In February 2011, the U.S. Department of Education (ED)--along with co-sponsors from the American Association of School Administrators, the American Federation of Teachers, the Council of the Great City Schools, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the National Education Association, and the National School Boards Association--brought…

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…

This study evaluates how welcoming thirty American cities--the twenty-five largest and five smaller "hotspots"--are to "nontraditional" problem-solvers and solutions. It assumes that the balky bureaucracies meant to improve K-12 education and hold leaders accountable are so calcified by policies, programs, contracts, and…

"Outlook" is the monthly newsletter for the Council for American Private Education (CAPE). Each issue contains information relating to private education such as: new legislation and regulations, the most recent research, court rulings, national trends, federal initiatives, private school news briefs, and more. This issue includes: (1)…

New York City's charter schools are making strides in closing achievement gaps between disadvantaged inner-city students and their better-off suburban counterparts, a new study concludes. The study, conducted by Stanford University researcher Caroline M. Hoxby and her co-authors Sonali Mararka and Jenny Kang, is based on eight years of data for…

What started as a ripple in the charter community shows signs of becoming a wave as major charter school networks scramble to respond to an unfamiliar phenomenon: moves by their teachers to organize unions. In the first half of this year, teachers formed collective bargaining units in schools run by several of the best-known and highest-profile…

Relationships between United States History curriculum design, self-efficacy, and test achievement of eighth-grade students and parents in the KIPP:STAR College Preparatory Charter School were examined in this study. An online questionnaire developed for the study, the Parental Questionnaire for United States History Curriculum, was pilot tested,…

Whether referred to as "pay-for-performance" (PFP) or "merit pay," attempting to tie educators' compensation to their performance in the classroom and students' performance on high-stakes tests has been a key component of many educator compensation reform efforts in the last five years. This issue looks at PFP systems broadly…

Charter schools are largely viewed as a major innovation in the public school landscape, as they receive more independence from state laws and regulations than do traditional public schools, and are therefore more able to experiment with alternative curricula, pedagogical methods, and different ways of hiring and training teachers. Unlike…

The National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), an organization dedicated to redesigning and expanding school time to improve opportunities and outcomes for high poverty students, and the Education Commission of the States (ECS), with a mission to foster both the exchange of ideas on education issues among the states and long range strategic…

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) leads a coalition of parents, students, education advocates and the public working to ensure the constitutional right of the opportunity for a "sound basic education" for every public school student in New York. This right was established by the final decision of the New York State Court of Appeals in…

Engaging in the charter school sector is not for the faint of heart--doing so requires grappling with many complex questions. How will the work impact the reputation of the university? What political, financial or legal liabilities will the institution assume? Who will do the day-to-day heavy lifting? Across the country, dynamic higher education…

Diane Ravitch's book, "The death and life of the great American school system," is an exploration and critique of educational change in the United States since the report "A Nation at Risk" in 1983 and more specifically since the passing of the No Child Left Behind legislation in January, 2002. Arguably, there are several…

The Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) is a non-profit organization that funds and operates a neighborhood-based system of education and social services for the children of low-income families in a 100 block area in Harlem, New York. The HCZ has received remarkable media attention, including a best-selling book and a "60 Minutes" feature, and…

The purpose of this synthesis of the literature on charter school effectiveness is to develop a research agenda on the topic and to propose action that will lead to improved performance of charter schools. To accomplish these goals, background information is first provided including: a definition of charter schools; statistics on charter schools;…