Climbing to Quality 2007-2008 Fordham Sponsorship Accountability Report
Kathryn MullenThis yearly report covers Fordham's sponsorship practices throughout the year as well as newsworthy events related to our sponsored charter schools. You can also find detailed reports on all of Fordham-sponsored schools. Each school report contains information on the school's academic performance, educational philosophy, and compliance for the 2007-2008 school year.
Virtual insanity
Michael J. PetrilliThe Oregonian reports that its state board of education last
Pray for an even playing field
Michael J. PetrilliLiam asks "if urban Catholic schools can't compete with charter schools, why do they deserve special help?"
Genuflecting before choice
Mike, I may agree with your point that Catholic schools should receive public funding.
Oden for Obama
Update: The NBA's number 1 draft pick is against???i.e., not supportive of, never has been and never will be,
The Leadership Limbo
Coby LoupIn the era of No Child Left Behind, principals are increasingly held accountable for student performance. But are teacher labor agreements giving them enough flexibility to manage effectively? The Leadership Limbo: Teacher Labor Agreements in America's Fifty Largest School Districts, answers this question and others.
Alternative Certification Isn't Alternative
Kate Walsh, Sandi JacobsAt first glance, the explosive growth of 'alternative' teacher certification--which is supposed to allow able individuals to teach in public schools without first passing through a college of education--appears to be one of the great success stories of modern education reform. But, as this report reveals, alternative certification programs have so far failed to provide a real alternative to traditional education schools. In fact, they represent a significant setback for education reform advocates.
2006 Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Sponsorship Accountability Report
Terry Ryan, Kathryn MullenFor information on Fordham's unique role as a charter school sponsor in Ohio, there's no better source than The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Sponsorship Accountability Report 2005-06. The report offers a comprehensive account of Fordham's sponsorship policies and practices-as well as individual profiles of all Fordham-sponsored schools. Included in the profiles are descriptions of each school's educational program, school philosophy, and overall academic performance based on state achievement data.
Trends in Charter School Authorizing
Michael J. Petrilli, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Rebecca GauBelatedly, policymakers and researchers are recognizing that quality charter schools depend on quality charter school authorizing. This report presents findings from a pioneering national examination of the organizations that sponsor, oversee, and hold accountable U.S. charter schools. Its primary aim is to describe and characterize these crucial but little-known organizations.
Playing To Type? (2006)
Dick Carpenter, Chester E. Finn, Jr.Most discussions of charter schools assume that they are monolithic. This study, the first of its kind, categorizes the nation's charter schools into a robust typology according to their educational approaches. It also provides demographic information by type,how many are in each category, what their student populations look like, and so forth,and makes a first attempt at comparing their test scores. The result is a much richer and more accurate picture of the charter school universe.
Fwd: Teacher Education: Coming Up Empty
Kate WalshThe nation's leading teacher educators made a startling admission last year in their tome, Studying Teacher Education, by conceding there's little evidence that what happens in ed schools helps in the K-12 classroom. Kate Walsh explores why teacher educators are ignoring the achievement gap and, thus, consigning their field to irrelevance.
Personality Test: The dispositional dispute in teacher preparation today, and what to do about it
William DamonThe standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Excellence (NCATE) are of critical import for America's future teaching corps and will wield disproportionate influence for decades to come. Over the past fifteen years, 25 states have outsourced the approval of teacher preparation programs to NCATE by adopting or adapting its standards as their own; the other 25 have various 'partnerships' with the organization. Which makes it all the more disturbing that central to these standards is the call for teachers to possess certain 'dispositions' such as particular attitudes toward 'social justice.' As Professor William Damon of Stanford University explains in Fordham's latest Fwd: Arresting Insights in Education, NCATE's framing of the 'dispositions' issue has given education schools 'unbounded power over what candidates may think and do.' This is leading to (understandable) charges of ideological arm-twisting and Orwellian mind-control.
Charter School Funding: Inequity's Next Frontier
Sheree Speakman, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Bryan C. HasselOf all the controversies swirling around the nation's charter schools, none is more hotly contested than the debate over funding. Into the fray leaps Charter School Funding: Inequitys Next Frontier, the most comprehensive and rigorous study ever undertaken of how public charter schools are funded, state by state, and how their revenues measure up to dollars received by district-run schools.
Fwd: Where Do Public School Teachers Send Their Kids to School?
Brian Diepold, Denis P. Doyle, David A. DeSchryverDoes it matter where public-school teachers send their own children to school? If so, how and why? What can we learn from them?
The State Testing Program for Ohio and How It Works: A Primer for Charter Schools
Amy GermuthWith the passage of the politics-governance Act (NCLB), states have had to adjust their accountability systems to comply with federal law. As a result, in the summer of 2003 Ohio's Governor Taft signed House Bill 3, which dramatically changed the state's assessment system and what it means for charter schools. This report helps charter school leaders coordinate their testing and data reporting procedures to meet state and federal guidelines, in the hope that all students might surpass Ohio's academic expectations.
Charter School Authorizing: Are States Making the Grade?
Rebecca Gau, Louann Bierlein PalmerThis new report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute is the first significant study of the organizations that authorize charter schools. The report examines 23 states and the District of Columbia to determine how supportive they are of charter schools, how good a job their authorizers are doing, and how policy makers could strengthen their states' charter programs.
The Approval Barrier to Suburban Charter Schools
Pushpam JainWhy haven't charter schools taken hold in suburban areas in most states? In this report, Pushpam Jain takes a close look at three states with high proportions of charter schools in the suburbs to see how they managed to introduce charter schools, and then compares them to one state with only a few charter schools to see what is blocking the spread of charters there. His conclusion: if a state sets up a system for authorizing charter schools where the only authorizing body doesn't want charter schools, there won't be many charter schools!
Autonomy and Innovation: How Do Massachusetts Charter School Principals Use Their Freedom?
Bill TriantCharter schools grant significant autonomy to their principals, but do their principals make decisions that would not be possible in ordinary schools? Are they creating schools that are truly different from (and potentially better than) regular district schools? For this report, Bill Triant conducted extended interviews with eight charter school principals in Massachusetts on five dimensions of school operations (teacher hiring, budgetary control, instruction and curriculum, organizational design, and accountability) to shed light on how they use their autonomy. He finds that when charter school principals are given the opportunity to innovate, they do so.
Personnel Policy in Charter Schools
Dale Ballou, Michael PodgurskyWhen schools are held accountable for results and freed from red tape governing personnel decisions, they take advantage of their freedom by adopting innovative strategies for hiring and rewarding teachers, according to this new report by economists Michael Podgursky and Dale Ballou. This study is based on a survey administered to a random sample of 132 public charter schools that have been operating for at least three years.
Professionalism and the Public Good: A Brief History of Teacher Certification
Jeffrey Mirel, David L. AngusWhy does our system of teacher certification emphasize training in pedagogy rather than subject-matter knowledge? The answer can be found in this report, which traces the emergence of state control over teacher certification. The focus is on efforts by the teacher education establishment to gain monopoly control over the licensing of teachers.
Growing Better Teachers in the Garden State
Leo KlagholzThis report explains how New Jersey has implemented high standards for teachers without causing a teacher shortage by creating an alternative certification program.
The Quest For Better Teachers: Grading The States
Michael J. Petrilli, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Marci Kanstoroom, Ph.D.Most states are beginning to get serious about boosting the quality of their teaching force. Unfortunately, most of the steps they are taking point in the wrong direction. This 'report card' contains plenty of evidence of that fact-together with some happy exceptions and hopeful signs.
Why Charter Schools? The Princeton Story
Chiara R. NappiNappi tells the engaging story of how Princeton parents tried to change 'the system' from within but had to resort to starting a charter school in order to raise academic standards.
The Teachers We Need and How to Get More of Them
A policy statement endorsed by governors, chief state school officers, state board members, prominent education thinkers and analysts, and veteran practitioners, which sets forth principles and policies to guide states as they prepare to hire a teaching force for the 21st century.
Education Reform in the Dayton Area: Public Attitudes and Opinions
A survey of attitudes towards education reform in Dayton (where Mr. Fordham lived). View the survey results which show, among other things, overwhelming support for parental choice, charter schools, and higher standards.