National Charter School Research Project

Publications

Title	Author/Editor	Date	Description
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The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness: Report on Interim Findings	Robin Lake, Brianna Dusseault, Melissa Bowen, Allison Demeritt, Paul Hill	06/2010	Charter management organizations (CMOs), nonprofit entities that directly manage public charter schools, are a significant force in today�s public K�12 charter school landscape....
Charter Management Organizations: Innovations, Opportunities, and Challenges - BRIEF	Robin Lake, Brianna Dusseault, Melissa Bowen, Allison Demeritt, Paul Hill	06/2010	This brief presents findings from the National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness: Report on Interim Findings....
Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs	Robin Lake	05/2010	ORDER INFORMATION The book can be purchased for $19....
Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs - BRIEF	Robin Lake	05/2010	This short policy guide to the book, Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs (Robin Lake, editor), summarizes the findings from case studies and parents surveys....
Taking Measure of Charter Schools: Better Assessments, Better Policymaking, Better Schools	Julian Betts, Paul Hill	04/2010	The book is available for purchase from Rowman & Littlefield Education....
The Charter School Catch-22	Paul Hill, Robin Lake	04/2010	When charter schools first emerged nearly two decades ago, critics claimed they would promote segregation by serving privileged white students whose families take advantage of choice....
How Do Charter Schools Compete for Teachers? A Local Perspective	Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond	03/2010	NCSRP Working Paper #2010-1 When policymakers and researchers debate personnel policies in public education, they sometimes hold up charter schools as examples of the benefits of a freer and more competitive approach to attracting and retaining teachers....
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2009	Robin Lake	01/2010	This is the fifth annual report from the National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP)....
Charter High Schools: Alternative Paths to Graduation	Sarah Yatsko, Betheny Gross, Jon Christensen	11/2009	It is no secret that many urban high school students are severely behind academically and face daunting social and emotional challenges....
Performance Management in Portfolio School Districts	Robin Lake, Paul Hill	08/2009	Under pressure from state standards-based reform and No Child Left Behind, and with increasing competition from schools of choice, urban school districts are looking for ways to offer a high-performing mix of schools that meet the diverse needs of their communities....
Custom Tailored: Trends in Charter School Educational Programs	Jon Christensen, Lydia Rainey	05/2009	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....
From Research to Practice: How Charter School Leaders Can Best Survive on the High Wire		04/2009	This series of research briefs targets different audiences to highlight relevant information from the report Working Without a Safety Net: How Charter School Leaders Can Best Survive on the High Wire....
Did Bush hurt the charter movement by trying to help it?	Robin Lake	01/2009	This guest editorial by Robin Lake appeared in The Education Gadfly, January 15, 2009, Volume 9, Number 2 It's ironic....
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2008	Robin Lake	12/2008	This is the fourth annual report from the National Charter School Research Project....
Value-Added and Experimental Studies of the Effect of Charter Schools on Student Achievement: A Literature Review	Julian Betts, Y. Emily Tang	12/2008	While the volume of research on charter school achievement has mushroomed in the last five years, most of these studies have used relatively unsophisticated �snapshots� of student achievement....
Working Without a Safety Net: How Charter School Leaders Can Best Survive on the High Wire	Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross	09/2008	When charter school directors step into the job, they step onto a high wire with no safety net below them....
The High-Wire Job of Charter School Leadership	Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross, Robin Lake	09/2008	This essay by Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross, and Robin Lake, published in Education Week's "Leading for Learning" report on charter school leadership, presents new national survey data about who charter school leaders are, why they take the jobs, where they struggle most, and what can help....
Exploring Success in the Charter Sector: Case Studies of Six Charter Schools Engaged in Promising Practices for Children with Disabilities	Lauren Morando Rhim, Dana Brinson	07/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-11 A charter presents the opportunity to create a new school....
In the Eye of the Beholder: Charter Schools and Innovation	Robin Lake	07/2008	Many expect that charter schools will produce innovations, but it is unclear what kinds and how much innovation is desirable....
Closing the Skill Gap: New Options for Charter School Leadership Development	Christine Campbell, Brock J. Grubb	06/2008	With 400 new charter schools opening their doors each year and 4,000 charter schools up and running, a strong supply of leaders is crucial to the sustainability of charter schools....
Finding a Balance: How Application and Authorization Policies Impact School Supply	Meghan Squires, Lydia Rainey	06/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-4 In this working paper, Meghan Squires and Lydia Rainey describe how high-quality authorizers have changed their application procedures and standards and examine the effect that these changes have had on the quality and quantity of new charter school applicants....
Quality Improvement and Performance Management in Schools: Lessons From Abroad	Kate Destler, Ashley Jochim	06/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-6 Despite decades of school reform in the United States, policymakers continue to rely on a limited set of tools for managing performance and improving school quality even as schools continue to falter and exhibit serious quality deficiencies....
Closing Troubled Schools	Julie Kowal, Bryan Hassel	06/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-8 Performance accountability is meaningless unless real sanctions exist for schools that fail to meet basic academic standards....
Salvaging Assets: Considering Alternatives to School Closure	Lucy Steiner, Bryan Hassel	06/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-9 Closing bad schools is necessary to maintain quality in a system based on performance accountability....
Buying Smart in Thin Markets: District Tactics to Improve the Quality and Quantity of Autonomous Schools	Kate Destler, Stephen Page	06/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-3 No Child Left Behind has heightened pressure on school districts to offer quality options for every child....
Working With Private Partners to Manage the Market: Collaborative Approaches to Charter School Oversight	Kate Destler	06/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-5 Charter school growth has been steady but slow....
Contrasting Approaches to Charter School Oversight	Kate Destler	06/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-2 Charter school authorizing is an essential component of charter school reform....
Tough Calls: Identifying and Addressing School-Level Problems	Robin Lake, Meghan Squires	06/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-7 Of all elements of charter school oversight, performance monitoring perhaps best highlights the tensions in managing a decentralized system of schools....
Challenges and Charter Schools: How Families with Special-Needs Students Perceive and Use Charter School Options	Tracey O'Brien, Kelly Hupfeld, Paul Teske	03/2008	NCSRP Working Paper #2008-10 This report addresses choices made at the intersection of two very important trends in education: special education and charter schools....
Special Education Challenges and Opportunities in the Charter School Sector	Lauren Morando Rhim	02/2008	NCSRP Working Papers #2008-12 This report explores the various difficulties charter schools face related to educating children with disabilities and examines potential opportunities to address the challenges to ensure that efforts to educate children with disabilities do not inhibit efforts to grow high quality charter schools....
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2007	Robin Lake	12/2007	Like previous editions of Hopes, Fears, & Reality, this year�s report explores some of the most challenging issues currently facing the charter school movement....
Waiting for the �Tipping Point�: Why school choice is proving to be so hard	Paul Hill	09/2007	This commentary by Paul Hill first appeared in Education Week, September 4, 2007 The old arguments in support of school choice are still right: Choice can make parents full partners in education and drive innovation....
Quantity Counts: The Growth of Charter School Management Organizations		08/2007	The rapid national expansion of Green Dot Public Schools and the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) highlights the great potential for such organizations to provide more high-quality public schools by replicating successful charter schools....
Beyond the Battle Lines: Lessons From New York�s Charter Caps Fight	Lisa M. Stulberg	06/2007	The report examines lessons from New York�s experience, and provides policy considerations relevant to the growing number of states in which charter schools are reaching their legislated limit....
Leadership to Date, Leadership Tomorrow: A Review of Data on Charter School Directors	Betheny Gross, Kirsten Martens Pochop	06/2007	NCSRP Working Paper # 2007-2 The importance of leadership for a school�s success has long been an undisputed fact in education....
Identifying and Replicating the "DNA" of Successful Charter Schools: Lessons from the Private Sector	Robin Lake	05/2007	The brief begins with a look at the main problems faced by organizations attempting to replicate charter schools at scale, followed by a summary of lessons from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors about the process of replicating complex organizations....
Making Sense of Charter School Studies: A Reporter's Guide	Lydia Rainey	03/2007	The rush to release findings and the electronic availability of conference and discussion papers means that more and more research has not gone through a professional peer review process before release....
School Safety in Urban Charter and Traditional Public Schools	Jon Christensen	03/2007	NCSRP Working Paper # 2007-1 Analyzing data from the 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), author Jon Christensen found that charter schools consistently reported significantly fewer issues with threats to persons or property and fewer behavioral problems than traditional public schools....
Inside Charter Schools: A Systematic Look at Our Nation's Charter Schools		01/2007	Do students learn more in charter schools than they would have learned in other schools? Although it is an important question, there is no easy answer....
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2006	Robin Lake, Paul Hill	12/2006	Like last year�s debut edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality, the 2006 volume explores some of the most current and controversial issues facing the charter school movement....
Charter School Data: What States Collect, State Data, and Implications for Research	Jon Christensen	12/2006	The data in this brief was collected as part of the research for the National Charter School Research Project�s 2006 edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality....
The Future of Charter Schools and Teachers Unions: Results of a Symposium	Paul Hill, Lydia Rainey, Andrew J. Rotherham	10/2006	The report makes the case that if relations are to improve, three things are needed....
High-Quality Charter Schools at Scale in Big Cities: Results of a Symposium	James Harvey, Lydia Rainey	08/2006	The charter school movement is now more than 15 years old; yet charter schools serve just 3% of all American students....
Key Issues in Studying Charter Schools and Achievement: A Review and Suggestions for National Guidelines	Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel	05/2006	This white paper from the Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel, entitled Key Issues in Studying Charter Schools and Achievement: A Review and Suggestions for National Guidelines, examines the existing research on student achievement in charter schools and details how future research could be improved....
Holding Charter Authorizers Accountable: Why It Is Important and How It Might Be Done	Robin Lake	02/2006	Too many charter school authorizers aren't fulfilling their responsibilities in providing adequate oversight for charter schools....
What NAEP Can't Tell Us About Charter School Effectiveness	Lawrence Angel, Jon Christensen	12/2005
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2005	Robin Lake, Paul Hill	11/2005	In six essays, this report provides new data on many aspects of charter schools in the United States and examines issues and controversies surrounding reform....
Chasing the Blues Away: Charter Schools Scale Up in Chicago	Robin Lake, Lydia Rainey	06/2005	Progressive Policy Institute report (June 2005)....
Parallel Patterns: Teacher Attrition in Charter vs. District Schools	Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond		Recent research and media reports have raised serious concerns about teacher turnover rates in charter schools....
Teacher Attrition in Charter vs. District Schools	Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond		This policy brief summarizes an Inside Charter Schools study on the nature of teacher turnover in charter schools....

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