Three Ways Superintendents Can Increase Their Influence
Some years ago CRPE published An Impossible Job? A View from the Urban Superintendent’s Chair. It detailed the many things stacked against a district superintendent’s success, including politics, bureaucracy, union dominance of school boards, and short tenures. These findings still apply; yet now as then some local superintendents are making a success of the job. […]
Reforming the School Choice Rhetoric
I often find myself thrust into different worlds within the school choice community. These worlds are defined by the underlying political ideology of the organizations advocating for various types of choice. And despite being one of those people who doesn’t think politics should be part of determining what is best for students in schools, in […]
2018 at CRPE: Looking Around the Corner
At CRPE, our core business is gathering and analyzing evidence to inform education policy and propel systemic improvements. But what makes us unique is our ability to look around the corner to anticipate new challenges and develop bold ideas and pragmatic solutions. Marking our 25th Anniversary, 2018 will be an important year for CRPE, and […]
The Unavoidable Politics of Education Reform
In K–12 education, politics is the great equalizer. It has killed initiatives from the right and from the left, from top-down district curriculum mandates to site-based management. Common Core State Standards, test-based accountability, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s effort to improve teacher quality all fell prey to political backlash. Charter schools haven’t died […]
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 […]