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Focus Area:
Portfolio Strategy

The portfolio strategy is a problem-solving framework through which education and civic leaders develop a citywide system of high-quality, diverse, autonomous public schools.

It moves past the one-size-fits-all approach to education. Portfolio systems place educators directly in charge of their schools, empower parents to choose the right schools for their children, and focus school system leaders – such as in a district central office or school authorizer – on overseeing school success.

This case study looks at the community engagement efforts underway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a diverse group of civic leaders are working to create high-quality new school options.

New Orleanians can have it both ways—return schools to local control and build on the academic gains made since 2005. Yes, local control could mean the return of politics and bureaucracy that weaken schools and...

In a compelling recent blog post, Nathan Gibbs-Bowling warned that as Washington State’s new Teacher of the Year he won’t be taking positions on most of the hot policy topics of the day (Common Core,...

This blog was originally published in Fordham’s Flypaper. At CRPE, we believe strongly in taking a city-wide view of education. The reality of urban education these days is a complicated mash-up of schools run by...

Tennessee is breaking ground on how it addresses its lowest-performing schools by employing both district-led (iZone) and state-led (Achievement School District) turnaround efforts. Very early results show both promise and concern—and illustrate how incredibly hard...

There’s a Jewish parable about the mother of a boy who hates kreplach. The mother tries to ease the boy into liking the traditional dumplings by having him cook some with her. The boy is...

Creating and transforming schools is the core work of education reform. But educational change, especially at the level of a whole city or district, is inevitably political. It requires adults to work differently, threatens some...

Paul Hill and Ashley Jochim profile portfolio strategy efforts in five cities and offer lessons for leaders to sustain long-term education reform amid political opposition.

Pundits on the left and right have criticized Laurene Powell Jobs’ new $50 million initiative to develop new high school models. Some say earlier efforts to create new models have been a bust, others say...

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,...

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