Amid the growth of charter schools, autonomous schools, and private management organizations, an increasing number of urban districts are moving toward a portfolio management model (PMM). In a PMM, the district central office oversees schools that operate under a variety of governance models. The expansion of PMMs raises questions about local…

Explaining the complex nature of how leadership works within the school has proven difficult; consequently, many studies have shown little or no effects of leadership on student outcomes and school performance (Leithwood & Jantzi, 1999; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). Furthermore, researchers acknowledge that a gap exists…

Current and former leaders of many major urban school districts, including Washington, D.C.'s Michelle Rhee and New Orleans' Paul Vallas, have sought to use tests to evaluate teachers. In fact, the use of high-stakes standardized tests to evaluate teacher performance in the manner of value-added measurement (VAM) has become one of the cornerstones…

Guest editors Gail Boldt and William Ayers have asked 14 leading educators to address the politics of the teacher accountability movement in America. Who benefits and who is hurt? What is gained and what is lost? How can we move forward with a more hopeful and inclusive vision of our educational future? All of the contributors are motivated by an…

Backed with political and financial capital, advocates of change push to improve America's education system. For most people, the purpose of education is self-improvement--becoming better informed, more knowledgeable, better equipped to solve problems, more able to earn a living and prosper. The more effectively an education system delivers on…

"The Achiever" is a bi-monthly publication for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. Highlights of this issue include: (1) President Urges Congress to Reauthorize Law; (2) Standing on Solid Ground: New Orleans School Reopens to High Demand; (3) Secretary's…

Historically, it has been tough to get teachers for urban districts, but this is not the case in Baltimore, Maryland, anymore. Since 2002, the New Teacher Project has been finding at least 10 applicants for each teaching job it fills for the once hard-to-staff Baltimore district. Armed with unorthodox recruitment strategies, the group targets…

Even before the 2005 "Disaster in the Delta"--as the devastation and loss wrought by the category-three hurricane known as Katrina came to be known--statistics emerged about the aggressive educational neglect of Louisiana's African American schoolchildren. The harrowing data about the inadequacies being as racialized as the distribution…