As the nation reflects on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the impact of Louisiana’s Recovery School District (RSD) has been the subject of reasoned, evidence-based analyses as well as fiery, often baseless, attacks. Meanwhile,...
CRPE studied these efforts to determine how leaders can overcome the challenges of working across traditionally competitive boundaries. When done well, collective action can lead to tangible results:
For Charter Schools:
For School Districts:
For the Community:
CRPE’s studies on district-charter relationships focused most closely on 23 cities with District-Charter Collaboration Compacts supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Between 2011 and 2017, under a grant from the Foundation, we regularly interviewed leaders in school districts, charter schools, and support organizations to track progress on these agreements, reported on local political, legal, and financial barriers to collaboration, and facilitated networking and problem-solving between cities. In January 2017 we published our seminal study, Bridging the District-Charter Divide to Help More Students Succeed. In cities with size-able charter school student populations, we concluded that cross-sector policy coordination is a necessity, not a nicety. However, despite the urgent need, cooperation on common issues was too often treated as a time-limited, forced marriage rather than as a sustained effort and long-term relationship. This study built upon our 2013 interim assessment of 16 Compact Cities.
Our reports include:
Many of CRPE’s other reports offer examples of district-charter cooperation, including:
As the nation reflects on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the impact of Louisiana’s Recovery School District (RSD) has been the subject of reasoned, evidence-based analyses as well as fiery, often baseless, attacks. Meanwhile,...
What happens to a city when “the big one” hits? Depending on where you live, the big one could be a flood, a tornado, a hurricane. For me, it looks like it’s going to be...
Listen in as two successful superintendents discuss an under-the-radar trend in school district hiring practices – the bold move to fill high-level central office positions with leaders from the charter sector. Between them, Denver Public...
After more than 20 years of working together, Paul Hill and I have finally found something we might really disagree on. Paul has legitimate concerns about the “backfill” issue (whether charter schools should be required...
For good reason, the most widely admired charter high schools are the ones that take kids from the highest-risk categories (poverty, one parent, big city, black or Hispanic, male) and get them into and through...
This blog was originally published on the Brookings Brown Center Chalkboard. In the United States, what school a child attends is determined in large part by where she lives. According to the National Center for...
Bringing a greater sense of order to the school choice application and enrollment process is getting a great deal of attention these days. In the two months since we released our report on common enrollment...
This report explores the challenges of leveraging co-location as a tool for school improvement.
This paper explores the practice of district superintendents looking beyond the usual candidate pool and hiring administrators who have seen strong successes in the charter sector.
Paul Hill and Tricia Maas explore the charter high school “backfill” issue, using interviews with charter sector leaders to understand competing perspectives and practices that support transfer students.
Current Research
Previous Research
