Displaying 61-90 of 963 results
Commentary
2.4.2021
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

How ya gonna keep ‘em back in that old school?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

If the pandemic vanished tomorrow and all U.S. schools instantly reopened in exactly the same fashion as they were operating last February, how many parents would be satisfied to return their daughters and sons to the same old familiar classrooms, teachers, schedules and curricula? A lot fewer than the same old schools and those who run and teach in them are expecting back!

Commentary
2.3.2021
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Unexpected innovation: Charter schools and novice teacher development

Bill Waychunas

Let’s start with a little game. Trust me, it will be helpful if you play along… Grab a piece of paper and a writing utensil. Complete the following sentence: First-year or early-career teachers typically struggle most with… (Try to come up with a few answers.)

Podcast
1.28.2021
Charter Schools

The Education Gadfly Show: School Choice Week 2021

  On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith are joined by Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week, which is this week, to discuss how the school choice m

Commentary
1.28.2021
Career & Technical Education, Charter Schools

Career and technical education and the soft bigotry of low expectations

Tamar Jacoby

Beware the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” President George W. Bush’s trenchant warning resonated across the political spectrum when he voiced it to the NAACP in 2000, and it has more or less driven federal education policy ever since. For many, educators and noneducators alike, it remains a touchstone of how to think about racial equity.

Commentary
1.14.2021
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Charter schools are a Band-Aid when a heart transplant is needed

Marc Tucker

This post is adapted from an email conversation between Marc Tucker and Fordham’s Michael J. Petrilli, in which Marc was responding to Mike’s recent article, “The case for urban charter schools.” It also appeared in Fordham’s Flypaper newsletter.

Commentary
12.23.2020
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

It’s not news that Miguel Cardona is a charter school authorizer—and that’s worth celebrating

Alex Medler

President-Elect Biden has confirmed that he will nominate Dr. Miguel A. Cardona to serve as the next U.S. Secretary of Education. He appears to be a prudent choice for Biden, earning support from teachers unions and education reform groups, including charter operators. Cardona is the current Connecticut Commissioner of Education.

Commentary
12.17.2020
School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Mind the gap: Persistent and growing inequities in charter school funding

Victoria McDougald

Like traditional public schools, charter schools are publicly funded according to student enrollment. But compared to their district counterparts, charters have long received far less per-pupil funding.

Commentary
12.14.2020
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Do charter schools help new teachers get better faster?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Michael J. Petrilli

Study after study has found that urban charter schools, and non-profit charter networks in particular, tend to be more successful at boosting student achievement than traditional public schools in similar settings. But why?

Report
12.14.2020
Charter Schools, Teachers & School Leaders

Teacher Effectiveness and Improvement in Charter and Traditional Public Schools

Matthew P. Steinberg, Haisheng Yang

Study after study has found that new teachers tend to be less effective than educators with more experience. But despite having more junior staff, charter networks (referred to as CMOs) often outperform their district peers. So what’s their secret? To find out, this study explores how teacher effectiveness varies and evolves across traditional and charter public schools, as well as within the sector’s CMOs and standalone schools.

Commentary
11.5.2020
Charter Schools, Private School Choice

For better or worse, religiously-affiliated charter schools are on their way

Michael J. Petrilli

A U.S. Supreme Court decision is introducing a new type of charter school that’s likely to cheer conservatives but alarm many progressives: the religiously-affiliated charter. Those of us in the charter movement need to figure out how to keep them from splitting the charter coalition.

Commentary
10.22.2020
Charter Schools, Governance

How charter supporters can win over Joe Biden

Michael J. Petrilli

On paper, it seems like Joe Biden would champion the cause of expanding high-quality charter schools, given his identity as a longtime centrist Democrat. Yet he doesn't. Thankfully for charter supporters, there pragmatic ways to bring him around, should he win the election next month

Commentary
10.14.2020
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The case for urban charter schools

David Griffith, Michael J. Petrilli

Contrary to much public rhetoric, the evidence for expanding charter schools in urban areas is stronger than ever. To be sure, the research is less positive for charters operating outside of the nation’s urban centers. And multiple studies suggest that internet-based schools and charters that serve mostly middle-class students, perform worse than their district counterparts, at least on traditional test-score-based measures. But charters needn’t work everywhere to be of service to society.

Commentary
10.14.2020
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Charter schooling on the ropes?

Dale Chu

The negative partisanship animating this year’s presidential contest notwithstanding, charter school advocates will have their hands full no matter who prevails.

Commentary
10.14.2020
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Ohio’s charter school turnaround

Aaron Churchill

For a number of years, Ohio’s charter school sector has been more of a punchline than an exemplar in national debates about charters. The criticisms, though sometimes exaggerated, were not entirely unwarranted.

Commentary
10.7.2020
Charter Schools, Teachers & School Leaders

The unwelcome success of charter schools

Ian Rowe

Of the nearly 2,000 public school students beginning high school in the South Bronx (District 8 of NYC public schools) in 2015, only 2 percent graduated ready for college four years later.

Commentary
9.16.2020
Charter Schools, Private School Choice

How states can meet the rising demand for school choice

Dale Chu

Six months into the pandemic, the nation’s forced experiment in remote learning has resumed. But our education system’s design is ill-suited to the unique quandaries posed by Covid-19. District officials continue to ask parents for grace and patience, and many have continued to oblige, but if current conditions persist into next year and beyond, demand for choice will almost certainly increase as a large number of parents keep their children at home.

Commentary
9.16.2020
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

“Evasive entrepreneurs” create new K–12 school options

Bruno V. Manno

Covid-19 is upending what parents think about America’s schools, motivating them to seek different ways to educate their children. It’s also inspiring enterprising individuals and imaginative policymakers to create new ways to support that parent demand for change.

Commentary
9.9.2020
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How the conventions showcased education and what it means for ed reform

Dale Chu

The first-ever virtual political conventions have come and gone, during which neither party offered a serious path forward on education reform. The Democrats belong to the self-interested teacher unions, and the GOP has become a single-issue party in pursuit of choice, leaving us with a lot of talk but little action.

Commentary
9.9.2020
Charter Schools, Governance

Hey, Democrats and Republicans: Don’t cut federal charter funding

Kelly Robson

Some Democrats and Republicans have an unlikely alliance these days around one thing: their sudden rejection of the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP), which funds start-up costs for new, high-quality charter schools.

Podcast
8.26.2020
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction

How America’s best charter schools crushed the Covid-19 challenge

On this week’s podcast, Gregg Vanourek joins Mike Petrilli to discuss Fordham’s new report that Gregg authored, Schooling Covid-19: Lessons from leading charter networks from their transition to remote learning. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the firmly established benefits of acceleration for gifted children.

Report
8.25.2020
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Schooling Covid-19: Lessons from leading charter networks from their transition to remote learning

Gregg Vanourek

Last spring, the Covid-19 pandemic upended routines for over 56 million students and challenged more than 3.7 million teachers in over 130,000 schools nationwide to continue educating kids in an online format. This transition to “virtual learning” was understandably trying for all educators, schools, and districts, but some managed to do far better than others.

Podcast
8.19.2020
Charter Schools

On Biden’s education platform

On this week’s podcast, Tressa Pankovits, associate director of Reinventing America's Schools at the Progressive Policy Institute, joins Mike Petrilli and Olivia Piontek to discuss education platforms in the presidential election campaign. On the Research Minute, Olivia Piontek examines efforts to improve low-performing schools in the U.S.

Commentary
7.29.2020
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The cancellers come for charter schools

Robert Pondiscio

Almost exactly twenty years ago, in August 2000, CBS News’s 60 Minutes aired a segment about a pair of charter schools—one in the South Bronx; another in Houston, Texas—founded by a duo of twenty-something White male teachers. To see it now is to catch a time capsule glimpse of a more earnest and hopeful time.

Commentary
7.17.2020
Charter Schools, Governance

Biden’s education plan should be more student-centric

Tressa Pankovits

Given its makeup, it’s no surprise that the task force report trots out the oft-refuted canard that charter schools “undermine” traditional schools. The National Education Association (NEA) used identical language in a 2017 policy statement pledging “forceful support” for limiting charter schools. “The growth of charters has undermined local public schools and communities, without producing any overall increase in student learning and growth,” the NEA claimed.