Concerns about academic standards, whether created by states from scratch or adopted by states under the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) banner, have drawn widespread media attention and are at the top of many state policymakers' priority lists. Recently, a number of legislatures have required additional steps, such as waiting periods for…

Four articles from this special report examine the charter school movement and whether it has the staying power to change American schooling. The articles are: (1) "Declarations of Independence" (Mark Walsh), which discusses the Boston Renaissance and Marblehead charter schools in Massachusetts, among others; (2) "Laws of the…