Restorative justice is an increasingly common discipline policy, as schools grapple with historic inequities in traditional exclusionary discipline. This mixed-methods study examines the implementation of restorative justice in 28 intentionally diverse charter schools in five jurisdictions in the U.S. Qualitative findings suggest a range of…

Although charter schools are frequently afforded flexibility from many state laws that govern traditional public schools, a growing number of charter school teachers have now unionized and introduced collective bargaining to the charter sector. Using data from a detailed content analysis of teacher CBAs from California, we compare the…

Public K-12 education in the United States is distinctively a local affair: school districts are governed by local boards of education, composed of lay members typically elected in non-partisan elections. These boards have decision-making power over hundreds of billions of public dollars and oversee complex agencies that, in addition to preparing…

Schools are typically highly structured institutions, so any shifts in processes can potentially generate anxiety, confusion, and even anger among staff. As such, when there is frequent change, initiatives often fail to achieve their intended goals. Well-intentioned initiatives can go awry when not consistently implemented correctly by all staff;…

Each year school administrators find themselves in the position of hiring new teachers and onboarding them to the unique expectations and context of the school. Such work most often happens while these new teachers are actively doing the work of teaching, with few contracted hours of training available. Limited research has focused on the…

The marketization of U.S. schools has increasingly complicated and even undermined the democratic aims of education, causing many to argue that democratic and market ideologies are fundamentally opposed. This meta-ethnographic study uses conceptual tools from democratic theory and the research on civic education to investigate how leaders in one…

Using classroom-level data from nearly all California schools, we investigate whether Hispanic, Asian, Black, and Native students in grades K-5 are more likely to have a teacher of the same race at charter schools or traditional public schools in 2017-18, what school and student characteristics explain these differences, and how ethnoracial…

With the pervasiveness of racism, some scholars have interrogated the role of discourse in perpetuating the racial status quo. While research has denoted how prominent leaders and policies advance deficit-laden characterizations of minoritized groups that reify racial hierarchies, how racial discourse is mobilized in day-to-day politics remains…

Charter management organizations (CMOs) have increasingly had to respond to questions surrounding their organizations--particularly in the context of the broader social awakening around systemic injustices and evidence of their racially inequitable practices. This study investigated how CMOs counteracted criticisms and managed perception by…

The annual assignment of elementary students from one classroom to the next is a ubiquitous cycle in schools. Since student class assignment has an effect on students' educational trajectory, understanding how placement procedures impact student equity is an important area of research with benefits for all stakeholders. In this action research…

We survey 137 charter school administrators and 129 board members and find that U.S. charter school internal controls are perceived to be relatively strong overall. However, board independence, board communication of internal control responsibilities to school personnel, lines of communication between the board and school personnel, and reporting…

Virtual schools are one of the fastest growing educational options for students in the United States. In spite of the increase in virtual program options and enrollment, limited research has been conducted on how virtual school principals lead their organizations. This qualitative case study explores the challenges facing virtual school principals…

The purpose of this study was to establish historical enrollment trends, student demographics, and home-based pedagogies of nonclassroom-based schools in California in an effort to gain insights into lesser-known homeschooling practices. According to the United States Department of Education, in 2016, homeschooling had progressively increased to…

Background/Context: The business and philanthropic sectors have been a persistent force in shaping U.S. schools. Recently, they have used their resources to advance policies that embody newer principles of industry--reforms that suggest that competition, choice, and deregulation can spur improvement and effectiveness. This has most notably…

Purpose: Health authorities recommend schools play a major role in providing and promoting physical activity (PA). School choice legislation has led to increases in both public charter schools and private schools, and these have greater flexibility in curriculum, staffing, and other practices than traditional public schools. Most schools have…