Advocates often predict that school choice policies will expand access to high-quality schools, particularly for marginalized communities. To interrogate this assumption, we employed a sequential mixed-methods analysis examining the state of charter reform in the District of Columbia. We observed that stakeholders consistently defined equity as…

Charter schools are public schools that operate free from some government regulations in return for a commitment to achieve a set of student outcomes specified in their charter. Nearly 8,000 public charter schools enrolled 3.7 million students in the U.S. in 2020-21. In major cities, charter schools receive less funding per pupil compared to…

In early 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic closed schools for the rest of the 2019-20 school year (fiscal year 2020 or FY20). The United States Congress deployed funds to help K-12 schools adjust and plan for reopening via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, including the initial $13.2 billion installment through the…

Objective: Despite widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines, millions of Americans have not received the recommended vaccine doses. In the District of Columbia (DC), COVID-19 vaccination rates are lowest among residents who are Non-Hispanic (NH) Black and among school-aged children. We assessed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among staff and…

The purpose of this study was to gather feedback from Black female students who are navigating their way through the secondary STEM pathway. The study, modeled on the "Social Cognitive Career Theory" (Lent and Brown, 2006, 2008; Lent et al. 1994, 2000) was used to explore factors that influenced the interest and persistence of Black…

Background/Context: Race and class inequality have long governed patterns of residential and school segregation across America. However, as neighborhoods across the country that have historically been home to residents of color experience an influx of White and middle-class residents, new questions arise as to whether these demographic shifts in…

In the late-2000s, Washington, DC achieved national notoriety for its embrace of market accountability in public schools and support for a steadily expanding charter sector. At the same time, the DC government pursued a concerted effort to attract new residents and investment to the city, a project that bore fruit in the form of some of the…

Understanding how the District of Columbia (DC) funds District of Columbia Public School (DCPS) students and DC public charter school students is essential to ensuring all students receive the support they need as COVID-19 pandemic-era federal funds expire. The recent rise in the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF) and the boost in the…

In fall 2022 and winter 2023, Education Forward DC and Venture Philanthropy Partners+Raise DC supported a cohort of Washington, D.C., public charter schools (PCS) in administering selected domains of the Panorama Social Emotional Learning (SEL) survey to provide educators with data on well-being for students in grades 3-12. The organizations…

Over the past two years, there have been calls for racial justice in nearly every sphere of social and political life, including the field of education. As much of the nation reeled at yet another life violently taken at the hands of a police officer, education workers faced the challenge of responding to local and national demands for policy…

This issue brief seeks to add to the discussion of educational pluralism by highlighting the history, features, and successes of the classical education model. The model is unique for its emphasis on building the student to be a scholar and an active citizen. Classical schools come in the form of private and charter schools, homeschooling, and…

Charter schools are publicly funded schools freed from some of the regulations placed on traditional public schools (TPS). In exchange for that greater level of autonomy, public charter schools are required to meet performance goals contained in their authorizing charter or face the prospect of closure. Most public charter schools may enroll…

In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 virus shuttered schools across the country and world and calls for racial justice expanded into nearly every sphere of social and political life as the nation reeled at another life violently taken at the hands of a police officer. School system leaders faced difficult decisions about delivering instruction…

There are approximately 1.5 million K-12 students and an additional 1.4 million children under the age of six experiencing homelessness across the United States. While many of these students attend traditional public schools, a growing number, at least 60,000, are enrolled in charter schools. Charter schools are independently-operated public…

Recent studies of charter school effectiveness have questioned whether charter school networks can produce a lasting impact on students' long-term outcomes. Our study is the first to examine this issue at the network of Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools, which primarily serve disadvantaged students of color and constitute the nation's…