As the sector's gatekeepers, charter school authorizers are responsible for ensuring that schools in their purview set students up for success. To that end, they provide various forms of scrutiny and technical assistance, decide whether existing schools' charters should be renewed, and--perhaps most important--set the bar for the approval of new…

Rural school success is crucial for the Nebraska education system. Without rural schools, many students and families would be without access to high quality educational opportunities. Despite the importance of rural education, the number of rural schools in Nebraska continues to decline, and "one thing is clear from academic research on rural…

The authors review past and current funding/support for U.S. K-12 educational technology companies. They review both who provided the funding for product development and the reasons why. They look back to the 1960s and 1970s, when federal government agencies helped produce computer-based materials, then how the schools' access to technology…

Columbus Preparatory Academy (CPA) was a school in Academic Emergency and in jeopardy of being closed in 2007. In 2016, CPA was ranked "Excellent with Distinction" and has been the top-ranked academic school for five consecutive years. There have been many "how-to" books written about how to turn schools around, but few…

Background: Virtual schools--free, state-funded, credit-awarding elementary and secondary schools offering curricula and programs exclusively online--are a rapidly expanding sector of U.S. education. Some of the largest of these schools have low graduation rates and receive "failing" rankings on state accountability metrics. They…