Current Research – Center on Reinventing Public Education

Portfolio School Districts for Big Cities: An Interim Report

Study on four urban school districts experimenting with new school designs and new ways of holding schools accountable for performance by implementing a “portfolio strategy.”

Performance Management in Portfolio School Districts

As portfolio districts take on duties they were not designed for, this report offers guidance on how to manage some of the most complicated tasks.

Separation of Degrees: State-By-State Analysis of Teacher Compensation for Master’s Degrees

This analysis argues that in the current fiscal climate, districts should rethink automatically paying teachers for master’s degrees, and consider how money could instead be channeled into compensation in ways that lead to improved student...

Facing huge budget gaps, are school district officials forced to lay off teachers?

It’s true that teacher salaries make up the largest slice of the district budget pie, but salary costs can be cut without layoffs. Rather than handing out pink slips, some districts have explored rolling back salaries.

An estimated 60%–80% of the more than $500 billion per year spent operating the nation’s public schools goes directly to paying and supporting school employees. Much of the money is directed to basic teacher salary costs. The problem for many locales, however, is that wages are often decided many years in advance, via collective bargaining agreements. In contrast, decisions about how to close budget gaps get made just ahead of the affected school year as revenue projections are finalized. Sometimes in closing gaps, district leaders treat salary decisions made years ago as immovable (which they are not) and focus only on furloughs and layoffs.

This Rapid Response brief demonstrates the effect on wages, layoffs, and class sizes of a range of policy options available to districts forced to cut salary expenditures.

This analysis shows that school districts faced with large budget gaps could avoid some or all teacher layoffs by rolling back salaries.

Drivers of Choice: Parents, Transportation, and School Choice

This report surveys the broad transportation landscape and conducts in-depth work with families in two cities to determine what role transportation plays in parents’ school decisions, and how districts might address related issues.

Custom Tailored: Trends in Charter School Educational Programs

This research brief analyzes detailed descriptions of charter school educational programs to better understand how these schools tailor their programs to meet their students’ needs.

Targeted Training: How to Prepare Charter School Leaders For the Job

Targeted at charter school leadership preparation programs and state and local charter school policy leaders, this brief outlines the challenges faced by current charter school leaders and provides practical recommendations for better preparation and on-the-job...

Building the Pipeline: How Charter School Authorizers and Technical Assistance Providers Can Help Develop Strong Leaders

Targeted at charter school authorizers and state and local technical assistance providers, this brief outlines the challenges faced by current charter school leaders and provides practical recommendations for seeking out and developing high-caliber leaders for...

Working Smarter: How Charter School Leaders Can Get the Help They Need

Targeted at current and future charter school leaders, charter management organizations (CMOs), and charter governing boards, this brief outlines the challenges faced by current charter school leaders and provides practical recommendations for strengthening school leadership....

Seniority-Based Layoffs Will Exacerbate Job Loss in Public Education

In this brief, Marguerite Roza explains why K-12 school districts that lay off personnel according to seniority cause disproportionate damage to their programs and students than if layoffs were determined on a seniority-neutral basis.