4 Things States Should Do to Help Students With Disabilities Graduate Ready for the World of Work
Recent headlines have said it loud and proud: Unemployment is at a 50-year low, and it might drop a lot further. This is good news, for sure. But while more and more jobs are created, we can’t shake the fact that not everyone is benefiting from this boom. Unsurprisingly, the Brookings Institution has found that the out-of-work […]
The History—and Future—of School Integration Defy Buzzwords
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the race for the Democratic nomination have given education policy a rare moment the limelight in a presidential campaign. The policy issue at the heart of their dispute, dubbed “busing,” has prompted a debate about equity and school integration that is difficult to handle fairly in a political environment that […]
Underserved Families Can’t Always Manage School Choice Alone
The goal of school choice is to give all families — especially families in underserved communities — access to high-quality schools that work for them. School systems will not reach that goal if they leave families to navigate these options on their own. This has long been a priority for us at the Center on […]
What if High School Were Different?
I am the oldest of four children. The youngest is my brother Stephen. Regular school was never a good fit for Stephen. He is one of the smartest people I know. An avid reader. A talented visual artist. And incredibly hard-working. But none of those attributes mattered when it came to his schooling experience. He […]
Separating Fiscal Fact from Fiction: Journalists Needed
What is the fiscal impact of charter schools on California’s school districts? This is a simple question with no simple answer. Yet policymakers are ready to act. Many school districts in California are having trouble balancing their budgets and are making cuts. Public charter schools have attracted a large number of students. Teachers unions successfully […]
Charter Schools: Good or Bad for Students in Districts
As charter school enrollments grow, are school districts so weakened by financial losses that teaching and learning must suffer? Or does competition spur traditional public schools and districts to improve—for the benefit of all? There are bodies of research and policy advocacy on both questions, but the results are difficult to reconcile. Studies focusing on […]
We Must Understand the Real Impact of Charter Schools on California’s School Districts
Today the Center on Reinventing Public Education is releasing three briefs that shed light on the debate surrounding charter schools in California. In short, they conclude: Charter schools are not a major driver of recent enrollment declines in California’s school districts. There is no evidence that charter schools are to blame for school districts entering […]
Assessing Charter Schools’ Impact on Districts: Too Important to Get Wrong
Several months ago I critiqued a report by Dr. Gordon Lafer and published by In the Public Interest (ITPI). Unfortunately, the report continues to inform policy deliberations in California, where a commission is weighing charter school policy changes and lawmakers are considering a five-year moratorium on new charter schools. The author has said that he […]
Back to the Future for Charter School Research
A recent analysis from Education Week carried a grim headline: “In Many Charter High Schools, Graduation Odds Are Slim.” Its core finding, “Charter high schools make up an outsized share of the number of public schools persistently graduating less than half of their students,” led the authors to question why charter high school graduation rates […]
Learning Outside of School: Lessons from ReSchool Colorado’s First Year
The start of spring brings a source of stress for some parents; it’s time to figure out what their children will do over the summer. Summer activities can provide necessary childcare—and vital support for student learning—during the months when school is closed. But lining up those activities for children can cause headaches for many families. […]