What You Were Reading in 2017
year-end-banner-photos-only.png From a groundbreaking report on school districts’ financial struggles to a just-in-time brief on a new “third way” educational model, here are our top five publications of the year (plus our most popular blog posts). Better Together: Ensuring Quality District Schools in Times of Charter Growth and Declining Enrollment year-end-better-together-01.png Based on a convening […]
When Schools Come in Different Flavors, It Doesn’t Mean Families Have Options
When asked about school quality, public school parents tend to be pessimistic about how good the nation’s schools are overall, but happy with their own children’s school. This disconnect is a long-standing finding from survey research, but it’s not the only inconsistency in how parents view public schools. When we surveyed 3,208 families across eight […]
In a Deeply Flawed ‘Analysis,’ the Associated Press Blames Public Charter Schools for America’s Segregated Cities
History repeats itself. Unfortunately, so does irresponsible analysis. For the 20 or so years that I’ve been studying charter schools, the attacks on charters have morphed over time. Early on, it was said that charter schools were going to admit only the most advantaged students. When that clearly didn’t come to pass, the attack line […]
Public School Choice, Any Way You Slice It
Our new report, Stepping Up: How Are American Cities Delivering on the Promise of Public School Choice?, finds a variety of public school choice available in cities—district-run magnet, innovation, and open-enrollment schools; charter schools overseen by multiple authorizers; and district-charter partnership schools. In some cities, private schools accept publicly subsidized vouchers. In others, students can […]
For public school choice, focus on reality—not rhetoric
School choice is probably the most controversial topic in public education today. The Trump administration’s support for private school vouchers has set off a rhetorical war in Washington that is increasingly playing out in states. Meanwhile, public school choices (magnet schools, innovation schools, charter schools, and the like), which have historically enjoyed strong bipartisan support, are increasingly […]
A Flexible “Third Way” Option: Partnership Schools on the Rise
Across the country, in Atlanta, Camden, Indianapolis and at least ten other cities, more schools are operating under a kind of partnership school model: a “third way” governance strategy that breaks through district-charter divides. Some education leaders, like Fordham Institute president Mike Petrilli, think this approach should be avoided at all costs. But others, myself […]
Communities Need Districts and Charters to Collaborate More and Compete Less
Our report, Better Together: Ensuring Quality District Schools in Times of Charter Growth and Declining Enrollment, takes an honest look at an urgent problem that has long divided education leaders. To help inform and advance a thoughtful discussion, we invited a number of experts to share their views on this complex and politically charged issue. […]
Brokering the Grand Bargain
Our report, Better Together: Ensuring Quality District Schools in Times of Charter Growth and Declining Enrollment, takes an honest look at an urgent problem that has long divided education leaders. To help inform and advance a thoughtful discussion, we invited a number of experts to share their views on this complex and politically charged issue. […]
Reframing the District-Charter Narrative
Our report, Better Together: Ensuring Quality District Schools in Times of Charter Growth and Declining Enrollment, takes an honest look at an urgent problem that has long divided education leaders. To help inform and advance a thoughtful discussion, we invited a number of experts to share their views on this complex and politically charged issue. […]
District Schools? Charters? In Indianapolis, Partnership Schools Offer A Third Way
In 1997, Paul Hill published his book Reinventing Public Education: How Contracting Can Transform America’s Schools (the center where I work at the University of Washington was founded on the ideas presented). With his co-authors, Lawrence Pierce and James Guthrie, Hill proposed that all schools in a city should be contracted out to school-based nonprofits […]
