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, […]
In Judging the Consequences of Charter Growth, Weigh Benefits to District Students Against Financial Strains
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. One of the most frequent criticisms of the charter school movement is that these alternative public schools are a financial drain on the system and make […]
What Does It Mean to Be an Ally in Efforts to Transform Public Education? The Answers Threaten to Tear the Movement Apart
What defines an ally? Competing answers to this question threaten to tear apart the increasingly fragile political coalitions working to improve our nation’s schools. I’m an education policy researcher who has spent 25 years exposing unequal opportunity and outcomes in public education and proposing ways to fix those inequities. When I began, I was compelled in […]
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. […]
Introducing the Big Think Network: A Shift from “Scaling Innovation” to Innovation at Scale
At CRPE we have a tradition of looking around the corner. We worry about problems that may be coming and contemplate new ways to get ahead of them. We posit and test systemic changes to allow families and educators to be successful. This kind of thinking has shaped our research agenda since 1993, leading us […]
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 […]
Separating Truth from Fiction as Charter Schools Transition from Shiny Theory to Gritty Reality
Long known as uncomfortable truth-tellers in education reform, the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell has for years tracked the problems that arise as charter schools have made the transition from shiny new idea to gritty reality. For nearly 30 years charter schools have built a track record of success, […]