Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools
School choice priorities change at the middle and high school levels
Common sense, backed by research, tells us that families weigh a lot of information when making school choice decisions.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Why homework matters
Homework is the perennial bogeyman of K–12 education. In any given year, you’ll find people arguing that students, especially in elementary school, should have far less homework—or none at all. Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy charter schools, has the opposite opinion. She’s been running schools for sixteen years, and she’s only become more convinced that homework is not only necessary, but also a linchpin to effective K–12 education.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
School choice and parental compromise
What parents are looking for in an ideal school choice scenario is often very different from what they settle for in the real world. Cost, distance, academic quality, safety, extracurricular options, and a host of other factors are all at play, meaning trade-offs are unavoidable. Recently-published research findings try to capture the matrix of compromises being made.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
How federal charter school grants help marginalized students
It makes good sense for the federal government to provide grants to high-quality public charter schools seeking to open or expand. That’s the gist of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last month.
Report
Charter Schools
The Power of Expectations in District and Charter Schools
This study examines the role that high expectations should play in our nation’s academic recovery and how they operate in the traditional public, charter, and private school sectors.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter schools complicate the narrative on Covid shutdowns and learning loss
This week’s news of sharp declines on the National Assessment of Educational Progress gave partisans yet another chance to relitigate the debate over keeping schools closed for in-person learning for much or all of the 2020–21 school year. We conservatives are eager to identify the teachers unions as the primary culprits, and we’re not wrong. But there is one complication we should acknowledge: the curious case of urban charter schools.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
Why urban charters outperform traditional public schools
High-quality studies continue to find that urban charter schools boost achievement and other outcomes by more than their traditional-public-school peers—an advantage that has only grown larger as the charter sector has expanded and matured. Where the research literature is less clear is why urban charter schools consistently, and increasingly, outperform district schools. Still, it does offer some hints and plausible hypotheses.
Podcast
Charter Schools
Education Gadfly Show #840: The state of state education reform
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Jennifer Alexander, Executive Director of the Policy Innovators in Educatio
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Judge “for-profit” charter schools on their results, not the tax status of their main vendor
After a tumultuous reception, the Biden administration’s regulations for the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) were finalized in July.
Report
Charter Schools
For-Profit Charter Schools: An evaluation of their spending and outcomes
For-profit charter schools” are non-profit organizations that contract out some services to a for-profit organization—meaning the schools themselves are not for-profit. This study explores whether such contracting affects school quality.
Podcast
Charter Schools
Education Gadfly Show #839: Do “for-profit” charter schools deserve their bad reputation?
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Petrilli and David
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter school achievement in D.C. was decimated by the pandemic. Here’s what we can learn from that.
Nine percent. That’s how many Black boys met expectations in math in D.C.’s traditional public schools in 2022, down from 17 percent before the pandemic. It’s also how many met those expectation in the city’s charter schools, down from 22 percent. The word “disaster” is used a lot lately, but it is absolutely the right fit here. There are, however, lessons we can learn from this catastrophe.
Podcast
Charter Schools
Education Gadfly Show #838: Was the charter sector too slow to reopen schools for in-person learning?
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Karega Ra
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Supporting student wellness through challenging academic learning
The pandemic accelerated a mental health crisis for children and teens that was already apparent prior to spring 2020. It is a serious issue, and schools have expanded mental health services to meet the needs of a greater number of struggling students. At the same time, as we commence a school year in which educators must continue the intensive work of repairing the pandemic’s academic damage, focusing on student emotional wellness does not require relinquishing academic learning.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A teacher’s-eye view of the culture of a “No Excuses” school
Whether or not the bipartisan education consensus is dead, one of its most visible and effective reforms lives on: so-called “No Excuses” model schools, institutions famous for their exacting behavioral and academic standards.
Podcast
Charter Schools
Education Gadfly Show #835: The expanding partisan gap on K-12 education
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, David Houston, assistant professor at
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
The evolving education reform agenda
Earlier this month, I argued that “education reform is alive and well, even if the Washington Consensus is dead for now.” What’s more, I wrote that we should stay the course on the current reform strategy:
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Is school choice good for America?
Does school choice work? That depends on who you talk to and what you mean by “work.” For education researchers and policy wonks, school choice works if it raises math and reading scores for students who take advantage of choice programs or, more broadly, if market competition improves measurable outcomes for all students.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Instructional coherence isn’t a trendy reform. It’s necessary—and it works.
In a recent piece about the state of standards-based reform, Dale Chu weighs the benefits and challenges of a district “relinquishment” versus “instructional coherence” approach to improving student learning.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Teachers & School Leaders
Exit interview: “America’s authorizer,” Susie Miller Carello
Susie Miller Carello may not be a household name in education, but she’s a household name among those who are. For twelve years ending earlier this month, she led the Charter Schools Institute at the State University of New York—the largest university-based charter school authorizer in the nation, and arguably the most successful.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Education reform is alive and well, even if the Washington Consensus is dead for now
The latest declaration of education reform’s demise comes from two of Mike’s favorite people: Checker Finn and Rick Hess. But what they actually describe is the end of the bipartisan ed reform coalition—what Mike and Rick used to call the “Washington Consensus.” Even with it gone for now, however, education reform continues apace—and continues to rack up victories for kids. And there are ways to rebuild the coalition.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The new education consensus is conservative, and that’s a good thing
In the latest issue of National Affairs, Chester Finn and Frederick Hess chronicle the splintering of the school reform movement that lasted from roughly 1983 until Trump’s presidency.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Impacts of charter school growth on school and neighborhood diversity
Student demographics in traditional district schools largely reflect patterns of housing availability and affordability within neighborhoods. Much of that is due to strict attendance zoning.
Podcast
Charter Schools
The Education Gadfly Show #831 Resurfaced: Research Deep Dive: The impact of urban charter schools
Our host Mike Petrilli is on vacation this week, so we're republishing our most popular podcast episode for three year
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools
CREDO examines charter school performance in three cities
Are charter schools helping students succeed?
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
When it comes to the Charter Schools Program, little details can have big impacts
Anyone who says the recently proposed Charter Schools Program (CSP) rules are just about scoring grant proposals and otherwise “ordinary” requirements (
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The case for charter schools is stronger than ever
Just over thirty years ago, the first public charter school law was passed in Minnesota. One year later, City Academy Charter School opened its doors in St. Paul. The charter sector now boasts more than 7,700 schools serving over 3.4 million students nationwide.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Biden Administration fails to follow the science on charter schools
NOTE: This editorial is adapted from Michael J. Petrilli's public comment on the U.S. Department of Education's proposed Charter Schools Program regulations, available here.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Biden goes all in on the teachers unions’ agenda
With Democrats facing trouble in the midterm elections, the Biden administration has inexplicably decided to try to stave off disaster by doubling down on the teachers unions’ hoary anti-reform agenda. One example is its not-so-sneak attack on charter schools in the form of execrable regulations that could bring charter growth to a standstill. But it’s not the only one.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Denver doesn’t spell doom for portfolio-style reform
Last week, Chester Finn used a recent vote of Denver’s anti-reform school board to make three points: first, that the “portfolio” reform there—based on school autonomy, family choice, and chartering out schools where kids aren’t learning—is finished; second, that Denver’s reversal predicts doom elsewhere for complex reform initiatives meant to transform the ways whole public systems operate; an
