The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: An Insider’s Perspective on Urban District Innovation
Steven Hodas (@stevenhodas) is a veteran of both the New York City Department of Education and the edtech industry. In this blog series, School District Innovation: When Practice Collides with Policy, he provides insights into the challenges, struggles, and opportunities of large-district attempts to reform longstanding practices and change cultural norms. This series is part […]
How Cities Can Help Parents Navigate Public School Choice
At CRPE we’ve always believed it’s not preordained that all kids will benefit equally from more choices among public schools. Like any public policy, the results are likely to depend upon an array of complex factors: how savvy and well informed parents are about choosing a school, the availability of talented, mission-driven school developers, access […]
The Portfolio Strategy Is a Problem-Solving Framework, Not a School District
Public school choice in Detroit is essential but not yet working effectively. Students with special needs are not welcome in many Detroit charter schools. Lack of good transportation forces stressed families to choose schools based on safety rather than academics. High-performing charter management organizations are scared off by the dysfunction of the market, which is […]
Cleveland, OH: District-Charter Improvement on a Countdown Clock
This fall, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation named Cleveland as the twenty-first city to participate in its District-Charter Collaboration Compact initiative. Cleveland serves approximately 56,000 students; about 16,000 of them are enrolled in 73 charter schools. While the collaboration between Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and 14 charter partners focuses on similar challenges as […]
Collision Course: School Discipline and Education Reform
The education reform debate can be like a spinning top. It changes course abruptly and without warning but it remains largely focused inward. The dizzying debate around education policy is on a collision course with another spinning top: the overuse and impact of harsh school discipline practices. The clash may feel like it came out […]
Inclusiveness, Simplicity, Flexibility Are Key to Next-Generation Accountability
One theme that emerged in our discussions on the next generation of school accountability is that tensions inherently arise when developing accountability systems that need to serve multiple interests and stakeholders. As the sole authorizer of public charter schools in Washington, D.C., the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board has been wrestling with these […]
What’s Next for Detroit’s Troubled Schools?
Today Education Next published an article by Ashley Jochim, Michael DeArmond, and me about the state of the Detroit public school system. Given single-digit academic proficiency scores, a weak and splintered charter sector, and a crumbling urban infrastructure, it’s tough to be optimistic about Detroit. But we are, especially given the news that Detroit’s plan […]
Setting the Record Straight on Charter Schools and Achievement: A Reply to Francesca Lopez
At CRPE, we appreciate and encourage scholarly debate. However, a recent review by the National Education Policy Center of one of our reports went well beyond that to misrepresent the report and malign the analysis. I’ve offered the authors of our report—Dr. Julian Betts and Dr. Y. Emily Tang of the University of California San […]
Time to Take Stock on Charter Authorizing
I had the opportunity to speak about the future of charter authorizing to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), the agency staff and board members who select, oversee, and regulate charter schools. It was a nice chance to reflect on how far performance-based charter oversight has progressed, and where it needs to go. […]
Accountability: It’s In the Eye of the Beholder
When it comes to school accountability, different people see the same events differently. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. When a school district closes a school with persistently low student outcomes, is it punishing the teachers? Or is it acting to protect the children in the school from a damaging experience? The answer […]
