Independent peer review is an integral part of all CRPE research projects. Peer reviews are conducted by research or policy professionals who are not members of the CRPE project team.
Some externally published work, such as commissioned papers, books and book chapters, journal articles, and op eds, may be hosted on other sites, and some may require purchase or subscriptions to view.
![]() |
How Schools Adapt during the Pandemic Can Reshape Adolescent Learning Experiences for Generations March, 2021 Betheny Gross, Georgia Heyward, Sarah McCann |
This brief, informed by interviews with school and system leaders in the New England region, suggests some efforts to reinvent schools before the pandemic have helped schools to navigate the current crisis. |
![]() |
How Are School Districts Addressing Student Social-Emotional Needs during the Pandemic? February, 2021 Michael DeArmond, Lisa Chu, Padma Gundapaneni |
In this brief, we look at how our nationally representative sample of 477 school districts attended to students' social-emotional learning and well-being in fall 2020. |
![]() |
"Public Education Will Never Be the Same": How COVID-19 Forced School District Leaders to Innovate on the Fly February, 2021 Robin Lake |
In this brief, we summarize themes from an American School District Panel survey on innovation during COVID-19. |
![]() |
State Accountability Systems in the COVID Era and Beyond February, 2021 Robin Lake, Maria Worthen |
This brief presents a set of ideas and themes to begin to inform challenges around testing and accountability during the pandemic. |
![]() |
Toward Understanding Unionization's Impact on Charter School Students February, 2021 Lesley Lavery, Sean Gill, Ashley Jochim |
In this brief, we set out to understand how unionization may or may not shape practices central to charter schools’ ability to serve students. |
![]() |
U-Turn: Surge of COVID Cases Reverses Reopening Progress in America's School Districts January, 2021 Betheny Gross, Alice Opalka, Padma Gundapaneni |
Our December review of a statistically representative sample of 477 districts found 31 percent are operating in fully remote learning—a larger percentage than at any other point during the fall semester. |
![]() |
How Is School Enrollment in Washington State Shifting during COVID-19? January, 2021 Sivan Tuchman, Georgia Heyward |
This brief examines shifts in Washington State's public school enrollment after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
![]() |
Student Supports, Professional Development, Operations and Finance at Proyecto Vimenti January, 2021 Robin Lake, Silene Vargas Díaz |
Three papers document lessons about finance and operations, professional development, and student support from the first year and a half of Proyecto Vimenti, Puerto Rico's first public charter school. |
![]() |
How Can Learning Management Systems be Used Effectively to Improve Student Engagement? January, 2021 Lynn Olson |
This paper summarizes findings from a consensus panel on using data from learning management systems and software to help educators understand and improve student engagement during remote instruction. |
![]() |
Putting Families at the Center: The Role of Parent Advocacy Groups during COVID-19 December, 2020 Lynn Olson, Georgia Heyward |
This brief profiles four parent advocacy groups that have been particularly effective in devising bold solutions during the pandemic crisis. |
![]() |
How States Can Better Prepare Students for Life After High School December, 2020 Georgia Heyward |
This report examines weaknesses states share in career and technical education and offers recommendations to improve career pathways for students. |
![]() |
Support Every Student: Lessons from Five Charter Schools on Effective Special Education During the Pandemic November, 2020 Lanya McKittrick, Betheny Gross, Sivan Tuchman, Sean Gill |
In-depth case studies of five charter schools reveal lessons learned on educating students with disabilities remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
![]() |
One Step Forward, One Step Back: Public Health Fears Keep America's School Districts on a Reopening Treadmill November, 2020 Betheny Gross, Alice Opalka, Padma Gundapaneni |
This brief gives an update on our nationally representative sample of school district reopening plans. |
![]() |
Ensuring All Students in Indiana Receive Their Fair Share of Funding October, 2020 Ben Kleban, Lisa Chu |
This report examines and offers recommendations to resolve Indiana's student funding inequities. |
![]() |
What Does It Take to Educate Students with Mild to Moderate Disabilities in General Education Settings? Lessons from Washington’s Public Charter Schools October, 2020 Georgia Heyward, Travis Pillow, Sivan Tuchman |
This report includes in-depth case studies of five Washington State charter schools to understand their strategies for full inclusion of students with disabilities, and offers recommendations to school leaders and policymakers... |
![]() |
Lessons from Remote Learning in Six School Systems October, 2020 |
This report looks more deeply into a small number of districts and charter management organizations (CMOs), hoping to understand why they took particular approaches to remote learning and how their experiences last spring... |
![]() |
Promising Practices Emerge from Expert Peer Review of District Reopening Plans September, 2020 |
CRPE and the Collaborative for Student Success convened experts in emergency planning, health and safety, parent and family advocacy, special education, and school district and state leadership to review school districts’... |
![]() |
School Districts Across the Nation Plan for An Uncertain Year Ahead August, 2020 Betheny Gross, Alice Opalka, Padma Gundapaneni |
This brief gives a snapshot from July 27-31 of how school districts across the country are currently planning for fall 2020. |
![]() |
Getting Back to School: An Update on Plans from Across the Country August, 2020 Betheny Gross, Alice Opalka, Padma Gundapaneni |
This brief gives a snapshot from August 17–21 of how school districts across the country are planning for fall 2020. |
![]() |
Learning as We Go: Principles for Effective Assessment During the COVID-19 Pandemic July, 2020 Robin Lake, Lynn Olson |
This paper summarizes the findings from a panel of assessment experts on diagnostic assessments and their role in helping educators and parents support student learning. |
![]() |
Too Many Schools Leave Learning to Chance During the Pandemic June, 2020 Betheny Gross, Alice Opalka |
This brief summarizes our findings from a review of COVID-19 response plans of 477 school districts across the country. |
![]() |
Navigating Choice: How High-Touch Supports Can Address Educational Inequity June, 2020 Georgia Heyward, Betheny Gross, Ashley Jochim |
This brief presents findings from a preliminary analysis of 10 organizations with school navigator services. |
![]() |
Navigating Out-of-School Learning and the Power of Relationships: Lessons from Year 2 at RESCHOOL Colorado June, 2020 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond |
This report describes the implementation of RESCHOOL Colorado's Learner Advocate Network between 2018 and 2019 and what it implies for expanding similar efforts elsewhere. |
![]() |
Blueprint4Summer Colorado: Mapping Denver’s Landscape for Summer Enrichment May, 2020 |
This brief provides an assessment of lessons learned in the first two years of RESCHOOL Colorado’s initiatives to expand access to out-of-school learning opportunities for children in the Denver area. |
![]() |
Finding a Great Fit: Improving the School Choice Process for Students with Disabilities March, 2020 Lanya McKittrick, Robin Lake, Sivan Tuchman, Travis Pillow, Roohi Sharma, Jon Valant, Matthew Larsen |
Two briefs provide a summary of the special education landscape in New Orleans and Washington, D.C., and offer recommendations for further steps that might be taken to strengthen the cities’ support structures for parents of... |
![]() |
After Decades of Financial Challenge, How Can Oakland Reorient Itself? November, 2019 Sean Gill, Ashley Jochim, Robin Lake |
In this brief, we explore evidence related to the causes of OUSD’s financial crisis and why previous efforts to right the ship have failed. |
![]() |
A Middle Way for States in the ESSA Era: Lessons from Texas November, 2019 Alice Opalka, Ashley Jochim, Michael DeArmond |
The report examines the Texas Education Agency’s System of Great Schools (SGS) initiative, which calls on districts to manage school performance in new ways, expands access to school choice options, and takes a dynamic... |
![]() |
Seizing the Opportunity: Educating Students with Disabilities in Charter Schools October, 2019 Michael DeArmond, Sean Gill, Betheny Gross, Georgia Heyward, Robin Lake, Lanya McKittrick, Alice Opalka, Travis Pillow, Roohi Sharma, Sivan Tuchman, Lauren Morando Rhim, Stephanie Lancet, Shaini Kothari |
This report is the first step in developing an evidence base about how charter schools meet the needs of unique learners, how they can improve in this work, and what aspects of chartering as a governance model support or... |
![]() |
It Takes a City: How the Portfolio Strategy Can Bring Schools, Districts, and Communities Together to Transform Special Education September, 2019 Robin Lake, Lanya McKittrick |
We convened leaders from cities around the country to explore ways that school districts can use the portfolio strategy to help cities improve education for students with disabilites—and ultimately for all students. |
![]() |
Lessons from the Trenches: Sustaining Improvements after State Takeover August, 2019 Ashley Jochim, Paul Hill |
This report provides key lessons for states seeking to make improvements in districts and schools navigating a transition to local control. |
![]() |
The Changing Landscape of Homeschooling in the United States July, 2019 Aaron Hirsh |
This brief explores the changing demographics of homeschoolers, provides an overview of new forms of homeschooling, and outlines the variety of state policies that govern homeschooling. |
![]() |
Student Mobility in Kansas City June, 2019 Michael DeArmond, Alice Opalka, Patrick Denice |
This brief examines student mobility in Kansas City Public Schools. |
![]() |
Schools Lead the Way but the System Must Change: Rethinking Career and Technical Education June, 2019 Georgia Heyward |
CRPE has identified 32 programs around the country that represent the variety of efforts being used to reinvent career and technical education. |
![]() |
Fulfilling the Promise of School Choice by Building More Effective Supports for Families June, 2019 Ashley Jochim, Georgia Heyward, Betheny Gross |
This report focuses on the work of DC School Reform Now. Since 2011, the organization has focused on making school choice work for families in Wards 7 and 8, two underserved areas of the nation's capital. |
![]() |
California Charter Schools: Costs, Benefits, and Impact on School Districts May, 2019 Robin Lake, Ashley Jochim, Paul Hill, Sivan Tuchman |
Three new briefs assess the impact of California charter schools on school districts. |
![]() |
Making Sense of How Charter Schools Affect School District Finances: A Reporter’s Guide May, 2019 |
This guide unpacks how enrollment loss stemming from charter schools may or may not shape districts’ financial situations and provides guidance and resources to journalists. |
![]() |
Expanding Access to Out-of-School Learning: Lessons from Year 1 at ReSchool Colorado April, 2019 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond |
This brief provides an initial, formative assessment of lessons learned in the first year of ReSchool Colorado’s initiatives to expand access to out-of-school learning opportunities for children in the Denver area. |
![]() |
Sustaining Improvement after State Takeovers: Lessons from New Orleans April, 2019 Ashley Jochim, Travis Pillow |
This report examines how New Orleans education officials have managed the return of nearly all of the city’s public schools to the control of the local elected school board for the first time since the state takeover of public... |
![]() |
An Unlikely Bargain: Why Charter School Teachers Unionize and What Happens When They Do March, 2019 Ashley Jochim, Lesley Lavery |
This report examines national and local trends in charter unionization, describes the reasons charter school teachers unionize, and analyzes charter school bargaining agreements. |
![]() |
Thinking Forward: New Ideas for a New Era of Public Education November, 2018 |
These essays rethink foundational aspects of the current education system and offer new ideas to shift the lens from schools to students. |
![]() |
Mind the Gap: Will All Students Benefit From 21st Century Learning? October, 2018 Tricia Maas, Ashley Jochim, Betheny Gross |
CRPE researchers find inequities in current 21st century learning approaches and recommend strategies to deliver better learning opportunities for all students. |
![]() |
Leading Personalized Learning September, 2018 Michael DeArmond, Tricia Maas |
CRPE researchers analyze how school leaders can both encourage experimentation and support the formalization of innovative practice. |
![]() |
Access to Out-of-School Resources in Denver September, 2018 Joseph A. Abbate, José Hernández, Sreekanth Krishnaiah, Karen Lavi, Kellie J. MacPhee, Andrew M. Taylor, Sivan Tuchman, Haowen Zheng |
This working paper analyzes data from ReSchool Colorado’s “Blueprint4SummerCO” platform to understand supply and demand of summer programs Denver. |
![]() |
Are Washington Charter Public Schools Serving Students with Disabilities? July, 2018 Sivan Tuchman, Christine Campbell, Georgia Heyward |
This brief presents data on how special education students in Washington state are being served in charter public schools, using a national and local context. |
![]() |
What Do We Actually Know about the Four-Day School Week? June, 2018 Georgia Heyward |
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. |
![]() |
Personalized Learning at a Crossroads June, 2018 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond |
This report explores the early promise and challenges in personalized learning and calls for more system-level supports and strategies for innovation.
|
![]() |
Addressing Persistently Underperforming Schools: Evidence and Common Challenges May, 2018 Christine Campbell, Georgia Heyward, Ashley Jochim |
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. |
![]() |
Lessons Learned About District-Charter Partnerships: How Sharing Instructional Practices Can Pave the Way for More Collaboration April, 2018 Alice Opalka, Sarah Yatsko |
An overview of the district-charter collaboration landscape and one strategy that many cities are pursuing: sharing instructional practices across district and charter schools. |
![]() |
How School Culture and Support Systems Can Improve Disciplinary Outcomes for Students with Disabilities: Mott Haven Academy Charter School Case Study March, 2018 Lauren Morando Rhim, Stephanie Lancet |
This brief examines how students with special needs are being served by an innovative New York City charter school. |
![]() |
How Personalized Learning Models Can Meet the Needs of Students with Disabilities: Thrive Public Schools Case Study March, 2018 Lauren Morando Rhim, Stephanie Lancet |
This brief examines how students with special needs are being served by an innovative San Diego charter school network. |
![]() |
Passing Notes: Learning from Efforts to Share Instructional Practices Across District-Charter Lines February, 2018 Tricia Maas, Robin Lake |
This report examines recent efforts of districts and charter schools to share key instructional practices and offers recommendations for education leaders to move forward. |
![]() |
Collision Course: Embracing Politics to Succeed in District-Charter Collaboration January, 2018 Ashley Jochim, Sarah Yatsko, Alice Opalka |
This report examines how politics shapes the work of district-charter collaboration and offers strategies for district and charter leaders to improve their chances of success. |
![]() |
Unlocking Potential: How Political Skill Can Maximize Superintendent Effectiveness January, 2018 Paul Hill, Ashley Jochim |
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. |
![]() |
The Slowdown in Bay Area Charter School Growth: Causes and Solutions January, 2018 Robin Lake, Trey Cobb, Roohi Sharma, Alice Opalka |
This report examines why charter school growth in the San Francisco Bay Area has slowed dramatically and offers solutions for cities nationwide to encourage the development of new high-quality schools. |
![]() |
Opening the Schoolhouse Door: Helping Charter Schools Access Space in District-Owned Facilities December, 2017 Sean Gill, Tricia Maas |
This paper reviews state policies on providing charter schools with facilities and recommends better incentives for districts to share space. |
![]() |
Stepping Up: How Are American Cities Delivering on the Promise of Public School Choice? November, 2017 Christine Campbell, Georgia Heyward, Betheny Gross, Robin Lake |
This analysis examines 18 cities offering public school choice to determine whether 1) their education systems are continuously improving, 2) all their students have equitable access to high-quality schools, and 3) their... |
![]() |
For Portfolio Supporters, Skeptics, and Would-Be Adopters: Some Thoughts From CRPE November, 2017 Robin Lake, Ashley Jochim |
This paper provides an honest assessment of the portfolio strategy’s strengths, weaknesses, and necessary evolution. |
![]() |
Partnership Schools: New Governance Models for Creating Quality School Options in Districts October, 2017 Sean Gill, Christine Campbell |
This brief examines a promising new “third way” approach to school improvement and provides guidance for district and charter leaders and policymakers considering partnership schools. |
![]() |
A User’s Guide to the Four-Day School Week: How to Assess District Readiness and Evaluate the Results October, 2017 Georgia Heyward |
This guide will help district and community leaders understand the benefits and risks of adopting a shorter school week. |
![]() |
Making School Choice Work for Families: DC School Reform Now’s High Quality Schools Campaign October, 2017 Ashley Jochim, Betheny Gross, Colleen McCann |
This brief, the first in a multiyear series examining DC School Reform Now’s innovative High Quality Schools Campaign, offers lessons for district and city leaders who want school choice to work for all families. |
![]() |
Better Together: Ensuring Quality District Schools in Times of Charter Growth and Declining Enrollment September, 2017 |
CRPE’s report urges districts, charters, and states to work together in new ways to address the financial challenges associated with declining district enrollment. |
![]() |
Are City Schools Becoming Monolithic? Analyzing the Diversity of Options in Denver, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. August, 2017 Betheny Gross, Colleen McCann, Shannon Murtagh, Christine Campbell |
CRPE researchers discover distinct school differences in three cities and offer innovative, evidence-based solutions to help urban U.S. districts increase options so that families can find the right fit for their child. |
![]() |
Can Public Transportation Improve Students’ Access to Denver’s Best Schools of Choice? June, 2017 Betheny Gross, Patrick Denice |
This study examines how much public transportation passes in Denver can improve equitable access to the city's highest-quality K-12 schools. |
![]() |
A Guide to Unifying Enrollment: The What, Why, and How for Those Considering It May, 2017 Betheny Gross, Christine Campbell |
This guide helps city education leaders understand the benefits and costs of a fully unified enrollment system and outlines the questions they should ask before initiating changes. |
![]() |
How States Can Promote Local Innovation, Options, and Problem-Solving in Public Education April, 2017 Jordan Posamentier, Robin Lake, Paul Hill |
State policy should encourage and empower school district innovation and improvement strategies. |
![]() |
The “City of Firsts” Charts a New Path on Turnaround April, 2017 Ashley Jochim, Alice Opalka |
This case study profiles the unique school improvement effort in Springfield, MA, and compares it with other turnaround strategies. |
![]() |
The Power of Persuasion: A Model for Effective Political Leadership by State Chiefs March, 2017 Paul Hill, Ashley Jochim |
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. |
![]() |
Bridging the District-Charter Divide to Help More Students Succeed January, 2017 Robin Lake, Sarah Yatsko, Sean Gill, Alice Opalka |
Based on six years of research, this report explores why a growing number of districts and charter schools are choosing to work together, the costs and benefits of different types of cooperation, and the real impacts of... |
![]() |
Encouraging Districts and Charters to Link Arms to Solve Problems January, 2017 Robin Lake |
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. |
![]() |
Unifying Enrollment in Camden: How Families Experienced the New Enrollment System December, 2016 Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross, Colleen McCann, José Hernández, Sarah Yatsko |
This study explores families’ experiences choosing and enrolling in schools using the new Camden Enrollment, and provides recommendations for improvements to the system.... |
![]() |
Measures of Last Resort: Assessing Strategies for State-Initiated Turnarounds November, 2016 Ashley Jochim |
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. |
![]() |
The SEA of the Future: Maximizing Opportunities Under ESSA November, 2016 Ashley Jochim, Betheny Gross, Paul Hill |
Edited by Ashley Jochim and Betheny Gross, the sixth and final volume of the SEA of the Future provides SEAs a new framework under ESSA for strategic planning and concrete tools for implementation. |
![]() |
Apples to Apples: Common School Performance Frameworks as a Tool for Choice and Accountability October, 2016 Sarah Yatsko, Alice Opalka, Jessica Sutter, Laura Weeldreyer, David Stewart |
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... |
![]() |
Sticking Points: How School Districts Experience Implementing the Portfolio Strategy October, 2016 Robin Lake, Jordan Posamentier, Patrick Denice, Paul Hill |
This analysis of trends across portfolio districts shows where cities are making progress on strategy implementation and where they are getting bogged down. |
![]() |
Herding Cats: Managing Diverse Charter School Interests in Collaboration Efforts August, 2016 Sean Gill, Sarah Yatsko, Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
The Politics of the Common Core Assessments July, 2016 Ashley Jochim, Patrick McGuinn |
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. |
![]() |
The State Role in K–12 Education: From Issuing Mandates to Experimentation July, 2016 Betheny Gross, Paul Hill |
Betheny Gross and Paul Hill discuss the challenges and opportunities for state-level experimentation created by the Every Student Succeeds Act, in the Harvard Law and Policy Review. |
![]() |
Incomplete Reform in Baltimore June, 2016 Betheny Gross, Ashley Jochim |
Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim look at why Baltimore's promising education reforms stalled out and how it can regain momentum. |
![]() |
Grappling With Discipline in Autonomous Schools: New Approaches From D.C. and New Orleans June, 2016 Betheny Gross, Sivan Tuchman, Sarah Yatsko |
This report profiles leading efforts by two cities to bring consistency and fairness to discipline practices in both district and charter schools. |
![]() |
What States Can Do to Promote District-Charter Collaboration June, 2016 Alex Medler |
This paper explores opportunities for state education agencies to leverage their unique assets to advance district-charter collaboration.. |
![]() |
Suburban Schools: The Unrecognized Frontier in Public Education May, 2016 Sean Gill, Jordan Posamentier, Paul Hill |
This paper reviews trends around changing student populations in suburban America and the accompanying demands facing suburban public school systems. |
![]() |
Roots of Engagement in Baton Rouge: How Community Is Shaping the Growth of New School Options April, 2016 Christine Campbell |
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. |
![]() |
Financing Personalized Learning: What Can We Learn From First-Generation Adopters? April, 2016 Larry Miller, Betheny Gross, Tricia Maas, José Hernández, Alton Lu, Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
School Leadership Policy Toolkit April, 2016 Eric Lerum |
CRPE collaborated with the Fordham Institute to develop an online school policy leadership toolkit, a resource to help policymakers and advocates focus on getting great principals into all schools. |
![]() |
Changing Methods and Mindsets: Lessons from Innovate NYC January, 2016 Steven Hodas |
Author Steven Hodas shares his experiences working with the New York Department of Education to foster innovative practices and develop more nimble procurement procedures. |
![]() |
The SEA of the Future: Building Agency Capacity for Evidence-Based Policymaking November, 2015 Betheny Gross, Ashley Jochim, Carrie Conaway, Nathaniel Schwartz, Venessa Keesler, Kathleen Dempsey, Caitlin Howley, Paul Kohler |
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... |
![]() |
The Street-Level Politics of School Reform November, 2015 Paul Hill, Ashley Jochim |
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. |
![]() |
Measuring Up: Educational Improvement and Opportunity in 50 Cities October, 2015 Michael DeArmond, Patrick Denice, Betheny Gross, José Hernández, Ashley Jochim, Robin Lake |
A groundbreaking new report that measures the health of school systems through a citywide lens. |
![]() |
The Policy Framework for Online Charter Schools October, 2015 Rosa Pazhouh, Robin Lake, Larry Miller |
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. |
![]() |
Understanding Student Discipline Practices in Charter Schools: A Research Agenda September, 2015 Patrick Denice, Betheny Gross, Karega Rausch |
CRPE convened a panel of experts to recommend a more comprehensive approach to capturing discipline data and evaluating and comparing school discipline practices. |
![]() |
Making Sense of Charter School Discipline Studies: A Reporter's Guide September, 2015 Alison Krupnick |
This brief provides guidance for education reporters seeking to interpret findings and draw conclusions about current school discipline research. |
![]() |
Backfill in Charter High Schools: Practices to Learn From and Questions to be Answered August, 2015 Paul Hill, Tricia Maas |
Paul Hill and Tricia Maas explore the charter high school "backfill" issue, using interviews with charter sector leaders to understand competing perspectives and practices that support transfer students. |
![]() |
The Best of Both Worlds: School District-Charter Sector Boundary Spanners August, 2015 Sarah Yatsko, Angela Bruns |
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. |
![]() |
The Best of Both Worlds: Can District-Charter Co-Location Be a Win-Win? August, 2015 Michael DeArmond, Elizabeth Cooley Nelson, Angela Bruns |
This report explores the challenges of leveraging co-location as a tool for school improvement. |
![]() |
The Four-Day School Week in Rural Idaho Schools July, 2015 Paul Hill, Georgia Heyward |
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. |
![]() |
Carrots, Sticks, and Sermons: How Policy Shapes Educational Entrepreneurship June, 2015 Ashley Jochim |
This paper was written by Ashley Jochim for the American Education Institute's conference, The State of Entrepreneurship in K–12 Education, held June 24, 2015. |
![]() |
Redesigning the District Operating System May, 2015 Steven Hodas |
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. |
![]() |
Common Enrollment, Parents, and School Choice: Early Evidence from Denver and New Orleans May, 2015 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond, Patrick Denice |
This report examines the implementation and early results of common enrollment systems in Denver and New Orleans. |
![]() |
The SEA of the Future: Uncovering the Productivity Promise of Rural Education May, 2015 Betheny Gross, Ashley Jochim, Paul Hill, Marguerite Roza, Tessie Rose Bailey, Rebecca Zumeta |
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... |
![]() |
Next Generation School Districts: What Capacities Do Districts Need to Create and Sustain Schools That Are Ready to Deliver on Common Core? April, 2015 Robin Lake, Paul Hill, Tricia Maas |
This paper argues that district-wide systems changes are necessary to encourage and free up schools to innovate, in order to implement personalized learning at scale and meet the challenges of Common Core. |
![]() |
The Case for Coherent High Schools April, 2015 Paul Hill, Tricia Maas |
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. |
![]() |
The Portfolio Strategy CEO: The Job and How to Prepare for It March, 2015 Paul Hill, Shannon Murtagh |
This primer for portfolio strategy leaders identifies the main challenges of the job and how to approach them. |
![]() |
In-Depth Portfolio Assessment: Spring Branch Independent School District, Texas March, 2015 Libuse Binder |
This report examines Spring Branch Independent School District's progress on implementing the portfolio strategy. |
![]() |
Accountability and the Federal Role: A Third Way on ESEA March, 2015 Linda Darling-Hammond, Paul Hill |
In this paper, two different "camps" on school reform find common ground on how to improve educational accountability. |
![]() |
Title I: Time to Get It Right March, 2015 Marguerite Roza, Robin Lake |
This brief presents five clear principles on which Title I formulas should be based and progress measured. |
![]() |
Making Sense of Charter School Studies: A Reporter's Guide March, 2015 Lydia Rainey |
This guide educates the media and decision-makers about what questions to ask regarding charter school research, and provides them with information about the limits of any new research. |
![]() |
Principals: The Lead Communicators in the Portfolio Strategy February, 2015 Paul Hill, Shannon Murtagh |
This brief outlines how empowered principals can be assets for public engagement in school systems using the portfolio strategy. |
![]() |
An Evaluation of Denver's SchoolChoice Process, 2012–2014: Is the School Enrollment System Working for Families? January, 2015 Betheny Gross, Patrick Denice |
Published in coordination with A+ Denver, the report evaluates Denver's SchoolChoice enrollment system from 2012 to 2014. |
![]() |
The Politics of K-12 Education in Small Rural School Districts: The Case of Idaho January, 2015 Sam Sperry, Paul Hill |
This report was published by the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho as part of their research on the challenges of rural education. |
![]() |
Special Education in New Orleans: Juggling Flexibility, Reinvention, and Accountability in the Nation's Most Decentralized School System January, 2015 Robin Lake |
This paper looks at new efforts to ensure special education functions effectively in New Orleans' full-choice public education landscape. |
![]() |
A Democratic Constitution for Public Education January, 2015 Paul Hill, Ashley Jochim |
In their new book, Paul Hill and Ashley Jochim offer a brilliant, simple, and distinctly American vision for revamping governance of our public K-12 education system. |
![]() |
A Blueprint for Effective and Adaptable School District Procurement January, 2015 Tricia Maas, Robin Lake |
This report outlines the problems districts face in procuring innovative goods and services, shows how other sectors have modernized procurement processes, and recommends ways to reform district procurement. |
![]() |
How Parents Experience Public School Choice December, 2014 Ashley Jochim, Michael DeArmond, Betheny Gross, Robin Lake |
A survey of 4,000 parents in eight "high-choice" cities finds parents are taking advantage of choice, but they want more good options. |
![]() |
Special Education in Charter Schools: What We've Learned and What We Still Need to Know December, 2014 Betheny Gross, Robin Lake |
This report summarizes CRPE's past two years of research and findings of special education in charter schools. |
![]() |
Breaking New Ground in Rural Education November, 2014 Paul Hill |
In this paper for the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho, Paul Hill explains the importance of improving education in rural areas. |
![]() |
Making School Choice Work: It Still Takes a City October, 2014 Michael DeArmond |
Michael DeArmond explains how city leaders can make school choice work for all families, in this essay prepared for the PIE Network 2014 Policy Summit. |
![]() |
School Leadership in Washington State: Today's Leaders and Key Challenges They Face September, 2014 Christine Campbell, Michael DeArmond, Patrick Denice |
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. |
![]() |
Designing the Next Generation of State Education Accountability Systems: Results of a Working Meeting September, 2014 |
This meeting summary outlines common principles to guide the redesign of next-gen accountability systems. |
![]() |
A Meta-Analysis of the Literature on the Effect of Charter Schools on Student Achievement August, 2014 Julian Betts, Y. Emily Tang |
This working paper provides a systematic analysis of the field’s most rigorous studies on charter school achievement. |
![]() |
Are Charter Schools Working? A Review of the Evidence August, 2014 Patrick Denice |
This brief summarizes a new review of the available evidence on charter schools and student achievement |
![]() |
Missing Out on Strong School Leaders? A Survey of Principal Hiring and Support in Washington State August, 2014 Michael DeArmond, Patrick Denice, Christine Campbell |
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. |
![]() |
Making School Choice Work July, 2014 Michael DeArmond, Ashley Jochim, Robin Lake |
This report examines the experience of parents in cities with multiple public school options to answer the question, how can civic leaders create a choice system that works for all families? |
![]() |
In-Depth Portfolio Assessment: Shelby County Schools, Memphis, TN June, 2014 Christine Campbell, Libuse Binder |
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. |
![]() |
20 Years of Expertise // Transformative, Evidence-Based Ideas June, 2014 |
In this compilation of essays, leading researchers and reformers share their views on how CRPE has impacted education reform over the last 20 years. |
![]() |
Understanding the Charter School Special Education Gap: Evidence from Denver, Colorado June, 2014 Marcus Winters |
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. |
![]() |
Policy Barriers to School Improvement: What's Real and What's Imagined? June, 2014 Larry Miller |
This report examines federal, state, and district barriers that principals say hinder their ability to make innovative school improvements. |
![]() |
The SEA of the Future: Building the Productivity Infrastructure May, 2014 Betheny Gross, Ashley Jochim, Paul Hill, Larry Miller, Marguerite Roza, Kelly Hupfeld, Suzanne Simburg |
Edited by Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim, the essays in this third volume of the SEA of the Future describe a "productivity infrastructure" intended to provide a foundation for the work of SEAs. |
![]() |
Is Personalized Learning Meeting Its Productivity Promise? Early Lessons from Pioneering Schools May, 2014 Larry Miller, Betheny Gross, Robin Lake |
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. |
![]() |
Stakeholder Engagement for Common Enrollment Systems March, 2014 |
This brief provides an introductory look at how leaders can effectively engage stakeholders during the design and implementation of a common enrollment system. |
![]() |
Working Together to Manage Enrollment: Key Governance and Operations Decisions March, 2014 |
This issue brief explains how three cities—Denver, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C.—are addressing the issues involved with governing cross-sector enrollment systems. |
![]() |
Governing Schools for Productivity February, 2014 Paul Hill |
In this paper for the Bush Center, Paul Hill explains why educational productivity matters and how new governance arrangements can promote it. |
![]() |
Coordinating Enrollment Across School Sectors: An Overview of Common Enrollment Systems February, 2014 |
This “Spotlight” brief outlines the elements of a successful common enrollment system, and the experiences and outcomes of cities currently using these systems. |
![]() |
Communicating Change in Education: Ideas from a PR Expert December, 2013 |
This "Spotlight" brief outlines four strategies for building effective communication around district change efforts. |
![]() |
The Capacity Challenge: What It Takes for State Education Agencies to Support School Improvement December, 2013 Ashley Jochim, Patrick J. Murphy |
This study explores the primary obstacles that inhibit state education agencies from better supporting school and district improvement. |
![]() |
The SEA of the Future: Prioritizing Productivity November, 2013 Betheny Gross, Ashley Jochim, Marguerite Roza, Michael Podgursky |
Edited by Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim, this volume begins a conversation with state education leaders about productivity. |
![]() |
Good Options and Choices for All Families: How Some Portfolio Districts Are Collaborating with Charter Schools October, 2013 |
This "Spotlight" brief describes successful collaborative initiatives in district-charter Compact cities, and highlights the advantages that portfolio district superintendents bring to collaboration. |
![]() |
Why the Gap? Special Education and New York City Charter Schools September, 2013 Marcus Winters |
This study uses NYC data to analyze the factors driving the gap in special education enrollment between charter and traditional public schools. |
![]() |
HR with a Purpose: Building Talent for Distinct Schools and Networks September, 2013 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond |
Prepared for the American Enterprise Institute Conference, “Teacher Quality 2.0: Will today’s reforms hold back tomorrow’s schools?” |
![]() |
Assessing the Outcomes of Charter School Students with Special Needs: Research Design Brief August, 2013 Patrick Denice, Robin Lake, Betheny Gross |
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. |
![]() |
Defining and Organizing for School Autonomy July, 2013 Paul Hill |
This brief explains how portfolio districts define and implement autonomies for schools. |
![]() |
District-Charter Collaboration Compact: Interim Report June, 2013 Sarah Yatsko, Elizabeth Cooley Nelson, Robin Lake |
This interim report details the first two years of district-charter collaboration in 16 Compact cities, including lessons learned and potential opportunities and challenges ahead. |
![]() |
Improving Student Opportunities and Outcomes in Hartford Public Schools June, 2013 Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross |
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. |
![]() |
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2012 May, 2013 Robin Lake |
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. |
![]() |
The SEA of the Future: Leveraging Performance Management to Support School Improvement May, 2013 Betheny Gross, Ashley Jochim, Paul Hill, Patrick J. Murphy, Sam Redding |
This edited volume explores how state education agencies (SEAs) can leverage performance management tools to provide strong support for school improvement. |
![]() |
Common Core: Will Charter Schools Lead or Lag? March, 2013 Robin Lake, Tricia Maas |
This paper was prepared for the American Enterprise Institute's "Common Core Meets the Reform Agenda" Conference. |
![]() |
A reform at risk? The political realities of the Common Core March, 2013 Ashley Jochim |
This paper was prepared for the American Enterprise Institute's "Common Core Meets the Reform Agenda" Conference. |
![]() |
Portfolio Strategies, Relinquishment, The Urban School System of the Future, and Smart Districts February, 2013 Paul Hill, Ashley Jochim, Christine Campbell |
This brief shows how some new proposals for K-12 public education governance are complements, rather than alternatives, to the portfolio strategy. |
![]() |
BRIEF - Principal Concerns in Wisconsin: Focus on Future Leaders for Rural Schools February, 2013 Katherine Martin |
This analysis finds that over 70% of Wisconsin's school leaders will still be on the job in five years, with rural districts most affected by upcoming retirements. |
![]() |
Steps in the Right Direction: Assessing “Ohio Achievement Everywhere” – the Kasich Plan February, 2013 Paul Hill |
In this short report, Paul Hill evaluates Ohio Governor John Kasich's education budget proposal. |
![]() |
Student-Based Allocation to Enable School Choice January, 2013 Marguerite Roza, Suzanne Simburg |
This brief explains the need for student-based allocation to enable student choice and portable funding across schools within districts. |
![]() |
Principal Concerns in Indiana: Focus on Developing Current Principals January, 2013 Katherine Martin, Michael DeArmond |
This analysis finds two thirds of Indiana principals will likely still be leading schools in five years, suggesting the state should focus on evaluating, supporting, and developing its current school leaders. |
![]() |
Are Residents Losing Their Edge in Public University Admissions? The Case at the University of Washington December, 2012 Grant Blume, Marguerite Roza |
Public universities across the country are shifting more spots to nonresidents (who pay higher tuitions) in order to plug budget gaps. This case study examines admissions data at the University of Washington in order to... |
![]() |
Innovating Toward Sustainability: How Computer Labs Can Enable New Staffing Structures, and New Savings December, 2012 Suzanne Simburg, Marguerite Roza |
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... |
![]() |
What Happens to Teacher Salaries During a Recession? December, 2012 Jim Simpkins, Marguerite Roza, Suzanne Simburg |
This study uses data from Seattle Public Schools to explore actual salary changes amidst rapid changes in economic context and the effect of the recession on teacher pay. |
![]() |
The Opportunity Cost of Smaller Classes: A State-By-State Spending Analysis December, 2012 Marguerite Roza, Monica Ouijdani |
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... |
![]() |
How Public Universities Close Budget Gaps Matters For States December, 2012 Alicia Kinne, Marguerite Roza, Patrick J. Murphy, Betheny Gross |
Cuts to state support for higher education have prompted some universities to raise tuition, admit more out-of-state students, and increase enrollment to close budget gaps. This analysis compares these three strategies in... |
![]() |
Strife and Progress: Portfolio Strategies For Managing Urban Schools December, 2012 Paul Hill, Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross |
This new book from Paul Hill and colleagues explains the underlying idea of the portfolio strategy. |
![]() |
"The Phantom Menace": How state finance policies that protect districts from declining or low enrollments drive up spending and inhibit adaptation November, 2012 Marguerite Roza, Jon Fullerton |
This working paper examines how state finance policies that protect districts from declining or low enrollments drive up spending and inhibit adaptation. |
![]() |
Federal Barriers to Innovation November, 2012 Raegen Miller, Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
Getting Down to Dollars and Cents: What Do School Districts Spend to Deliver Student-Centered Learning? November, 2012 Larry Miller, Betheny Gross, Monica Ouijdani |
This report offers the first detailed look into the financial implications for public schools embracing student-centered learning models. |
![]() |
New York State Special Education Enrollment Analysis November, 2012 Robin Lake, Betheny Gross, Patrick Denice |
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... |
![]() |
BRIEF - Principal Concerns: Iowa May Face Statewide Demand October, 2012 Michael DeArmond, Monica Ouijdani |
This analysis finds that nearly half of Iowa’s principals will be eligible for retirement in the next five years, representing both a challenge and an opportunity for schools and communities statewide. |
![]() |
Portfolio School Districts in Transition: Steering Through Uncharted Waters October, 2012 Christine Campbell |
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. |
![]() |
Commentary on "Alternative Strategies for Identifying High-Performing Charter Schools in Texas" October, 2012 Robin Lake |
Robin Lake comments on "Identifying High-Performing Charter Schools in Texas," in the Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk. |
![]() |
Examining Charters: How Public Charter Schools Can Work in Washington State, October, 2012 |
This report examines how charter schools would fit into Washington state's public education landscape. |
![]() |
Principal Concerns: Leadership Data and Strategies for States September, 2012 Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross |
This report offers a set of powerful new tools to help state policymakers diagnose their principal workforce needs and develop comprehensive strategies to address them. |
![]() |
Modernizing the State Education Agency: Different Paths Toward Performance Management September, 2012 Patrick J. Murphy, Lydia Rainey |
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,... |
![]() |
The U.S. Charter School Movement: Lessons for South Africa September, 2012 Robin Lake, Tricia Maas, Betheny Gross |
This report evaluates lessons from U.S. charter school legislation and implementations to inform South Africa and other countries about how to achieve the best possible results with charter school policies. |
![]() |
Q&A on the Chicago Teachers Contract Math September, 2012 Marguerite Roza |
This Rapid Response brief examines the real numbers on the Chicago teachers contract costs. |
![]() |
Chicago Teacher Salaries in the Regional Chicago Context September, 2012 Marguerite Roza |
This Rapid Response brief looks at how Chicago teacher salaries compare in regional and national contexts. |
![]() |
The Sheepskin Effect and Student Achievement: De-emphasizing the Role of Master's Degrees in Teacher Compensation July, 2012 Raegen Miller, Marguerite Roza |
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. |
![]() |
Logic Model: How Education Challenges Add Up to 7 Portfolio Components June, 2012 |
This logic model outlines the premises, strategy principles, actions, and reform elements of the Portfolio School District model. |
![]() |
The Evolution of School Support Networks in New York City June, 2012 Eric Nadelstern |
In this working paper, Eric Nadelstern discusses New York City's efforts to change the central office and create a system of support organizations to oversee networks of autonomous schools. |
![]() |
Baltimore and the Portfolio School District Strategy June, 2012 Sarah Yatsko |
This case study of the implementation of Baltimore City Public Schools' portfolio strategy explores how the district's reform work aligns with CRPE’s definition of the portfolio strategy and how it compares to the approaches... |
![]() |
Managing Talent for School Coherence: Learning from Charter Management Organizations June, 2012 Michael DeArmond, Betheny Gross, Melissa Bowen, Allison Demeritt, Robin Lake |
This report examines how charter management organizations recruit, hire, and develop teachers, and how they manage teacher performance. |
![]() |
Better Schools Through Better Politics: The Human Side of Portfolio School District Reform March, 2012 Sam Sperry, Kirsten Vital, Cristina Sepe, Paul Hill |
This working paper series examines the politics of portfolio school district reform, with a primary focus on the issues surrounding high school closures. |
![]() |
Learning from Charter School Management Organizations: Strategies for Student Behavior and Teacher Coaching March, 2012 Robin Lake, Melissa Bowen, Allison Demeritt, Moira McCullough, Joshua Haimson, Brian Gill |
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... |
![]() |
Tinkering Toward Transformation: A Look at Federal School Improvement Grant Implementation March, 2012 Sarah Yatsko, Robin Lake, Elizabeth Cooley Nelson, Melissa Bowen |
In 2009, the federal government committed over $3 billion to help states and districts turn around their worst-performing schools. This report looks at the results of a field study of the first-year implementation of those... |
![]() |
The Portfolio Mindset: Innovation Starts from the Ground Up February, 2012 Christine Campbell |
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... |
![]() |
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2011 January, 2012 Robin Lake, Betheny Gross |
The 6th annual edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality provides a clear roadmap for school districts and charter schools interested in working together to improve education options. The report explains the risks and... |
![]() |
Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts January, 2012 Joshua Furgeson, Brian Gill, Joshua Haimson, Alexandra Killewald, Moira McCullough, Ira Nichols-Barrer, Bing-ru Teh, Natalya Verbitsky-Savitz, Melissa Bowen, Allison Demeritt, Paul Hill, Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
Are Charter School Unions Worth the Bargain? December, 2011 Mitch Price |
This study of charter school unionization compared charter school collective bargaining agreements with traditional district contracts and found that, while the new contracts innovate in many ways, they could go much further... |
![]() |
The Machinery that Drives Education-Spending Decisions Inhibits Better Uses of Resources December, 2011 Marguerite Roza |
This paper illustrates the flaws in the existing structure for making resource allocation decisions in public education. |
![]() |
For Next-Generation Educating, We Need Next-Generation Funding December, 2011 Paul Hill |
In this Education Week commentary, author Paul Hill suggests how to transform our education funding system in order to promote digital learning and technological innovation. |
![]() |
The 7 Components of a Portfolio Strategy October, 2011 |
This one-pager outlines the 7 key components upon which the portfolio strategy is built. |
![]() |
The Effect of Charter Schools on Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature October, 2011 Julian Betts, Y. Emily Tang |
This report infers the causal impact of attending a charter school on student performance and finds that whether charters outperform traditional public schools depends on the location, grade, and subject. |
![]() |
The Changing Role of States in Education: The Move from Compliance to Performance Management September, 2011 Patrick J. Murphy, Paul Hill |
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... |
![]() |
Creating Recovery School Districts to Drive Reforms: Lessons from Louisiana September, 2011 Paul Hill, Betheny Gross |
As states look at building their own recovery school districts, this essay outlines key lessons from Louisiana’s leaders. |
![]() |
Improving the Front-End of the Teacher and Leader Pipeline September, 2011 Michael DeArmond |
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. |
![]() |
Beating the Odds: How State Education Agencies Can Better Support School Turnarounds September, 2011 Sarah Yatsko, Melissa Bowen |
This essay was written for the PIE Network 5th Annual Policy Summit, September 2011. The authors argue that states can maximize their support for turnaround work by pushing for bold, workable plans, providing technical... |
![]() |
State Education Agencies Overlooked in Education Reform? Talent Is the First Place to Start September, 2011 Christine Campbell, Michael DeArmond |
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... |
![]() |
Smart Choice Policy: Using Evidence to Inform Policy August, 2011 Betheny Gross |
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... |
![]() |
State Capacity for School Improvement: A First Look at Agency Resources August, 2011 Patrick J. Murphy, Monica Ouijdani |
This report examines whether State Education Agencies (SEAs) have the capacity they need to fulfill their expanding roles in turning around schools in need of improvement. |
![]() |
Limited Capacity at the State Level: A Threat to Future School Improvement June, 2011 Patrick J. Murphy, Monica Ouijdani |
This study identifies key functions performed by state education agencies, estimates the relative level of resources devoted to each activity, and explores ways SEAs could free up resources to build school improvement capacity... |
![]() |
Eliminating the Achievement Gap: A White Paper on How Charter Schools Can Help District Leaders June, 2011 Robin Lake, Alex Hernandez |
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... |
![]() |
Growing Number of Districts Seek Bold Change With Portfolio Strategy June, 2011 Paul Hill, Christine Campbell |
A growing number of urban districts across the country are pursuing a "portfolio strategy," profoundly changing the role of the school district and its relationship to schools in order to bring about dramatically better... |
![]() |
On Recovery School Districts and Stronger State Education Agencies: Lessons from Louisiana June, 2011 Paul Hill, Patrick J. Murphy |
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. |
![]() |
Contracted Providers: Overcoming Challenges in a Portfolio School District May, 2011 Jackqueline Miller |
Over the past two decades, some district leaders have asked urban universities to develop emergency strategies to rescue low-performing schools. How do universities and districts develop effective relationships that align with... |
![]() |
Reforming Districts Through Choice, Autonomy, Equity, and Accountability: An Overview of the Voluntary Public School Choice Directors Meeting May, 2011 Betheny Gross, Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
How Do Charter Schools Get the Teachers They Want? March, 2011 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond |
This paper examines charter school leaders' deliberate strategies to hire teachers who will boost student achievement and contribute to a thriving school culture. |
![]() |
What Does Washington State Get for Its Investment in Bonuses for Board Certified Teachers? March, 2011 Jim Simpkins |
Washington State is set to spend nearly $100 million in the next two years on pay bonuses for teachers who receive national board certification. This brief explores whether this investment makes a difference in improving the... |
![]() |
Will Seniority-Based Layoffs Undermine School Improvement Efforts in Washington State? March, 2011 Robin Lake, Michael DeArmond, Cristina Sepe |
This brief examines why policies known as “last in, first out” may disproportionately affect schools receiving federal School Improvement Grants. |
![]() |
Inside Charter Schools: Unlocking Doors to Student Success February, 2011 Betheny Gross |
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... |
![]() |
Special Needs and Choice Districts February, 2011 Robin Lake, Betheny Gross |
This report focuses on the evidence to date on how students with special needs fare under choice, and promising new ideas that have yet to be tried. |
![]() |
What Have We Learned in 15 Years about Getting High-Quality Charter Schools? Lessons for Washington State January, 2011 Robin Lake |
In this one-page brief, Robin Lake summarizes key lessons for creating high-quality charter schools. |
![]() |
Paying for Scale: Results of a Symposium on CMO Finance January, 2011 Robin Lake, Allison Demeritt |
In April 2010, the Center on Reinventing Public Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation convened a group of researchers and financial analysts to discuss how to better understand the financing and sustainability... |
![]() |
New York City’s iZone January, 2011 Robin Lake, Betheny Gross |
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. |
![]() |
Charter School Authorizers and Student Achievement December, 2010 Ron Zimmer, Brian Gill, Kaitlin Obenauf |
In this working paper the authors use student data from Ohio to compare the effectiveness of various types of charter school authorizers. |
![]() |
The Promise of Cafeteria-Style Benefits for Districts and Teachers December, 2010 Noah Wepman, Marguerite Roza, Cristina Sepe |
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,... |
![]() |
Seattle Public Schools Performance Analysis 2009–2010 November, 2010 Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross, Cristina Sepe, Sarah Yatsko |
This brief analyzes Seattle's school 2009-2010 performance levels, how performance varies across the city, and how access to high-performing schools varies across demographic groups. |
![]() |
You’re Leaving? Sustainability and Succession in Charter Schools November, 2010 Christine Campbell |
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. |
![]() |
Talent Management in Portfolio Districts November, 2010 Christine Campbell, Michael DeArmond |
A look at New York City and Washington, D.C., this paper shows how portfolio—and perhaps traditional—districts can transform talent management from a bureaucratic staffing system into a core leadership function. |
![]() |
The $500 Million Question October, 2010 Robin Lake, Kevin Hall |
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. |
![]() |
Washington State's Schoolchildren Can't Afford to Wait for Superman October, 2010 Christine Campbell |
In this commentary from The News Tribune, author Christine Campbell argues that Washington State's need for bold reform is just as urgent as the cities featured in the film "Waiting for Superman." |
![]() |
Is Washington State Still Waiting for "Superman"? September, 2010 |
"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... |
![]() |
Parallel Patterns: Teacher Attrition in Charter vs. District Schools September, 2010 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond |
This study explores the question of teacher turnover in charter schools by surveying newly hired teachers from both traditional and charter schools. |
![]() |
Washington State High Schools Pay Less for Math and Science Teachers than for Teachers in Other Subjects August, 2010 Jim Simpkins, Marguerite Roza, Cristina Sepe |
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. |
![]() |
Curing Baumol’s Disease: In Search of Productivity Gains in K–12 Schooling July, 2010 Paul Hill, Marguerite Roza |
Improvements in productivity in other sectors may hold important lessons for understanding how the education system can become more efficient. |
![]() |
Strategic Communications for Portfolio School District Reform July, 2010 Sam Sperry |
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.... |
![]() |
The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness: Report on Interim Findings June, 2010 Robin Lake, Brianna Dusseault, Melissa Bowen, Allison Demeritt, Paul Hill |
This interim report from the National Study of CMO Effectiveness explores how CMOs vary according to their theories of action, structural organization, and growth strategies and delves into the ongoing organizational and... |
![]() |
Multiple Pathways To Graduation: New Routes to High School Completion May, 2010 Shannon Marsh, Paul Hill |
Leading districts are creating multiple pathways to graduation that might keep students from dropping out. Early results are promising. |
![]() |
Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs May, 2010 Robin Lake |
This book offers a pioneering look at the role of charter schools in meeting the needs of special education students. |
![]() |
The Disproportionate Impact of Seniority-Based Layoffs on Poor, Minority Students May, 2010 Cristina Sepe, Marguerite Roza |
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... |
![]() |
Seniority Rules: Do Staffing Reforms Help Redistribute Teacher Quality and Reduce Teacher Turnover? May, 2010 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond, Dan Goldhaber |
This paper finds that shifting from a seniority-based hiring system to a “mutual consent” hiring system leads to a short-term increase in turnover and inexperienced teachers, but after a few years the level of inexperienced... |
![]() |
Educational Economics: Where Do School Funds Go? April, 2010 Marguerite Roza |
This book explains how varied funding streams can prevent schools from delivering academic services that mesh with their stated priorities and offers concrete prescriptions for reform. |
![]() |
Taking Measure of Charter Schools: Better Assessments, Better Policymaking, Better Schools April, 2010 Julian Betts, Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
The Charter School Catch-22 April, 2010 Paul Hill, Robin Lake |
This article addresses the claim that charter schools worsen segregation by serving too high a proportion of minority students. |
![]() |
Washington State Has Work to Do For Next Round of Race to the Top March, 2010 Christine Campbell |
In this commentary from the Seattle Times, Christine Campbell argues that Washington will need to make bold education reforms to compete in the second round of Race to the Top. |
![]() |
How Do Charter Schools Compete for Teachers? A Local Perspective March, 2010 Betheny Gross, Michael DeArmond |
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.... |
![]() |
K–12 Job Trends Amidst Stimulus Funds: Early Findings March, 2010 Marguerite Roza, Chris Lozier, Cristina Sepe |
This brief explores trends in K–12 education jobs—those funded through the stimulus and by other means—to answer the question of what role ARRA played in overall education employment. |
![]() |
Paul Hill: Reinventing Our Ideas About Public Education March, 2010 Robin Lake, Dominic Brewer |
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. |
![]() |
Learning as We Go: Why School Choice Is Worth the Wait February, 2010 Paul Hill |
This book examines the real-world factors that can complicate, delay, and in some instances interfere with the positive cause-and-effect relationships identified by the theories behind school choice. Hill explains why schools... |
![]() |
Beyond Teacher Reassignments: Better Ways Districts Can Remedy Salary Inequities Across Schools February, 2010 Marguerite Roza, Sarah Yatsko |
This brief demonstrates how, contrary to common worry, closing Title I's "comparability provision" loophole would not force districts to mandatorily reassign teachers. |
![]() |
Have States Disproportionately Cut Education Budgets During ARRA? Early Findings January, 2010 Marguerite Roza, Susan Funk |
This analysis explores how state education spending has changed or will change given the application of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. |
![]() |
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2009 January, 2010 Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
Now Is a Great Time to Consider the Per Unit Cost of Everything in Education January, 2010 Marguerite Roza |
Calculating the per unit costs of what schools or districts deliver can provide the best insight into the implications of all that spending. This paper was published in the edited volume, "Stretching the School Dollar: How... |
![]() |
The 'Master's Pay Bump': Why Ending It Shouldn't Frighten Ed. Schools December, 2009 Patricia Wasley, Marguerite Roza |
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... |
![]() |
Charter High Schools: Alternative Paths to Graduation November, 2009 Sarah Yatsko, Betheny Gross, Jon Christensen |
This white paper explores the alternative path to graduation that charter high schools make possible. |
![]() |
Portfolio School Districts for Big Cities: An Interim Report October, 2009 Paul Hill, Christine Campbell, David Menefee-Libey, Brianna Dusseault, Michael DeArmond, Betheny Gross |
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." |
![]() |
Performance Management in Portfolio School Districts August, 2009 Robin Lake, Paul Hill |
As portfolio districts take on duties they were not designed for, this report offers guidance on how to manage some of the most complicated tasks. |
![]() |
Drivers of Choice: Parents, Transportation, and School Choice July, 2009 Paul Teske, Jody Fitzpatrick, Tracey O'Brien |
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... |
![]() |
Separation of Degrees: State-By-State Analysis of Teacher Compensation for Master's Degrees July, 2009 Marguerite Roza, Raegen Miller |
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... |
![]() |
The Tradeoff Between Teacher Wages and Layoffs to Meet Budget Cuts July, 2009 Marguerite Roza |
This analysis shows that school districts faced with large budget gaps could avoid some or all teacher layoffs by rolling back salaries. |
![]() |
Breaking Down School Budgets: Following the Dollars Into the Classroom June, 2009 Marguerite Roza |
This analysis examines ways in which per-pupil spending in high schools varies by subject and course level, and demonstrates how such fiscal metrics can reveal the financial implications of the inner workings of individual... |
![]() |
Custom Tailored: Trends in Charter School Educational Programs May, 2009 Jon Christensen, Lydia Rainey |
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. |
![]() |
Ranking the States: Federal Education Stimulus Money and the Prospects for Reform May, 2009 Marguerite Roza |
This brief presents rank order projections of changes in state K-12 education spending amidst state revenue gaps and the addition of ARRA funds. |
![]() |
Can Transfer and Articulation Policies Propel Community College Students to a Bachelor's Degree—and Is This the Only Goal? May, 2009 Betheny Gross, Dan Goldhaber |
This brief considers the role of transfer and articulation policies in higher education policy and administration. |
![]() |
Community College Transfer and Articulation Policies: Looking Beneath the Surface April, 2009 Betheny Gross, Dan Goldhaber |
This paper explores the relative importance of specific policy components on post-secondary outcomes, and how such policies impact students with different aspirations or economic and ethnic backgrounds. |
![]() |
State Intervention and Contract Choice in the Public Teacher Labor Market March, 2009 Michael Hansen |
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... |
![]() |
Projections of State Budget Shortfalls on K-12 Public Education Spending and Job Loss February, 2009 Marguerite Roza |
This brief makes early projections of of what state budget cuts might mean for education spending and job losses. |
![]() |
Ohio at the Crossroads: School Funding—More of the Same or Changing the Model? February, 2009 Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
Scrambling the Nest Egg: How Well do Teachers Understand Their Pensions and What Do They Think about Alternative Pension Structures? February, 2009 Michael DeArmond, Dan Goldhaber |
This paper adds to the nascent literature on teacher pensions by exploring two questions: How well do teachers understand their current pension plans? And, what do they think about alternative plan structures? |
![]() |
Seniority-Based Layoffs Will Exacerbate Job Loss in Public Education February, 2009 Marguerite Roza |
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-... |
![]() |
The Productivity Imperative: Getting More Benefits From School Costs in an Era of Tight Budgets January, 2009 Marguerite Roza, Dan Goldhaber, Paul Hill |
In this commentary, the authors argue that the economic crisis could ultimately strengthen public education if leaders make tough resource decisions that can produce greater efficiencies. |
![]() |
Did Bush Hurt the Charter Movement by Trying to Help It? January, 2009 Robin Lake |
This guest editorial argues that the Bush administration failed to meaningfully move the charter sector forward. |
![]() |
Teacher Union Contracts and High School Reform January, 2009 Mitch Price |
Are teachers unions and collective bargaining agreements barriers to high school reform and redesign efforts in Washington, California, and Ohio? The report offers an overview of real and perceived barriers to reform, along... |
![]() |
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2008 December, 2008 Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
Value-Added and Experimental Studies of the Effect of Charter Schools on Student Achievement: A Literature Review December, 2008 Julian Betts, Y. Emily Tang |
This paper provides an analysis of 14 charter school studies that use the two most rigorous methods: either randomization based on lotteries, or value-added modeling. |
![]() |
Schools: Look for Ways to Get Better Results for Less Money November, 2008 Marguerite Roza, Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
Facing the Future: Financing Productive Schools November, 2008 Paul Hill, Marguerite Roza, James Harvey |
This report is the conclusion of an extensive six-year national study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The authors criticize school finance systems for being outmoded and not linked to student results and... |
![]() |
Measuring School Efficiency: Educational Return on Investment: A Case Study of An Urban District October, 2008 Michael Foote, Marguerite Roza |
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. |
![]() |
Funding Student Learning: How to Align Education Resources with Student Learning Goals October, 2008 Jacob E. Adams, Jr., Paul Hill |
This report summarizes the work of of the National Working Group on Funding Student Learning, a group of eleven top school finance scholars. The report both describes the problems with state school finance systems and offers... |
![]() |
Financing Schools for Results September, 2008 Paul Hill, Marguerite Roza |
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... |
![]() |
The High-Wire Job of Charter School Leadership September, 2008 Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross, Robin Lake |
This essay, 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,... |
![]() |
Working Without a Safety Net: How Charter School Leaders Can Best Survive on the High Wire September, 2008 Christine Campbell, Betheny Gross |
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... |
![]() |
Must Public Education Suffer From Baumol's Disease? August, 2008 Marguerite Roza |
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. |
![]() |
Returns to Skill and Teacher Wage Premiums: What Can We Learn By Comparing the Teacher and Private Sector Labor Markets? August, 2008 Dan Goldhaber, Michael DeArmond, Albert Liu, Dan Player |
This paper offers empirical evidence on the size of incentives that might be needed to make teaching a relatively more attractive occupation for people with technical skills or high academic aptitude. |
![]() |
Recruiting New Teachers to Urban School Districts: What Incentives Will Work August, 2008 Anthony Milanowski, Hope Longwell-Grice, Felicia Saffold, Janice Jones, Allen R. Odden, Kristen Schomisch |
This paper explores the value teachers place on financial incentives and how much of a salary incentive is needed to attract new teachers to high-needs schools. |
![]() |
Money Strings Bind Schools July, 2008 Shelley De Wys |
This commentary from the News & Observer argues that North Carolina needs to fundamentally reform how the state funds its public schools. |
![]() |
Taking Stock of the Fiscal Costs of Expanded Learning Time July, 2008 Marguerite Roza, Karen Hawley Miles |
This report provides a framework for policymakers and practitioners to identify the key cost components involved in expanding the school day. |
![]() |
Exploring Success in the Charter Sector: Case Studies of Six Charter Schools Engaged in Promising Practices for Children with Disabilities July, 2008 Lauren Morando Rhim, Dana Brinson |
This report presents findings from exploratory case studies of six charter schools identified due to their reported success educating children with disabilities. |
![]() |
What if We Closed the Title I Comparability Loophole? June, 2008 Marguerite Roza |
This paper explores why the current Title I program's comparability provision falls so short of what is needed, and the reasons for modifying it. |
![]() |
Finding a Balance: How Application and Authorization Policies Impact School Supply June, 2008 Meghan Squires, Lydia Rainey |
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. |
![]() |
Quality Improvement and Performance Management in Schools: Lessons From Abroad June, 2008 Ashley Jochim, Katharine Destler |
This paper considers systematic school reform efforts in Australia, New Zealand and England, where each government took steps to heighten accountability, decentralize governance and invest in schools’ capacity to improve... |
![]() |
Contrasting Approaches to Charter School Oversight June, 2008 Katharine Destler |
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... |
![]() |
Closing Troubled Schools June, 2008 Julie Kowal, Bryan C. Hassel |
This report analyzes the main reasons charter authorizers close schools, and how districts can use those closures as part of an overall improvement strategy that aligns with and reinforces their core values. |
![]() |
Tough Calls: Identifying and Addressing School-Level Problems June, 2008 Robin Lake, Meghan Squires |
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. |
![]() |
Closing the Skill Gap: New Options for Charter School Leadership Development June, 2008 Christine Campbell, Brock J. Grubb |
This report analyzes specialized charter leadership programs and finds that they show promise in their responsiveness, course relevance, and methods of instruction. |
![]() |
A Leap of Faith: Redesigning Teacher Compensation June, 2008 Michael DeArmond, Dan Goldhaber |
This paper briefly summarizes three School Finance Redesign Project teacher compensation studies that begin to help build the evidence base for teacher pay reform. |
![]() |
What Is the Sum of the Parts? How Federal, State and District Funding Streams Confound Efforts to Address Different Student Types June, 2008 Marguerite Roza, Kacey Guin, Tricia Davis |
This report demonstrates in greater detail than ever before how America’s methods of school finance work against a single-minded focus on student learning. |
![]() |
Community Colleges and Higher Education: How Do State Transfer and Articulation Policies Impact Student Pathways? May, 2008 Dan Goldhaber, Betheny Gross, Scott DeBurgomaster |
This paper reviews state cross-institutional policies designed to better integrate community colleges with four-year college and university system schools, and examines how patterns of college attendance, transfer, and degree... |
![]() |
Buying Smart in Thin Markets: District Tactics to Improve the Quality and Quantity of Autonomous Schools May, 2008 Katharine Destler, Stephen Page |
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. |
![]() |
School Funding's Tragic Flaw May, 2008 Kevin Carey, Marguerite Roza |
This paper finds that federal, state, and local policies designed to distribute education funds systematically provide more money to higher-income students and wealthier schools. |
![]() |
Working With Private Partners to Manage the Market: Collaborative Approaches to Charter School Oversight May, 2008 Katharine Destler |
This paper finds that informal partnerships between authorizers and private organizations have the potential to improve the quality and quantity of new schools. |
![]() |
Allocation Anatomy: How District Policies That Deploy Resources Can Support (or Undermine) District Reform Strategies May, 2008 Marguerite Roza |
This paper explores the nature of micro-budgeting decisions and shows how they support or hamper district reform strategies. It also provides a framework to help district leaders recognize different kinds of allocations. |
![]() |
Spending Money When It Is Not Clear What Works May, 2008 Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
Is it Better to be Good or Lucky? Decentralized Teacher Selection in 10 Elementary Schools May, 2008 Michael DeArmond, Betheny Gross, Dan Goldhaber |
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. |
![]() |
In the Eye of the Beholder: Charter Schools and Innovation April, 2008 Robin Lake |
This paper summarizes the research evidence on charter school innovation to date and suggests ways to more productively pursue future research and development in the charter sector. |
![]() |
Salvaging Assets: Considering Alternatives to School Closure April, 2008 Lucy Steiner, Bryan C. Hassel |
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... |
![]() |
A False Dilemma: Should Decisions About Education Resource Use Be Made at the State or Local Level? April, 2008 Marguerite Roza |
The paper looks at the evolution of California’s largely state-controlled funding system and makes suggestions for policymakers to improve their education finance system. |
![]() |
The End of School Finance As We Know It April, 2008 Paul Hill, Marguerite Roza |
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. |
![]() |
Challenges and Charter Schools: How Families with Special-Needs Students Perceive and Use Charter School Options March, 2008 Tracey O'Brien, Kelly Hupfeld, Paul Teske |
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 February, 2008 Lauren Morando Rhim |
This report explores the various difficulties charter schools face related to educating children with disabilities and examines potential opportunities to address those. |
![]() |
Performance Pressure and Resource Allocation in Ohio February, 2008 Shelley De Wys, Melissa Bowen, Allison Demeritt, Jacob E. Adams, Jr. |
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... |
![]() |
Putting Students First: Playing Second Fiddle to Finances, Teacher Contracts, Politics February, 2008 Shelley De Wys, Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
Mayoral Intervention: Right for Seattle Schools? February, 2008 Ashley Jochim, Paul Hill |
This paper reviews other cities' experiences with mayoral intervention and provides an evidence base for use in case takeover proposals surface again in Seattle. |
![]() |
Performance Pressure and Resource Allocation in Washington January, 2008 Shelley De Wys, Melissa Bowen, Allison Demeritt, Jacob E. Adams, Jr. |
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... |
![]() |
The School Finance Redesign Project: A Synthesis of Project Work to Date January, 2008 Paul Hill |
This Interim Report explains the study questions, research strategies, and early findings of the School Finance Redesign Project. |
![]() |
Reform the Way We Pay Teachers December, 2007 Dan Goldhaber, Michael DeArmond |
This article first appeared in the Seattle Times, December 19, 2007. |
![]() |
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2007 December, 2007 Robin Lake |
Like previous editions of Hopes, Fears, & Reality, the 2007 edition explores some of the most challenging issues facing the charter school movement with a focus on the pressing concerns, tensions, and opportunities... |
![]() |
Lessons from the Headlines: Key Questions for Districts Attempting to Close Schools November, 2007 Kacey Guin, Marguerite Roza |
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. |
![]() |
Do Districts Fund Schools Fairly? October, 2007 Marguerite Roza, Kacey Guin, Betheny Gross, Scott DeBurgomaster |
This study takes an in-depth look at funding differences between and within Texas school districts and finds that funding decisions within districts currently have a greater impact on a school’s resources than inequalities in... |
![]() |
Waiting for the Tipping Point: Why School Choice is Proving to Be So Hard September, 2007 Paul Hill |
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... |
![]() |
Are Public Schools Losing Their 'Best'? Assessing the Career Transitions of Teachers and Their Implications for the Quality of the Teacher Workforce September, 2007 Dan Goldhaber, Betheny Gross, Dan Player |
This paper examines attrition and mobility of early-career teachers in North Carolina public schools using teacher value-added measures. |
![]() |
Quantity Counts: The Growth of Charter School Management Organizations August, 2007 |
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). |
![]() |
Teacher Labor Markets and the Perils of Using Hedonics to Estimate Compensating Differentials in the Public Sector August, 2007 Dan Goldhaber, Katharine Destler, Dan Player |
Policymakers and researchers alike have expressed concern about a teacher quality gap between schools with affluent student populations and the more disadvantaged ones. This study uses teacher and school-level data from the... |
![]() |
Teacher Attitudes About Compensation Reform: Implications for Reform Implementation August, 2007 Dan Goldhaber, Michael DeArmond, Scott DeBurgomaster |
This paper describes research designed to shed light on how teachers feel about different pay and incentive reforms. |
![]() |
Difficulties of Estimating the Cost of Achieving Education Standards August, 2007 Susanna Loeb |
This paper shows that none of the available methods for estimating what it would cost to reach high standards for all children is adequate to the task. |
![]() |
The ERS District Resource Allocation Modeler (DREAM): A Tool to Help District Officials Reallocate Resources July, 2007 Karen Hawley Miles |
This policy analysis tool, created by by Education Resource Strategies, helps districts deliberate about how to use funds effectively. |
![]() |
Spending Choices and School Autonomy: Lessons From Ohio Elementary Schools July, 2007 Marguerite Roza, Tricia Davis, Kacey Guin |
This study examines resource allocation patterns across elementary schools and how these patterns differ depending, in part, on various levels of autonomy over resources at the school level. |
![]() |
Two Alternative Yet Complementary Conceptual Frameworks for Financing American Education July, 2007 Michael Kirst, Lori Rhodes |
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... |
![]() |
Leadership to Date, Leadership Tomorrow: A Review of Data on Charter School Directors June, 2007 Betheny Gross, Kirsten Martens Pochop |
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... |
![]() |
Beyond the Battle Lines: Lessons From New York's Charter Caps Fight June, 2007 Lisa M. Stulberg |
The report examines lessons from New York's experience with charter caps politics and provides policy considerations relevant to the growing number of states in which charter schools are reaching their legislated limit. |
![]() |
Toward Effective Resource Use: Assessing How Education Dollars Are Spent May, 2007 Jason Willis, Robert Durante, Paul Gazzerro |
This paper shows how districts can assess the efficiency of their own resource use compared to similar districts and judge whether non-instructional expenditures are excessive. |
![]() |
Resource Allocation in Traditional and Reform-Oriented Collective Bargaining Agreements May, 2007 Julia E. Koppich |
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... |
![]() |
Identifying and Replicating the "DNA" of Successful Charter Schools: Lessons from the Private Sector May, 2007 Robin Lake |
This 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... |
![]() |
A New Approach to the Cost of Teacher Turnover April, 2007 Anthony Milanowski, Allen R. Odden |
This paper explores ways districts can reduce the costs (in terms of lost school productivity and lost training investments) of teacher turnover. |
![]() |
Incentive-Based Financing of Schools April, 2007 Eric Hanushek |
This report analyzes the incentives under which public school teachers and leaders work. It concludes that there are few rewards for producing high levels of student achievement and many rewards for work that does not promote... |
![]() |
School Finance Systems and Their Responsiveness to Performance Pressures: A Case Study of North Carolina April, 2007 Janet S. Hansen, Gina S. Ikemoto, Julie Marsh, Heather Barney |
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 the Federal Government Shapes and Distorts the Financing of K-12 Schools March, 2007 Christopher T. Cross, Marguerite Roza |
This paper examines the categorical program strategy by which the federal government and most states try to target extra funds for particular purposes. |
![]() |
Out of the Box: Fundamental Change in School Funding March, 2007 David Monk |
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. |
![]() |
Paying for School Finance Adequacy With the National Average Expenditure Per Pupil March, 2007 Allen R. Odden, Michael E. Goetz, Lawrence O. Picus |
This working paper shows that many districts have accelerated student learning by reallocating funds to emphasize targeted assistance to students, fewer non-instructional burdens on teachers, greater use of instructional... |
![]() |
Making Resource Decisions Amidst Technical Uncertainty March, 2007 James Guthrie, Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
Conditions for Student Success: The Cycle of Continuous Instructional Improvement March, 2007 Joanne Weiss |
This paper explores how schools can seek “continuous improvement.” |
![]() |
School Spending Profiles: A Framework to Enlighten Resource Allocation Decisions March, 2007 Marguerite Roza, Claudine Swartz |
This paper proposes the creation and use of school spending profiles as a way to communicate more complete and comparable school spending information. |
![]() |
Creating the Political Conditions for Major Changes in School Finance Policy March, 2007 Lorraine M. McDonnell |
This paper asks whether significant changes in public education finance are politically feasible. |
![]() |
School Safety in Urban Charter and Traditional Public Schools March, 2007 Jon Christensen |
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... |
![]() |
Learning Science Meets School Finance: The How People Learn Framework as a Tool for Resource Decisions March, 2007 Diana Sharp, John Bransford |
In this paper, Diana Sharp and John Bransford show how the learning sciences can be applied to school finance. |
![]() |
Improving Title I Funding Equity Across States, Districts, and Schools March, 2007 Goodwin Liu |
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. |
![]() |
Not for the Timid: Breaking Down Barriers, Creating Breakthrough High Schools in Ohio March, 2007 Donald Van Meter, Mitch Price |
This report presents the results of an analysis of perceived barriers to high school redesign and real impediments embedded in federal and state statutes and regulations, as well as in local district policies in the state of... |
![]() |
School Finance Systems and Their Responsiveness to Performance Pressures: A Case Study of Texas March, 2007 Janet S. Hansen, Julie Marsh, Gina S. Ikemoto, Heather Barney |
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... |
![]() |
Does This Spending Help Students? January, 2007 Marguerite Roza |
This op ed discusses why it is important to understand how much money is spent on different school-district policies, including those dictated by common teacher-contract provisions. |
![]() |
Inside Charter Schools: A Systematic Look at Our Nation's Charter Schools January, 2007 |
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. |
![]() |
Opening Doors: How Low-Income Parents Search for the Right School January, 2007 Paul Teske, Jody Fitzpatrick, Gabriel Kaplan |
Researchers with CRPE's Doing School Choice Right initiative determine what drives the school-choice decisions made by 800 low- to moderate-income families in three cities. |
![]() |
Educational Accountability in a Regulated Market December, 2006 Paul Hill, Jacob E. Adams, Jr. |
This article shows how a regulated market in education would work and how one could be created. |
![]() |
Frozen Assets: Rethinking Teacher Contracts Could Free Billions for School Reform December, 2006 Marguerite Roza |
This report, published by Education Sector, examines common teacher contract provisions, estimates total spending on these provisions, examines studies on their effects on student achievement, and explores how these “frozen... |
![]() |
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2006 December, 2006 Robin Lake, Paul Hill |
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.... |
![]() |
How Can Anyone Say What's Adequate If Nobody Knows How Money Is Spent Now? November, 2006 Paul Hill, Marguerite Roza |
Plaintiffs in adequacy lawsuits presume that school districts know how to use additional funds effectively. This chapter, from Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm our Children... |
![]() |
The Future of Charter Schools and Teachers Unions: Results of a Symposium October, 2006 Paul Hill, Lydia Rainey, Andrew Rotherham |
The National Charter School Research Project and the Progressive Policy Institute convened a meeting of local, state, and national leaders from both the charter school and teachers union communities to address ongoing battles... |
![]() |
Understanding Student-Weighted Allocation as a Means to Greater School Resource Equity October, 2006 Karen Hawley Miles, Marguerite Roza |
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-... |
![]() |
Charter Schools Against the Odds: An Assessment of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education October, 2006 Paul Hill |
` 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... |
![]() |
No Longer the Only Game in Town: Helping Traditional Public Schools Compete September, 2006 Christine Campbell, Michael DeArmond, Kacey Guin, Deborah Warnock |
This report reveals how two very different school districts, Milwaukee and Dayton, are affected by and responding to the pressures of school choice. |
![]() |
Money, Momentum, and the Gates Foundation: What Will Warren Buffett's Gift Mean for U.S. Schools? August, 2006 Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
High-Quality Charter Schools at Scale in Big Cities: Results of a Symposium August, 2006 James Harvey, Lydia Rainey |
This report summarizes a meeting of leaders from charter management organizations, school districts, and foundations to address the question of charter expansion and provides concrete recommendations for those interested in... |
![]() |
Getting Hold of District Finances: A Make-or-Break Issue for Mayoral Involvement in Education July, 2006 Paul Hill |
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... |
![]() |
Boosting Student Achievement: The Impact of Comprehensive School Reform on Student Achievement June, 2006 Kevin Booker, Betheny Gross, Dan Goldhaber |
This paper investigates the effects of implementing CSR models on student achievement. |
![]() |
Key Issues in Studying Charter Schools and Achievement: A Review and Suggestions for National Guidelines May, 2006 Julian Betts, Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
Sticking with It: To What Extent and Why do Schools Sustain or Discontinue CSR Models? May, 2006 Betheny Gross, Dan Goldhaber |
This paper examines the issues surrounding decisions to discontinue the use of Comprehensive School Reform models by participating schools. |
![]() |
Poor Parents Can Be Good Choosers April, 2006 Paul Teske, Patrick Wolf, Paul Hill |
This Education Week commentary by Paul Teske, Patrick Wolf, and Paul Hill discusses low-income parents and school choice. |
![]() |
Seeing Success: The Impact of Implementing Model Practices on Student Outcomes April, 2006 Betheny Gross, Lydia Rainey, Dan Goldhaber |
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... |
![]() |
Doing School Choice Right: Preliminary Findings April, 2006 Paul Hill, James Harvey |
This paper gives an advance report on the results of studies in the Doing School Choice Right project. |
![]() |
Legal and Policy Barriers to Redesigning California High Schools April, 2006 Mitch Price |
This report presents the results of an analysis of legal, regulatory, and policy barriers to high school redesign in California. |
![]() |
Holding Charter Authorizers Accountable: Why It Is Important and How It Might Be Done February, 2006 Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
Put Learning First: A Portfolio Approach to Public Schools February, 2006 Paul Hill |
This paper details the portfolio management approach—a new vision for education reform that fosters innovation, adaptability, and performance. |
![]() |
The Future of Public Education in New Orleans January, 2006 Paul Hill, Jane Hannaway |
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... |
![]() |
A Foundation Goes to School December, 2005 Paul Hill |
This Education Next commentary summarizes how The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation became interested in high school reform. |
![]() |
What NAEP Can't Tell Us About Charter School Effectiveness December, 2005 Jon Christensen, Lawrence Angel |
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.... |
![]() |
When Learning Counts: Rethinking Licenses for School Leaders December, 2005 Jacob E. Adams, Jr., Michael A. Copland |
This report examines licensure content for principals to address whether the licenses that states require encompass the knowledge and skills principals need and how decisionmakers might rethink licenses. |
![]() |
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2005 November, 2005 Robin Lake, Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
Re-Creating Public Education in New Orleans September, 2005 Paul Hill |
This Ed Week commentary calls for a coherent strategy for rebuilding public education in New Orleans post-Katrina. |
![]() |
Strengthening Title I To Help High-Poverty Schools: How Title I Funds Fit Into District Allocation Patterns August, 2005 Marguerite Roza, Larry Miller, Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
Equalizing Education Dollars August, 2005 Paul Hill, Marguerite Roza |
In this article, originally published in the Washington Post, CRPE's Paul Hill and Marguerite Roza argue that district accounting practices and the of tendency of experienced teachers to choose wealthier schools result in... |
![]() |
Addressing Funding Inequities Within Districts August, 2005 Kelly Warner-King, Veronica Smith-Casem |
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. |
![]() |
Decentralized Decision-Making for Schools: New Promise for an Old Idea? August, 2005 Janet S. Hansen, Marguerite Roza |
This paper argues that decentralizing decisionmaking authority to schools is a reform worthy of a new look, despite the perceived failure of earlier school-based management (SBM) efforts to improve student performance. |
![]() |
Lessons from Blair's School Reforms July, 2005 Paul Hill |
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... |
![]() |
Why Do So Few Public School Districts Use Merit Pay? June, 2005 Dan Goldhaber, Michael DeArmond, Dan Player, Hyung-Jai Choi |
This working paper presents a principal-agent model in the context of public schools to help explain the factors that affect district decisions about merit pay. |
![]() |
BRIEF - Lessons on Assessing the Costs of Small High Schools: Evidence from Seattle and Denver March, 2005 Marguerite Roza, Claudine Swartz, Larry Miller |
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. |
![]() |
Many a Slip 'Tween Cup and Lip: District Fiscal Practices and Their Effect on School Spending February, 2005 Marguerite Roza |
This paper, prepared for The Aspen Institute Congressional Program, February, 2005 explores the causes of school level spending variations. |
![]() |
The Back Office: A Neglected Side of Teacher Quality February, 2005 Michael DeArmond, Dan Goldhaber |
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. |
![]() |
Buried Treasure: Developing a Management Guide From Mountains of School Data January, 2005 Mary Beth Celio, James Harvey |
This report provides a practical discussion of what is required to develop a school district management guide, along with an actual guide built on evidence-based indicators. |
![]() |
School Districts Choosing to Charter November, 2004 Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
Charter Schools in Washington State: A Financial Drain or Gain? October, 2004 Amy Berk Anderson |
This working paper examines the potential fiscal impact of charter schools in Washington State, at both the state and local levels. |
![]() |
Making School Reform Work: New Partnerships for Real Change October, 2004 Paul Hill, James Harvey |
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... |
![]() |
A Cost Allocation Model for Shared District Resources: A Means for Comparing Spending Across Schools September, 2004 Larry Miller, Marguerite Roza, Claudine Swartz |
Under current budgeting practices it is difficult to assess how resources are distributed between schools and whether every school is afforded the same opportunities to meet its educational goals. This paper addresses one key... |
![]() |
Doing School Choice Right: Proceedings of a Meeting on Communities and Choice August, 2004 James Harvey, Lydia Rainey |
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. |
![]() |
Chronic Teacher Turnover in Urban Elementary Schools August, 2004 Kacey Guin |
This study examines the characteristics of elementary schools that experience chronic teacher turnover and the impacts of turnover on a school's working climate and ability to effectively function. |
![]() |
Broadening What's Meant by School August, 2004 Paul Hill |
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. |
![]() |
Legal Issues and Small High Schools: Strategies to Support Innovation in Washington State July, 2004 Kelly Warner-King, Mitch Price |
This report explores legal issues affecting the establishment and operation of small high schools in Washington State. |
![]() |
From Bystander to Ally: Transforming the District Human Resources Department April, 2004 Christine Campbell, Michael DeArmond, Abigail Schumwinger |
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... |
![]() |
Attracting the Best Teachers March, 2004 Paul Hill |
In this commentary for The Hoover Institution, Paul Hill offers some ideas for how to attract quality people to teaching. |
![]() |
How Within-District Spending Inequities Help Some Schools Fail February, 2004 Marguerite Roza, Paul Hill |
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... |
![]() |
School Choice: Doing It the Right Way Makes a Difference November, 2003 Paul Hill |
The National Working Commission on Choice in K-12 Education, chaired by CRPE's Paul Hill, was established to explore how choice works and to examine how communities interested in the potential benefits of new school options... |
![]() |
Leveling the Playing Field: Creating Funding Equity Through Student-Based Budgeting October, 2003 Karen Hawley Miles, Kathleen Ware, Marguerite Roza |
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... |
![]() |
Baselines for Assessment of Choice Programs October, 2003 Paul Hill, Kacey Guin |
This paper argues that choice programs should be compared against the real performance of the current public education system and attempts to establish an appropriate baseline against which choice programs can be assessed. |
![]() |
Administrative Costs of Education Voucher Programs September, 2003 Paul Hill |
A number of states and localities are now considering creating voucher programs. This paper focuses on the administrative costs of these programs. |
![]() |
Making Sense of Leading Schools: A Study of the School Principalship September, 2003 Bradley Portin, Paul Schneider, Michael DeArmond, Lauren Gundlach |
This report, based on in-depth interviewes with educators, looks at the daily working lives of school leaders. It then asks what this implies for policy and leadership development. |
![]() |
An Impossible Job? The View From the Urban Superintendent's Chair July, 2003 Howard L. Fuller, Christine Campbell, Mary Beth Celio, James Harvey, John Immerwahr, Abigail Schumwinger |
Based on a survey and on interviews with superintendents from the nation's largest urban districts, this study explores the working life of urban superintendents. This report is second in second in the Center's leadership... |
![]() |
From the Headlines to the Frontlines: The Teacher Shortage and its Implications for Recruitment Policy July, 2003 Patrick J. Murphy, Michael DeArmond |
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... |
![]() |
A National Crisis or Localized Problems? Getting Perspective on the Scope and Scale of the Teacher Shortage July, 2003 Patrick J. Murphy, Michael DeArmond, Kacey Guin |
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... |
![]() |
The Chasm Remains April, 2003 Paul Hill, Kacey Guin, Mary Beth Celio |
This Education Next article addresses how problems within the public education system particularly affect urban children. |
![]() |
Change The Rules April, 2003 Paul Hill |
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... |
![]() |
A Matter of Definition: Is There Truly a Shortage of School Principals? January, 2003 Marguerite Roza, Mary Beth Celio, James Harvey, Susan Wishon |
This report finds that although some districts and areas are experiencing difficulties finding good school principals, there are far more candidates interested in assuming school leadership roles than there are principal... |
![]() |
Big City School Boards: Problems and Options December, 2002 Paul Hill, Kelly Warner-King, Christine Campbell, Meaghan McElroy, Isabel Muñoz-Colón |
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. |
![]() |
Charter Schools and Accountability in Public Education December, 2002 Paul Hill, Robin Lake, Mary Beth Celio |
Aimed toward elected officials, school reform activists, and educators, this book is the result of the first national-scale study of charter school accountability. |
![]() |
Choice with Equity: An Assessment by the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education December, 2002 Paul Hill |
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... |
![]() |
Closing the Achievement Gap in Washington State: Holding Schools Accountable for Equity November, 2002 Elise M. Huggins, Mary Beth Celio |
Prepared for the Washington State Academic Achievement and Accountability Commission in 2002, this report attempts to take a fresh look at the data from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) in order to provide... |
![]() |
Philanthropic Due Diligence: Exploratory Case Studies to Improve Investments in Urban Schools August, 2002 Christine Campbell, James Harvey, Michael DeArmond |
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... |
![]() |
The Future of School Facilities: Getting Ahead of the Curve May, 2002 Michael DeArmond, Sara Taggart, Paul Hill |
This paper looks at five trends in education and what they imply about the kinds of buildings and spaces districts will need for tomorrow's schools. |
![]() |
A New Look at Inequities in School Funding: A Presentation on the Resource Variations Within Districts May, 2002 Marguerite Roza, Karen Hawley Miles |
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. |
![]() |
The New Schools Handbook: Strategic Advice for Successful School Start-Up in Partnership With School District Officials, Staff and Community Members May, 2002 Robin Lake, Abigail Schumwinger, Jeff Petty |
This guide provides an overview of the school development process in three sections and includes an appendix of additional resources. It should be helpful for anyone starting a new school, whether it is a private school, a... |
![]() |
Superintendents' 'Coach Speak' April, 2002 Paul Hill, James Harvey |
In this commentary, Paul Hill and James Harvey look at how urban superintendents can get beyond misleading platitudes to confront real problems. |
![]() |
Building More Effective Community Schools: A Guide to Key Ideas, Effective Approaches, and Technical Assistance Resources for Making Connections Cities and Site Teams December, 2001 Paul Hill, Christine Campbell |
This report, prepared for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, describes why community schools are important, addresses the initial questions and concerns in creating community schools, explains promising approaches, and concludes... |
![]() |
Building "Social Capital" Through Advocacy, Alliances & Forums December, 2001 Paul Hill |
In this essay for the Public Education Network, Paul Hill discusses the role local education funds can play in building social capital in schools |
![]() |
Making Standards Meaningful: High School Reform Efforts in Washington State October, 2001 Sara Taggart, Mary Beth Celio |
This report marks the third year of CRPE's exploration into the way fast-improving schools in Washington State work, with a focus on high schools. The other reports in the series are: Making Standards Work (1999) and Making... |
![]() |
Washington State Elementary Schools on the Slow Track Under Standards-Based Reform October, 2001 Maria McCarthy, Mary Beth Celio |
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. |
![]() |
Charter School Districts May, 2001 Paul Hill |
This article explores the concept of charter districts—school districts composed entirely of charter and contract schools. |
![]() |
A Conspiracy of Silence February, 2001 Paul Hill |
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... |
![]() |
Are Charter Schools Getting More Money into the Classroom? A Micro-Financial Analysis of First Year Charter Schools in Massachusetts October, 2000 Paul Herdman, Marc Dean Millot |
This report examines the first-year finances of Massachusetts charter schools. |
![]() |
New Hope for Public Schools July, 2000 Paul Hill |
This essay written for the Hoover Institution looks at new trends in education initiatives undertaken by private corporations and individuals. |
![]() |
Helping Hands: Cities Need Capacity for Education Reform July, 2000 Paul Hill |
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"... |
![]() |
How States Can Hold Schools Accountable: The Strong Schools Model of Standards-Based Reform June, 2000 Sarah R. Brooks |
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. |
![]() |
Stimulating the Supply and Building the Capacity of New Schools and School Developers: Recommendations for the Design and Implementation of a New Schools Incubator June, 2000 Abigail Schumwinger |
An increasingly pressing issue impacting the quality of educational services in the United States is the country's growing need for new public schools equipped to meet the unique demands of this generation's students and... |
![]() |
Making Standards Stick April, 2000 Robin Lake, Maria McCarthy, Sara Taggart, Mary Beth Celio |
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... |
![]() |
How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education April, 2000 Paul Hill |
More than 1.2 million students are now being taught at home, more students than are enrolled in the entire New York City public school system. This report discusses the pros and cons of learning at home and the effects home... |
![]() |
It Takes a City: Getting Serious about Urban School Reform January, 2000 Paul Hill, Christine Campbell, James Harvey |
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... |
![]() |
Supplying Effective Public Schools in Big Cities December, 1999 Paul Hill |
How can we move toward a public education system that can supply good schools for city children? This chapter presents two discussions: first, an analysis of the practices and attitudes that now prevent big cities from... |
![]() |
Making Standards Work: Active Voices, Focused Learning February, 1999 Robin Lake, Paul Hill, Lauren O'Toole, Mary Beth Celio |
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... |
![]() |
Fixing Urban Schools December, 1998 Paul Hill |
This book identifies the essential elements of reform strategies that can transform school performance in big cities beset by poverty, social instability, racial isolation, and labor unrest. It also suggests ways that local... |
![]() |
Reinventing Public Education: How Contracting Can Transform America's Schools December, 1997 Paul Hill, Lawrence Pierce, James Guthrie |
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... |
![]() |
Toward a K-12 Education Accountability System in Washington State December, 1997 Paul Hill, Robin Lake |
This report sketches a strong and unique accountability system for Washington State, one that is driven by measurements of student performance and incentives to improve, creates clear lines of responsibility, gives every... |
![]() |
What It Takes to Start A Pennsylvania Charter School: A Guide for Applicants December, 1997 Marc Dean Millot |
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... |
![]() |
A Public Education System for the New Metropolis August, 1997 Paul Hill |
What, if anything can now be said about whether decentralization of public school systems is possible and, if so, under what conditions is it likely to lead to changes in instruction and improvements in student outcomes? This... |
![]() |
Supplying a System of Charter Schools: Observations on Early Implementation of the Massachusetts Statute June, 1997 Marc Dean Millot, Robin Lake |
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... |
![]() |
A Nonprofit Technical Assistance Activity for Charter Applicants in Pennsylvania: Mission, Functions, Capabilities and Plans May, 1997 Marc Dean Millot |
This Report describes the mission, functions, capabilities and plans of a potential nonprofit Technical Assistance Activity (TAA) for charter school applicants under House Bill 1834, the Charter School Act previously under... |
![]() |
A Guidebook for Chartering Agencies January, 1997 Marc Dean Millot |
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. |
![]() |
So You Want to Start a Charter School? Strategic Advice for Applicants: Recommendations from an Expert Workshop December, 1996 Marc Dean Millot, Robin Lake |
In September of 1995, the Program on Reinventing Public Education invited twelve experts to Seattle for a workshop about the business side of charter school start-up. This report summarizes the strategies for charter school... |
![]() |
Autonomy, Accountability, and the Values of Public Education September, 1996 Marc Dean Millot |
This report was written for a very specialized audience—individuals considering the passage or amendment of charter school legislation. |
![]() |
The Educational Consequences of Choice June, 1996 Paul Hill |
In this article, Paul Hill argues that there is ample evidence that universal public school choice would strongly benefit all children, including the disadvantaged, by promoting candid and demanding relationships among... |
![]() |
Priority Shift: The Fate of Mandatory Busing for School Desegregation in Seattle and the Nation March, 1996 Laura Kohn |
This paper examines the trend in school districts, across the country and in Seattle, of substantially withdrawing from mandatory integration policies. |
![]() |
What Are Charter Schools? An Introduction to the Concept and the Statutes December, 1995 Marc Dean Millot |
This article provides details about the charter school concept: its relationship to other well-known proposals for school reform, the essential characteristics of a charter school, and the approaches taken by states to... |
![]() |
High Schools with Character August, 1990 Paul Hill, Gail E. Foster, Tamar Gendler |
This paper analyzes big-city high schools: how they function and how the education of the low-income minority youth in these high schools can be improved. |