New Research Confirms…Everything We Already Believe
As many predicted, the worlds of research and journalism have changed with the advent of the internet and the explosion of social media. Gone are the days when research studies were mainly published via journals and extensive peer review processes. The pace of news has accelerated, as has the pace of consumption. This new reality […]
Can High Standards and Accountability Co-Exist? Lessons From the Common Core Assessment Consortia
The Common Core State Standards Initiative was designed to solve a problem that has plagued past standard-setting efforts. Many states responded to earlier efforts by watering down their standards for learning and lowering expectations for students in an attempt to artificially boost the number of students that reached proficiency. By creating a set of common […]
Suspending Belief
This piece was originally published as part of Fordham’s forum on discipline practices in America’s charter schools. Magicians rely almost exclusively on the technique of misdirection. In order for us to believe that the dove emerged from the handkerchief, the magician must “misdirect” our attention away from what would otherwise be the obvious sleight of […]
Tradeoffs, not absolutes, on suspension and expulsion
This piece was originally published as part of Fordham’s forum on discipline practices in America’s charter schools. The ongoing exchange about suspensions and expulsions in charter schools needs to be seen from the school’s perspective. As a school of choice, a charter has two obligations: to maintain a climate conducive to learning, as it promises the […]
There Is More Than One Way to Grow Great Schools
People who believe in a portfolio strategy believe great schools can prosper in many circumstances. The role of portfolio leaders is to create opportunities for innovation and improvement and to ensure all schools are getting results across all of a city’s public schools. For that reason, we have begun an effort to track and report […]
Rising to John King’s Challenge
Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. has called on charter schools to take the lead on rethinking school discipline. Speaking at the National Charter School Conference in Nashville on Tuesday, he said, “Don’t get caught up in battles about whether charters are a little better or a little worse than average on discipline. Instead, focus on […]
The State of Florida Takes a Leadership Role in District-Charter Collaboration: An Interview with Adam Emerson
The Florida Department of Education has provided two competitive grants to Duval County and Miami-Dade County to foster district-charter collaboration. CRPE research analyst Sean Gill spoke with Adam Emerson, the Florida Department of Education’s charter schools director, about his thoughts on how the collaboration work is progressing. Gill: For readers not familiar, how would you […]
How DC and New Orleans Are Addressing Excessive Discipline While Respecting School Autonomy
No one doubts that suspension and expulsion rates in too many public schools are far too high. This is true in both charter and district-run schools. No school should treat a child, much less a troubled one, as a problem to be rid of. Yet nor can schools allow a small group of students to […]
What’s at Stake in the Ongoing Fight About School Spending Comparability?
On the surface, the current dispute about Title I comparability (the requirement that schools within a district must receive comparable resources from state and local sources for education of disadvantaged children before federal funds are added on) is all about money. On one side, Secretary of Education John King is pressing for regulations that would […]
Beyond Quotas: Time for Real Remedies on Harsh Discipline that Excludes Students
Charter schools have come under fire recently around student discipline. As someone who spent a decade working with children at the tragic end of the school-to-prison pipeline, I’m deeply concerned about the real-world ramifications of suspensions and expulsions on students. But overuse of harsh student discipline is not just a charter school issue, it’s a […]