R. Lake Thumb

Robin Lake

Associate Director

R. Lake CV

rlake@u.washington.edu


Robin Lake is Associate Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the University of Washington, where she specializes in charter school research and policy development that focuses on effective accountability policies, scale and supply, and school district use of chartering as a reform strategy.

Ms. Lake is also Executive Director of the Center’s National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP), which was established in late 2004 by a consortium of funders in an effort to improve the balance, rigor, and application of charter school research. Ms. Lake also co-directs the Inside Charter Schools project (ICS), a three-year NCSRP initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education. ICS focuses on examining three main charter school components: instructional methods and programmatic offerings, teacher human resource management, and leadership strategies and turnover.

Ms. Lake is editor of NCSRP’s annual report, Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools. She has authored numerous studies and provided expert technical assistance reports on charter schools. Her publications include Charter Schools and Accountability in Education (Brookings 2002); Holding Charter Authorizers Accountable: Why It Is Important and How It Might Be Done (NCSRP White Paper 2006); Identifying and Replicating the “DNA” of Successful Charter Schools: Lessons from the Private Sector (NCSRP Research Brief 2007); Seeds of Change in the Big Apple: Chartering Schools in New York City (Progressive Policy Institute, 2004); and Accelerating Success: A Design Guide for Starting a New School Incubator (CRPE, 2004). Ms. Lake holds an M.A. in Public Administration from the University of Washington.


Robin's Publications

Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2007 Robin Lake

Ch. 1: The National Charter School Landscape in 2007 (HFR '07) Jon Christensen, Robin Lake

Identifying and Replicating the "DNA" of Successful Charter Schools: Lessons from the Private Sector Robin Lake

Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2006 Robin Lake, Paul Hill

Holding Charter Authorizers Accountable: Why It Is Important and How It Might Be Done Robin Lake

Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2005 Robin Lake, Paul Hill

Chasing the Blues Away: Charter Schools Scale Up in Chicago Robin Lake, Lydia Rainey

School Districts Choosing to Charter Robin Lake

Seeds of Change in the Big Apple: Chartering Schools in New York City Robin Lake

Marginal Impact Robin Lake

Charters Can Close Achievement Gap Robin Lake

Charter Schools and Accountability in Public Education Paul Hill, Robin Lake

The New Schools Handbook: strategic advice for successful school start-up in partnership with school district officials, staff and community members Robin Lake, Abigail Winger, Jeff Petty

A Study of Charter School Accountability Paul Hill, Robin Lake, Mary Beth Celio, Christine Campbell, Paul Herdman, Katrina Bulkley

Making Standards Stick Robin Lake, Paul Hill, Sara Taggart, Maria McCarthy

Making Standards Work: Active Voices, Focused Learning Robin Lake, Paul Hill, Lauren O'Toole, Mary Beth Celio

Toward a K-12 Education Accountability System in Washington State Paul Hill, Robin Lake

Supplying a System of Charter Schools: Observations on Early Implementation of the Massachusetts Statute Marc Dean Millot, Robin Lake

So You Want to Start a Charter School? Strategic Advice for Applicants: Recommendations from an Expert Workshop Marc Dean Millot, Robin Lake