How Can We Get Serious About Successful Pathways for Every Student?
Twenty-five years ago, CRPE was founded on the idea of the school as the locus of change. We asked, “How can public oversight and funding be made compatible with school effectiveness?” Working outward to identify systemic barriers and solutions brought us to the portfolio strategy, pupil-based funding, recommendations for more effective charter authorizing, new roles […]
Charter Schools, Segregation, and Anxiety About Social Cohesion
A new book on charter schools and segregation, whose senior editor, Iris Rotberg, I first worked with in 1970 on the War on Poverty, has reminded me how tribally divided the policy research field has become. The book is worth reading as a step toward a still-needed non-tribal discussion of schooling for democracy. blog-180501-hill-cover.jpg Choosing […]
Robin Lake to LAUSD: Stop searching for the next superhero — hand your schools the cape
For the fifth time in the past 10 years, LAUSD is searching for a new superintendent. The school board’s list of required qualifications likely include: Able to drive and execute on an academic improvement vision for more than 640,000 students. Able to turn around or close hundreds of low-performing schools. Able to head off looming […]
Reflecting on the Portfolio Strategy and School Improvement in San Antonio
A 15-minute drive from the Alamo, Ira C. Ogden Elementary School is in its first year of an ambitious turnaround effort. At the beginning of March, as part of CRPE’s 15th Portfolio Network Meeting, I toured the school with a group of educators and advocates. The school is a partnership between the San Antonio Independent […]
Wanted: District Leaders Who Can Make Tough Choices
The many big cities now looking for school superintendents—Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Newark, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., among them—need to pay attention to what has happened in Chicago. Like Chicago, these districts face big and persistent achievement gaps, with many troubled and low-performing schools. Unlike Chicago, they aren’t the one city in the country […]
The Special-Education Graduation Conundrum
As the recent debacle at Washington D.C.’s Ballou High school showed, it’s not always clear whether graduation rates mean anything about whether a student is prepared for college or career. But when it comes to students with disabilities, we have reason to believe high school graduation rates are simply a farce. This past November, The Hechinger […]
Creating District-Charter Partnerships in the Lone Star State
The State of Texas passed an innovation law (Senate Bill 1882) in summer 2017 to foster partnership schools, much like those profiled in CRPE’s recent brief. CRPE research analyst Sean Gill spoke with Molly Weiner, director of policy at the Texas Aspires Foundation, about her thoughts on the creation of the bill and its potential […]
New NACSA Study, A First Step to Address the Critical Need for Evidence in Authorizing
One of the essential features of a charter school, what most distinguishes it from a district school or voucher-receiving school, is that it is “authorized” by a public agent and held accountable for results promised in its performance contract. When Paul Hill and I first started writing about charter schools, we expected that these “authorizers,” […]
Four Ways Philadelphia Can Keep Its Schools Moving in the Right Direction as District Prepares to Retake Local Control
The nominating panel charged with selecting candidates for Philadelphia’s new nine-member school board has received its last application. Now, as the district prepares to retake local control of its schools July 1, the panel’s 13 members must identify the 27 best candidates for Mayor Jim Kenney to choose from. It will be a daunting and […]
Integrating Schools in San Antonio: Start With One. An Interview with Mohammed Choudhury
Cities across the country are grappling with persistent school segregation. While some argue that public school choice increases the problem, there are ways that cities can use carefully designed school choice initiatives as a vehicle for integrating schools. One promising example is in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio Independent School District’s (SAISD) chief innovation officer, […]