CRPE's Robin Lake, Betheny Gross, and Paul Hill will be featured speakers at "The Urban Education Future?" - Lessons from New Orleans 10 Years after Hurricane Katrina conference, hosted by the Education
Paul Hill

Amazon Author Page: Paul Hill, Author
Paul T. Hill is Founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Research Professor at the University of Washington Bothell. His current work focuses on re-missioning states and school districts to promote school performance; school choice and innovation; finance and productivity; and improving rural schools.
Dr. Hill’s ideas have profoundly impacted education reform nationwide, influencing the way that many scholars, policymakers, and education leaders think about how the U.S. public education system can be restructured. His development of the portfolio school district management strategy has directly shaped education reform initiatives in cities like New York and New Orleans, among others. He launched the Portfolio School Districts Project in 2008, and built a national network of district officials, mayors, foundations, nonprofits, and others pursuing the portfolio strategy. Dr. Hill has been a trusted advisor to many of the nation's leading superintendents, state chiefs, and governors; he works closely with city and state leaders facing the need to transform their urban public school systems, and is a frequent source of expertise for legislators and the media. He chaired the National Charter School Research Project and its Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel, as well as Brookings National Working Commission on Choice in K-12 Education.
Dr. Hill is lead author (with Lawrence Pierce and James Guthrie) of Reinventing Public Education: How Contracting Can Transform America’s Schools (University of Chicago Press, 1997). The book concludes that public schools should be operated by independent organizations under contract with public school boards, rather than by government bureaucracies. These ideas profoundly influenced the Education Commission of the States 1999 report, "Governing America's Schools." His books include A Democratic Constitution for Public Education (2014), Strife and Progress: Portfolio Strategies for Managing Urban Schools (2012), Learning as We Go: Why School Choice Is Worth the Wait (2010), Making School Reform Work: New Partnerships for Real Change (2004), Charter Schools and Accountability in Public Education (2002), It Takes A City: Getting Serious About Urban School Reform (2000), and Fixing Urban Schools (1998). He is editor (with Julian Betts) of Taking Measure of Charter Schools: Better Assessments, Better Policymaking, Better Schools (2010), and editor of Charter Schools Against the Odds (2006).
Before joining the University of Washington faculty, Dr. Hill worked for 17 years as a Senior Social Scientist in RAND’s Washington office, where he served as Director of Washington Operations (1981-87) and Director of the Education and Human Resources program (1979-80). He conducted studies of site-based management, governance of decentralized school systems, effective high schools, business-led education reforms, and immigrant education, and contributed to studies of defense research, development, and acquisition policy. As a government employee (1970-77), Hill directed the National Institute of Education's Compensatory Education Study (a Congressionally mandated assessment of federal aid to elementary and secondary education) and conducted research on housing and education for the Office of Economic Opportunity. He also served two years as a Congressional Fellow and Congressional staff member. Dr. Hill holds a PhD and MA from Ohio State University and a BA from Seattle University, all in Political Science.
This essay lays out a theory of integrated “light governance” of local schools, colleges, learning pathways, and special courses.
This essay explores what it would take to ensure that personalized and weighted funding follows students across multiple learning experiences.
This essay explores the need for new models that expand who works with students and differentiate teaching roles to a far greater degree.
This paper examines the characteristics of effective superintendents and offers guidance for current and aspiring district leaders as well as those offering superintendent training programs.
State policy should encourage and empower school district innovation and improvement strategies.
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Join CRPE's Paul T. HIll and Ashley E. Jochim as they discuss their new book, A Democratic Constitution for Public Education.
This webinar provides a deep dive into the portfolio strategy, the importance of school autonomy within a district context, and the conditions that make a district a promising choice for Carnegie Corporation of New York's "Opportunity by Design" initiative.
Several CRPE researchers are presenting at the 2013 annual conference of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco.
Paul Hill will be a key issue speaker at the 2nd Annual International School Choice and Reform Academic Conference, presented by the Journal of School Choice.
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Paul Hill highlights Unlocking Potential: How Political Skill Can Maximize Superintendent Effectiveness in a blog for the School Superintendent Association.
Do Americans today understand what it takes to keep a democracy? Take a self quiz, and see how famous Americans might have scored.
CRPE's new report identifies possible solutions to help districts adapt to the reality of enrollment decline.
In this Education Week commentary, Paul Hill discusses how moving to a four-day school week won't bring the savings districts need, and suggests alternative options.
Robin Lake and Paul Hill urge the new L.A. school board to avoid repeating mistakes of the past in this Los Angeles Daily News commentary.
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The framings of “privatization” and “billionaire takeover” get attention, but not results.
Despite periodic stalemates, a local portfolio strategy will very likely endure, spread, and continue to evolve.
Paul Hill responds to a commentary by Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris on school choice, charter schools, and the portfolio strategy.
The departing Camden superintendent reflects on five years of progress and the challenges that remain.
It will take system-level changes for students to fully exploit learning opportunities, writes Paul Hill.
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