CRPE’s research examines both the promise and the challenges of charter schools and school choice, with a focus on how they can expand opportunity, drive innovation, and better serve diverse student needs. We study charter schools alongside district schools and other models, highlighting lessons that can inform the broader system. New data and evidence help innovators across the country collaborate, communicate, and develop best practices.
For more than a year, the U.S. Secretary of Education and the president of the American Federation of Teachers have been engaged in a bitter dispute about the public and private purposes of education in a free society and the proper role of government in providing it for all children.
I recently wrote an essay explaining fundamental flaws in a paper by Gordon Lafer, a professor and longtime labor union analyst who published through an Oakland, California–based think tank called In the Public Interest.
A new report from In the Public Interest, a think tank based in Oakland, California, is getting some attention right now for purporting to show how three districts in the state are “bearing the cost of the unchecked expansion of privately managed charter schools.” But Breaking Point: The Cost of Charter Schools for Public School Districts does logical backflips, presents selective evidence, and uses pseudo-economic analysis to come to what seems to be a predetermined conclusion: that all would be well for California districts in financial distress if only charter schools didn’t exist.
Twenty-five years ago, CRPE was founded on the idea of the school as the locus of change. Today we are reexamining our old assumptions in light of new technical possibilities, changes in the economy, and a recognition that even the most effective schools may need to develop new approaches to better serve students whose needs warrant more individualized learning pathways or supports.
Twenty-five years ago, CRPE was founded on the idea of the school as the locus of change. Today we are reexamining our old assumptions in light of new technical possibilities, changes in the economy, and a recognition that even the most effective schools may need to develop new approaches to better serve students whose needs warrant more individualized learning pathways or supports.
Twenty-five years ago, CRPE was founded on the idea of the school as the locus of change. Today we are reexamining our old assumptions in light of new technical possibilities, changes in the economy, and a recognition that even the most effective schools may need to develop new approaches to better serve students whose needs warrant more individualized learning pathways or supports.
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 for state education agencies, and other policy recommendations.
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Former research affiliate
Education Researcher
Former Editorial Director
Research Affiliate
Former research analyst
Executive Director, ReSchool Colorado
Research Assistant
Mathematica Policy Research
Senior Fellow, Mathematica Policy Research
Education Consultant