Center on Reinventing Public Education

CRPE researchers find inequities in current 21st century learning approaches and recommend strategies to deliver better learning opportunities for all students.

This working paper analyzes data from ReSchool Colorado’s “Blueprint4SummerCO” platform to understand  supply and demand of summer programs Denver.

This brief on the four-day school week answers common questions about its scope and trends and points out what is not yet known about the impacts on students and districts.

This brief looks at five strategies city leaders use to improve underperforming schools and lists critical questions leaders should ask when choosing or assessing an improvement strategy.

This brief examines how students with special needs are being served by an innovative New York City charter school.

This report examines recent efforts of districts and charter schools to share key instructional practices and offers recommendations for education leaders to move forward.

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.

This paper reviews state policies on providing charter schools with facilities and recommends better incentives for districts to share space.

This paper provides an honest assessment of the portfolio strategy’s strengths, weaknesses, and necessary evolution.

This guide will help district and community leaders understand the benefits and risks of adopting a shorter school week.

CRPE’s report urges districts, charters, and states to work together in new ways to address the financial challenges associated with declining district enrollment.

This study examines how much public transportation passes in Denver can improve equitable access to the city's highest-quality K-12 schools.

State policy should encourage and empower school district innovation and improvement strategies.

Paul Hill and Ashley Jochim offer ideas and examples for how state chiefs can best use their powers to effectively lead the improvement of schools and districts.

Robin Lake discusses opportunities that states have to support district-charter cooperation in the National Association of State Boards of Education's journal, The State Education Standard.

This paper provides the first comprehensive review of the research to date on state interventions, assessing the advantages and limits of five common turnaround approaches and outlining key ingredients for success.

CRPE's new paper focuses on developing a common school performance framework, tool for measuring performance of an individual school using a defined set of metrics that is common to schools across different agencies or...

This paper looks at why many cities have missed opportunities to create more lasting relationships between their district and charter sectors, and offers suggestions for fostering stronger partnerships that could help improve...

CRPE research analyst Ashley Jochim and Drew University associate professor Patrick McGuinn explore why states are abandoning the assessments aligned with Common Core State Standards.

This report profiles leading efforts by two cities to bring consistency and fairness to discipline practices in both district and charter schools.

This paper reviews trends around changing student populations in suburban America and the accompanying demands facing suburban public school systems.

This paper takes the first systematic look at costs associated with implementing personalized learning schools, how leaders of these schools choose to allocate their funds, and what it might take to make personalized learning...

Author Steven Hodas shares his experiences working with the New York Department of Education to foster innovative practices and develop more nimble procurement procedures.

Edited by Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim, this fifth volume of the SEA of the Future explores how state education agencies can bolster their ability to use research and data to drive key spending, policy, and program...

CRPE partnered with Mathematica and CREDO on a rigorous analysis of online charter schools. Our paper examines how state policy shapes the online charter school landscape.

This brief provides guidance for education reporters seeking to interpret findings and draw conclusions about current school discipline research.

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.

This report was published by the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho as part of their research on the four-day school week in rural Idaho.

How ingrained district operating systems practices can interfere with policy goals and school-level initiative, and why we need to retool the DOS to enable dynamic problem-solving.

Edited by Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim, this fourth volume of the SEA of the Future details how rural schools and districts are innovative in how they deliver services, recruit teachers, use technology, and serve special...

This paper explains why personalized high schools are hard to get and keep, and shows how we can make them more broadly available through changes in policy and philanthropic investments.

This report examines Spring Branch Independent School District's progress on implementing the portfolio strategy.

This brief presents five clear principles on which Title I formulas should be based and progress measured.

This brief outlines how empowered principals can be assets for public engagement in school systems using the portfolio strategy.

Published in coordination with A+ Denver, the report evaluates Denver's SchoolChoice enrollment system from 2012 to 2014.

This paper looks at new efforts to ensure special education functions effectively in New Orleans' full-choice public education landscape.

A survey of 4,000 parents in eight "high-choice" cities finds parents are taking advantage of choice, but they want more good options.

In this paper for the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho, Paul Hill explains the importance of improving education in rural areas.

This brief discusses the ever-increasing importance of Washington State’s school principals and provides descriptive analyses of the principal workforce that uncovers opportunities for improvement.

This working paper provides a systematic analysis of the field’s most rigorous studies on charter school achievement.

This report explores how Washington State school districts hire and support its principals. A 2013 survey of Washington superintendents and principals highlights areas of concern but also reasons for optimism.

This report on the newly merged Shelby County Schools' (TN) provides an assessment of where the district stands in relation to the portfolio strategy’s 7 components.

This study uses student-level enrollment data from Denver to provide evidence on what drives the special education gap between charter and traditional public schools.

This fiscal analysis finds that early difficulties forecasting enrollment and revenue can undermine implementation of personalized-learning models that blend computer-based and teacher-led instruction.

This brief provides an introductory look at how leaders can effectively engage stakeholders during the design and implementation of a common enrollment system.

In this paper for the Bush Center, Paul Hill explains why educational productivity matters and how new governance arrangements can promote it.

This "Spotlight" brief outlines four strategies for building effective communication around district change efforts.

Edited by Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim, this volume begins a conversation with state education leaders about productivity.

This study uses NYC data to analyze the factors driving the gap in special education enrollment between charter and traditional public schools.

This brief outlines challenges of producing rigorous and useful research on how students with special needs fare in charters and makes recommendations for designing studies needed to inform policy and practice.

This analysis of Hartford Public Schools seeks to show whether opportunities to attend quality schools and student outcomes have improved as the district implemented the portfolio strategy.

This year's edition focuses on growth and innovation and pushes charter school leaders to consider whether they are fully using their flexibility and autonomy on behalf of students.

This paper was prepared for the American Enterprise Institute's "Common Core Meets the Reform Agenda" Conference.

This brief shows how some new proposals for K-12 public education governance are complements, rather than alternatives, to the portfolio strategy.

In this short report, Paul Hill evaluates Ohio Governor John Kasich's education budget proposal.

This brief explains the need for student-based allocation to enable student choice and portable funding across schools within districts.

Using wage and staffing data from states, this paper projects the financial and staffing implications of one innovative school model (the Rocketship lab rotation) to highlight potential impacts on the schooling workforce and...

Consideration of whether smaller classes are preferable to larger ones requires some recognition of the opportunity costs involved. This brief provides a state-by-state context by computing the dollars at stake in marginally...

This new book from Paul Hill and colleagues explains the underlying idea of the portfolio strategy.

This report identifies three fiscal requirements of federal education programs that stand in the way of promoting innovation in education. The authors recommend modifications that would break down barriers to innovation as...

This report examines the distribution of students with special needs in New York State charter and district-run schools. The analysis shows that different levels of comparison yield different results. The authors recommend...

This brief recaps the themes of the seventh Portfolio School District Network that was held in Seattle, WA, July 2012. It also outlines some of the supports that CRPE is providing to help districts keep moving forward.

This report examines how charter schools would fit into Washington state's public education landscape.

This project shows how eight state education agencies have reshaped their organizations to address the challenges of improving their lowest-performing schools. By focusing on states at the forefront of the turnaround effort,...

This Rapid Response brief examines the real numbers on the Chicago teachers contract costs.

This Center for American Progress brief dissects the nation’s sizeable investment in master’s bumps as a means of highlighting policy obstacles to a more smartly differentiated compensation approach.

This logic model outlines the premises, strategy principles, actions, and reform elements of the Portfolio School District model.

This report examines how charter management organizations recruit, hire, and develop teachers, and how they manage teacher performance.

This is the final report from The National Study of CMO Effectiveness, a four-year study designed to assess the impact of CMOs on student achievement and identify CMO structures and practices that are most effective in raising...

In January 2012, over 100 district and charter leaders gathered in New Orleans for the sixth Portfolio School District Network meeting. John White, new state superintendent of Louisiana, launched the meeting with the idea of a...

This report from the National Study of CMO Effectiveness provides key findings from the study on CMO practices, impacts, and the relationships between them. The updated report also examines longer-term impacts of CMOs on high...

This paper illustrates the flaws in the existing structure for making resource allocation decisions in public education.

This one-pager outlines the 7 key components upon which the portfolio strategy is built.

This essay was written for the PIE Network 5th Annual Policy Summit, September 2011. The authors argue that state education agencies need to shift from their role of compliance monitor to performance manager—a shift most are...

This essay looks at the efforts in a handful of states that are moving to simultaneously reform and expand how they oversee the preparation and certification of teachers and leaders.

This essay was written for the PIE Network 5th Annual Policy Summit, September 2011. The authors note that state education agencies have been tasked with increasing student outcomes on fewer funds and examine whether they are...

CRPE Senior Research Analyst Betheny Gross presented this overview of the latest evidence on choice policies including public school choice, vouchers, and charter schools at the National Conference of State Legislatures...

Drawing from the experiences of high-performing charter school networks, this white paper examines why districts struggle to close the achievement gap, what portfolio district leaders can find when they look outside the...

This working paper reports on a meeting in which representatives from several states gathered for a candid discussion of the lessons learned from Louisiana's dramatic school turnaround efforts.

In February 2011, the Center on Reinventing Public Education convened a conference to help districts implementing school choice under the U.S. Department of Education’s Voluntary Public School Choice program. This paper...

This paper examines charter school leaders' deliberate strategies to hire teachers who will boost student achievement and contribute to a thriving school culture.

This final report from the four-year Inside Charter Schools initiative examines how charter schools differentiate themselves from traditional public schools to attract students and families and how they recruit and...

In this one-page brief, Robin Lake summarizes key lessons for creating high-quality charter schools.

In 2010, New York City’s Department of Education created the Innovation Zone to employ cutting edge technology to solve students’ most persistent learning problems. This study analyzes the iZone's impact so far.

This brief describes how a different method of supplying benefits to employees might work for districts: cafeteria plans. While typical school district plans offer a one-size-fits-all package of benefits to employees,...

This report, part of a four-year study of charter school teachers and leaders, finds that many charter schools are unprepared when it comes to leadership turnover.

This Education Next forum addresses what we know about the strengths and frailties of CMOs, what the future holds, and what promising alternatives might be. 

"Waiting for 'Superman'" may leave Washington viewers wondering, “How does our state stack up?” This guide presents facts about the state of education in Washington and ideas for what parents and communities can do to get...

In this brief, CRPE analysts find that most of Washington's largest districts spend less per math or science teacher than for teachers in other subjects.

This paper, one of a series of papers designed to assist leaders in portfolio district reform efforts, argues that effective, strategic communications policies and practices are a key element of successful portfolio reform....

Leading districts are creating multiple pathways to graduation that might keep students from dropping out. Early results are promising.

Looking at the 15 largest districts in California, this analysis finds that teachers at risk of layoff are concentrated in schools with more poor and minority students, concluding that "last in, first out" policies...

This article addresses the claim that charter schools worsen segregation by serving too high a proportion of minority students.

This book explores how to improve estimates of charter schools' performance and suggests how policymakers can learn more about charter schools and make better use of evidence.

Drawing on an an original survey of hiring practices in charter schools and their local school districts in six-states, this paper offers an exploratory look at how charter schools compete for teachers across local contexts....

The CRPE founder isn’t afraid to challenge existing institutions when they fail to serve kids, and respects the evidence, no matter what it says. A look at Hill's legacy.

This brief demonstrates how, contrary to common worry, closing Title I's "comparability provision" loophole would not force districts to mandatorily reassign teachers.

This edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality explores the lessons high-performing charter schools offer for other public schools, including the alignment of lesson content with state curriculum, frequent formative...

This analysis argues that in the current fiscal climate, districts should rethink automatically paying teachers for master's degrees, and consider how money could instead be channeled into compensation in ways that lead to...

Study on four urban school districts experimenting with new school designs and new ways of holding schools accountable for performance by implementing a "portfolio strategy."

This report surveys the broad transportation landscape and conducts in-depth work with families in two cities to determine what role transportation plays in parents' school decisions, and how districts might address related...

This analysis shows that school districts faced with large budget gaps could avoid some or all teacher layoffs by rolling back salaries.

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.

This brief considers the role of transfer and articulation policies in higher education policy and administration.

The paper exploits variation across states in education policies and labor laws to identify differences in teacher contract choice at the local level, and finds relatively small variances in contract outcomes within the state...

This study of Ohio Governor Ted Strickland's education plan, published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, finds that the plan's so-called "evidence-based" approach would actually scuttle any modernizing efforts.

In this brief, Marguerite Roza explains why K-12 school districts that lay off personnel according to seniority cause disproportionate damage to their programs and students than if layoffs were determined on a seniority-...

This guest editorial argues that the Bush administration failed to meaningfully move the charter sector forward.

This year's edition explores how charter school achievement varies across the sector, how the educational strategies used by charters differ from those used in traditional public schools, how charters are providing unique...

This op-ed argues that Washington's budget crisis presents a good time for school districts to find innovative ways to do more with less, but the state hasn't created the context necessary for districts to redesign toward...

This article examines a few methods that assess the relationship between educational investment and educational outcome, then focuses on a Return on Investment (ROI) model to assess the efficiency of an urban district.

This is a pre-print version of an article that was published in ASBO International's School Business Affairs magazine. The article summarizes a five year research study that examined the linkages between how money is...

In this report CRPE researchers explore the complex job of charter school directors, who may have little experience with facilities, finances, hiring, or strategic planning; some of the most serious issues for charter schools...

In this commentary from The Denver Post, Marguerite Roza explores the phenomenon of Baumol's disease in education—the tendency for costs to rise even as outputs stay the same.

This commentary from the News & Observer argues that North Carolina needs to fundamentally reform how the state funds its public schools.

This report presents findings from exploratory case studies of six charter schools identified due to their reported success educating children with disabilities.

This paper describes how high-quality authorizers have changed their application procedures and standards and examines the effect these changes have had on the quality and quantity of new charter school applicants.

This paper outlines competing principles of charter school oversight and examines how those principles affect an authorizer’s approach to finding and selecting new schools, conducting day-to-day oversight of performance, and...

This working paper summarizes common problems faced by new and established charter schools and highlights strategies to diagnose and, when appropriate, intervene in struggling schools.

This paper briefly summarizes three School Finance Redesign Project teacher compensation studies that begin to help build the evidence base for teacher pay reform.

This working paper presents results from a qualitative field study of school-based hiring—one of the more foundational ideas for reforming centralized and bureaucratic human resource management (HRM) systems.

This paper identifies tactics districts can use to influence the factors that shape the supply and quality of providers of autonomous schools in thin markets.

This paper finds that informal partnerships between authorizers and private organizations have the potential to improve the quality and quantity of new schools.

Public school funding in the U.S. is not a product of intelligent design, but this article shows that Americans can learn to make more effective use of the money available for public schools.

What are the options for charter school authorizers or entities with similar responsibilities who want to preserve assets when closing low-performing schools? This study suggests that authorizers rarely try to salvage these...

This Education Week article outlines changes to the education finance system that are needed in order to bring about new and more productive uses of existing funds.

This report explores the various difficulties charter schools face related to educating children with disabilities and examines potential opportunities to address those.

This op ed urges the Washington's Basic Education Finance Joint Task Force to move to change our education finance system to support the state's education goals.

New accountability systems require that states and districts accomplish something never accomplished before—ensuring that all students meet state standards. This report explores how these expectations have altered resource...

This article first appeared in the Seattle Times, December 19, 2007.

This brief touches on the experiences of urban school districts as they sought to close schools. It offers insight into the critical questions districts encountered and different paths chosen during the process.

This commentary by Paul Hill first appeared in Education Week, September 4, 2007. Hill lays out the reasons that school choice has been more challenging than originally envisioned and suggests which problems need to be...

This report analyzes why replicating successful charter schools has been tougher and more costly than expected for both for-profit and nonprofit charter management organizations (EMOs and CMOs).

This paper describes research designed to shed light on how teachers feel about different pay and incentive reforms.

This policy analysis tool, created by by Education Resource Strategies, helps districts deliberate about how to use funds effectively.

In this working paper, Michael Kirst suggests that a productive education system would focus relatively greater resources on out-of-school interventions, especially for the most disadvantaged children. He argues that such...

This report reviews the available data to describe the current corps of charter school leaders: how they are prepared, how they experience their work, and the institutional strategies in place to sustain and transition...

When school boards enter contracts with teachers unions, they determine the use of nearly half of all the funds available to public education. In this paper Julia Koppich looks at an important source of resource allocation...

This paper explores ways districts can reduce the costs (in terms of lost school productivity and lost training investments) of teacher turnover.

New accountability systems require that states and districts accomplish something never accomplished before—ensuring that all students meet state standards. This report explores how these expectations have altered resource...

How might money be used in a more productive system? This working paper imagines a public educational system in which it is possible to link benefits received with costs borne.

This working paper paper suggests how a performance-driven system would allocate funds, monitor performance, search for more productive models of instruction, and replace less effective schools and programs.

This paper proposes the creation and use of school spending profiles as a way to communicate more complete and comparable school spending information.

Analyzing data from the 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), this working paper finds that charter schools consistently reported significantly fewer issues with threats to persons or property and fewer behavioral...

This report demonstrates that there are many promising alternative ways to allocate and use funds under Title I, the federal government's largest K-12 funding program.

New accountability systems require that states and districts accomplish something never accomplished before—ensuring that all students meet state standards. This report explores how these expectations have altered resource...

This is the introductory report from the "Inside Charter Schools" initiative, a multi-year, federally funded study of the people and work of charter schools.

This article shows how a regulated market in education would work and how one could be created.

This edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality explores some of the most controversial issues facing the charter school movement and the implications of continued growth for leading players in the charter school debates....

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Charter Schools against the Odds, published by Hoover Institution Press, analyzes laws and policies that are restricting growth of charter schools, and explores alternatives of how to instead, encourage the...

As attention shifts to how districts allocate resources to schools, student weighted allocation has emerged as an alternative to traditional staff-based allocation policies. This article examines how the shift to student-...

This Ed Week commentary looks at the differences in the problems the Gates Foundation has addressed, and in the strategies it has used, via its health and education giving.

In this article, Paul Hill argues that mayors who seek to reform their schools need to untangle the tendrils of school district accounting practices, and he warns that mayors who attempt large-scale school reform without first...

This white paper from the Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel examines the existing research on student achievement in charter schools and details how future research could be improved.

This report presents the results of an analysis of legal, regulatory, and policy barriers to high school redesign in California.

This working paper evaluates the effect of implementing one of three prominent Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) models on student achievement and discipline outcomes, using a matched sample of Florida model and non-model...

Too many charter school authorizers aren't fulfilling their responsibilities in providing adequate oversight for charter schools. This white paper examines the causes and consequences of poor authorizing and proposes how the...

This essay is part of a collection of essays published by The Urban Institute that assess the challenges facing New Orleans and recommend tested models for making the city's social infrastructure stronger and more equitable...

This article from Education Week argues that claims about the effectiveness of charter schools compared to traditional public schools that are drawn from NAEP data are generally overstated due to limitations of the dataset....

This debut edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality provides new data on many aspects of charter schools in the United States and examines issues and controversies surrounding reform.

Drawing on data from five large school districts, this report reveals that the nation's main program for educating the disadvantaged, Title I, is hampered by loopholes that prevent it from fulfilling its mission.

This is the first in a series of working papers on ways people working for the disadvantaged might use evidence about within-district spending inequalities.

In this article, Published by the Hoover Institution, Paul Hill argues that Tony Blair took a bolder approach to education reform than anyone expected of a Labour prime minister and that similar reforms are possible in the US...

This brief examines small high school costs in Denver and Seattle, analyzing each layer of district expenditures in order to get a better look at the price tag for small schools in comparison to others.

This commentary from Education Week argues for more research on the role of district human-resources departments in bringing high quality teachers into the profession.

This brief, published by NACSA, explores the reasons urban, suburban, and rural districts alike have embraced charter schools as an integral part of their overall strategy for school improvement, and offers suggestions for...

Edited by James Harvey and Paul T. Hill, this book identifies roles for foundations and civic groups in defining strategies for big-city school reform, and ensuring that promised changes are implemented. This is the third and...

This report summarizes a two-day seminar which addressed the question, "How Can Communities Do School Choice Right?" convened at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., in August 2004.

In this commentary for The Hoover Institution, Paul Hill suggests that to be effective with disadvantaged children, schools need to extend learning time and offer a broader range of services.

Based on 49 interviews with district and school personnel, the report's aim is to identify key issues that leaders in districts elsewhere can use to begin thinking about how they might make their HR office more efficient or...

This paper, published by Brookings Institution Press, reports the results of an original study of district spending at the school level. It shows that teacher cost averaging drives significant amounts of money out of schools...

This report, published by The Phi Delta Kappan, traces Cincinnati Public Schools's process of moving to a system of student based budgeting: funding children rather than staff members, and weighting the funding according...

A number of states and localities are now considering creating voucher programs. This paper focuses on the administrative costs of these programs.

This article, published in Education Policy Analysis Archives, attempts to estimate the size and nature of the celebrated teacher shortage of the late 1990s by using data from the U.S. Department of Education's 1999-00 School...

This report suggests that even with the economic slowdown and the sense of relief from a pending teacher shortage, districts will continue to struggle to get and keep good teachers unless they make dramatic changes in the ways...

This article looks at why we should devolve decisionmaking in schools. Hill recommends three changes in state laws to create a public education system in which families and teachers have options, schools have a good balance of...

This report summarizes the functions of school boards, identifies some of the problems with big city school boards, and suggests options for reorienting boards around the trusteeship of the children they serve.

This Koret Task Force book, published by Hoover Institution Press, reviews the furious national debate over school choice, examining the benefits of choice for children, families, and schools-and showing how properly designed...

Many foundations have put funds into urban school reform. The paper suggests that foundation giving needs to be backed up by a clear theory of change and that foundation officials need to know whether the districts in which...

This paper presents the first results of a series of studies on within-district spending patterns. It provides an overview of some early analysis of variations in spending among schools within three districts.

In this commentary, Paul Hill and James Harvey look at how urban superintendents can get beyond misleading platitudes to confront real problems.

In this essay for the Public Education Network, Paul Hill discusses the role local education funds can play in building social capital in schools

This study examines the experiences of fifteen elementary schools in Washington State demonstrating relatively slow improvement on the reading and math sections of the WASL.

In this commentary, published by the Hoover Institution, Paul Hill writes that the key to reversing the inequitable distribution of teachers in big cities is to give real-dollar budgets to all schools and charge schools the...

This commentary by Paul Hill, published by Brookings, suggests that failed school systems need to create hybrid reform strategies drawn from the strong parts of various reform proposals, rather than relying on "name brand"...

This paper is the result of a review of efforts across the country, and specifically in five states, to introduce performance accountability into education reform strategies.

This report documents Washington State's attempts to ensure students meet new, higher standards for student learning. It is part of a trio of reports on this topic. The other reports are: Making Standards Work (1999) and...

This volume is the second in a trilogy of books designed to describe the politics of reform in urban school systems and clarify reform options available to mayors and other community leaders who want to improve school...

This report works at identifying steps Washington state schools can take to improve new state assessment scores and meet higher state standards. Follow-up reports include Making Standards Stick (2000) and Making Standards...

A heated debate is raging over our nation’s public schools and how they should be reformed, with proposals ranging from imposing national standards to replacing public education altogether with a voucher system for private...

This report was written in anticipation of the passage of House Bill 1834, a charter school statute considered and ultimately rejected by the Pennsylvania legislature in the fall of 1996. The information and advice contained...

This report examines the "supply side" of education reform - the extent to which proposals to decentralize public education can be implemented by the individuals, groups, or institutions prepared to operate schools in the new...

This is a guidebook for school boards and other government agencies given the power to permit private individuals and groups to operate autonomous public schools under state charter school legislation.

This report was written for a very specialized audience—individuals considering the passage or amendment of charter school legislation.

This paper examines the trend in school districts, across the country and in Seattle, of substantially withdrawing from mandatory integration policies.