, Steven Wilson.  I have known and admired Steven for more than 20 years. He was special assistant for strategic planning for Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld and co-executive director of the Pioneer […]

How Charter Schools Help Cultivate Good Citizenship

Editor’s note: This blog series examines common narratives about charter schools, separates fact from fiction, and highlights legitimate issues that must be addressed. The full series is available here. Americans are losing faith in democracy. Politics are becoming increasingly polarized. Civic engagement has been in decline for decades.  Observers of these trends are right to […]

We Need to Ask the Right Questions about Corruption and Charter Schools

Editor’s note: This blog series examines common narratives about charter schools, separates fact from fiction, and highlights legitimate issues that must be addressed. The full series is available here. Do charter schools attract crooks? Recent headlines and commentaries could make one think so.  Earlier this year, respected journalist John Merrow assembled diverse evidence from newspapers […]

An Innovation Network: A More Diverse and Inclusive Way to Innovate

This spring the Center on Reinventing Public Education launched the Big Think Network—a collaboration among six organizations that are working to build more just and responsive learning systems in their communities. In the process, we hope to build a new, more inclusive model of what research and development can look like in public education. Historically, […]

Charter Schools Advance Innovation—But Often Not in the Ways You’d Expect

Editor’s note: This blog series examines common narratives about charter schools, separates facts from fiction, and highlights legitimate issues that must be addressed. The full series is available here. A common criticism of charter schools argues that they are run-of-the-mill, nothing special, a big disappointment in light of promises they would be laboratories for innovation. […]

We Need a More Productive Conversation About Charter Schools and Segregation

Editor’s note: This blog series examines common narratives about charter schools, separates facts from fiction, and highlights legitimate issues that must be addressed. The full series is available here. In 2009 the UCLA Civil Rights Project published a report accusing charter schools of resegregating public education. Although that charge was quickly and thoroughly refuted, critics […]

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