Smart Contracting Means Delegating, Not Abdicating
Last week The Atlantic published a tough article on cities’ recent experience with privatization—by which they meant making contracts with private organizations to do what public employees previously did. The article gave examples of government contracts that led to lower performance, increased costs to users, and much higher costs to government. The article was fair—it […]
To Take the Helm, State Ed Agencies Need a Navigator
Today the Fordham Institute added to a growing stack of reports about what states can do to support dramatic improvements in K-12 education. It’s important to think hard about states, which have constitutional authority over K-12 and provide most of the money, but historically have done little to drive reform efforts. Enter our friend and […]
Buried Treasure: Unique Schools Serving Unique Students
As the charter movement grew, so did concern that charter schools would become boutique schools for affluent families. By 2010, that concern had been dispelled—half of the 1.8 million students in charter schools came from low-income families. But it was increasingly clear that many charter schools were exclusive in another way: they were not enrolling […]
Buried Treasure: Inside Charter Schools
When I started working at CRPE in 2007, I didn’t know much about charter schools, but I was quickly immersed. From the end of 2007 through 2009, for a study funded by the U.S. Department of Education, my new colleagues and I made over 50 visits to charter schools in six cities, conducted over 250 […]
Buried Treasure: It Takes a City
Lyndon B. Johnson once quipped, “Good politics is good government.” Johnson realized that whether a given public policy achieves its intended objectives is rarely a matter solely of technical design. Rather, success depends both on the quality of the plan and whether it is implemented fully enough to stand the chance of having an impact—a […]
Spokane, WA: Washington’s First District Authorizer Approaches Charters with a Collaborative Mindset
Washington State voters approved a charter school initiative in 2012—its fourth appearance on the ballot—making Washington the 42nd state to allow charter schools. Spokane Public Schools (SPS) submitted its application to authorize charter schools shortly after the law went in to effect. SPS is the first and, to date, only district out of 295 in […]
Buried Treasure: High Schools With Character
I headed into my first teaching job in the 1990s full of exciting ideas about teaching and schools that I had learned from people like Ted Sizer and David Kobrin. But like a lot of young teachers, I quickly found a huge gap between my sense of what schools should be like and what they […]
Smart Regulation for Strong Schools
I recently read a fascinating Wall Street Journal article by Raymond Zhong, a Delhi-based reporter, about regulating global financial markets. I’m by no means a finance person; what caught my interest were the insights relevant to education and how we oversee and regulate schools. Zhong presented leading theories from Andrew Haldane and others about how […]
School Facilities Shouldn’t Be Political Spoils
The uproar over charging rent to New York City charter schools proves that control over facilities is a powerful but easily misused governance tool. Mayor Bill De Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina don’t like the people who operate certain charter schools, or the philanthropists who donate money to those schools. So they want to impose […]
Shouldn’t Principals Speak for Their Schools? A New Approach
A reporter wants to know what has led to big gains in reading scores at an elementary school. Why funds for a choir program have been redirected to math interventions at a middle school. Why a high school’s parking lot isn’t plowed. Who should answer these questions? Traditionally, it’s the district—but let’s rethink that. Districts […]
