Milwaukee's system of K-12 public education is distinct from many other urban school systems in the degree of educational choices offered to students and their families. This range of options has fostered intense competition among Milwaukee's K-12 schools over the past decade. While enrollment in traditional Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has…

In recent years, competition for K-12 enrollment in Wisconsin among traditional public schools, charter schools, and private schools using the state's voucher programs has intensified. Because elementary and secondary education finance in the state primarily is driven by enrollment, this has presented increasingly difficult fiscal conditions for…

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…

We examine Illinois educational data from standardized exams and analyze primary factors affecting the achievement of public school students. We focus on the simplest possible models: representation of data through visualizations and regressions on single variables. Exam scores are shown to depend on school type, location, and poverty…

The educational outcomes of low-income and racial/ethnic minority students suggest that there is a fundamental disconnect between contemporary schooling and the needs of students in urban schools. Most attempts to address these problems in K-12 schools have focused on increasing students' mastery of content knowledge and skills. While the evidence…

The Broad Foundation Superintendents Academy is the most prominent and most controversial training institute for school chiefs. The Academy is the flagship program of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the smallest of a triumvirate of corporate foundations that are at the heart of the billionaire campaign to remake public education in the image…

When policymakers begin to think of ways to help schools improve, they often settle on the idea of giving individual schools greater independence. This led to the "site-based management" movement of the 1990s. Today, granting schools autonomy from some or all rules remains a popular strategy for reform. With expanded autonomy, districts…

All public school children are entitled to quality public educational facilities--including those who attend public charter schools. Yet charter school leaders often spend substantial time and money searching for a facility. When they find one, they encounter significant costs associated with leasing or purchasing the building. They may have to…

Deficient urban schooling remains one of America's most pressing--and stubborn--public policy problems. This important new book details and evaluates a radical and promising new approach to K-12 education reform. "Strife and Progress" explains for a broad audience the "portfolio strategy" for providing urban education--its…

The nation's largest school districts have increasingly turned to building closures to address budget deficits, demographic shifts, and the movement of students to charter schools. Over the past decade, 70 large or mid-sized cities closed schools--averaging 11 buildings per closure. This trend shows no signs of slowing. Washington, D.C. closed 23…

Urban education and its contexts have changed in powerful ways. Old paradigms are being eclipsed by global forces of privatization and markets and new articulations of race, class, and urban space. These factors and more set the stage for Pauline Lipman's insightful analysis of the relationship between education policy and the neoliberal economic,…

Since the 2002-2003 academic year, the number of students attending and number of charter schools has grown. Yet, unknown are the comparative performance of charter schools as well as any factors, such as the market-based theory of competition, which may contribute to differences. Using geographic information systems and hierarchical linear…

Only a quarter of the class of 2008 graduated from Alain Locke Senior High School in Los Angeles after four years. This was unsurprising since nearly 60 percent of the class had left Locke by the end of their sophomore year. A majority of Locke teachers--frustrated with the school's mediocrity--petitioned to allow charter management organization…

A year ago, Arne Duncan was known as a long-serving urban district chief who had used his collegial management style to push innovation and close failing schools in Chicago. This week, he enters his second year as U.S. secretary of education pursuing a similar national policy agenda that could place him among the most influential leaders in his…

In 2009-10, New Leaders for New Schools partnered with the Perspectives Charter School Network in Chicago to pilot an innovative leadership development program for principals. The program is part of the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) initiative, which was created by New Leaders in 2006 to identify, reward, and share effective…