The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) "Online Summary Report, 2019" was produced in accordance with §22-30.7-103(3)(h), of the Colorado Revised Statute (C.R.S.). The report is required to be prepared every five years with the last publication released in June of 2014. The information contained within this report includes data from…

Charter school authorizers (authorizers) that are committed to fostering high-quality charter school options for all students have an imperative to understand the nature of school distress and failure. Authorizers and other stakeholders need to be able to identify and understand schools experiencing distress, long before a state accountability…

As the charter sector has matured, its critics have multiplied. While charter schools enjoyed bipartisan and substantial public support for their first 20 years, the tide of public opinion now flows in more varied directions. Policymakers and leaders across the country are facing pressure to limit charter expansion, with public support for charter…

In 2021, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools celebrated 30 years since the passage of the first charter school law, influenced policies at the federal and state levels, secured $440 million for the federal Charter Schools Program, and expanded our policy priorities, among many other activities. Check out our annual report to reflect…

2015 has proved to be another active year for public charter school legislation across the country. This report provides a summary of the state legislative highlights for public charter schools during the 2015 state legislative sessions. To detail the plethora of activity that's taking place, this summary is organized into the following…

Charter schools have thrust state boards of education into new roles. Some directly authorize charters, some do so only on appeal, and some do neither. This article examines a relatively recent addition to this task list: evaluation and oversight of charter authorizers, the entities charged with approving and monitoring charter schools.

The record of charter schools has been a mixed bag. They have become racialized, radicalized into business-generation schemes, scorned by teachers unions, and in some cases rammed down the throats of poorer communities. But charter schools sometimes have spotlighted best practice in urban education. In this article, Samuel D. Henry, a former…

As charter school authorizers and states have increased performance expectations and grown less hesitant to close failing schools, "authorizer shopping" has emerged as a growing threat to overall charter school quality. Authorizer shopping happens when a charter school chooses or changes its authorizer specifically to avoid…

Schools are faced with increasing pressures from declining test scores and outcry from the public to improve the educational system. Efforts to reform the system have varied widely and produced inconsistent results. One school took a different approach by embracing the reform efforts through a systematic change process, led by a transformational…

The challenge of serving students with disabilities is familiar to both practitioners and policymakers, especially when it comes to education reform. Charter schools are often viewed as institutions that fail to serve students with disabilities well, or in the same proportions as district-run schools. Sometimes this is true, but it oversimplifies…

New York State's system of public elementary and secondary schools is in steep decline, but it is salvageable. The roots of its problems pre-date the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, but the system's response to that challenge accelerated discontent with the schools and harmed students. The damage of those years will not be undone if…

The "2022 Comprehensive Biennial Report on Texas Public Schools" describes the status of Texas public education, as required by §39.332 of the Texas Education Code. The report contains 16 chapters on the following topics: (1) state progress on academic performance indicators; (2) student performance on state assessments; (3) performance…

This report summarizes findings of a comprehensive national survey that covers authorizer adoption of Essential Practices, as well as important context about the evolution of the authorizing profession itself. There are some gratifying results, with near-unanimous adoption of such key practices as requiring financial audits of schools and…

Charter schools in urban environments have been scrutinized for their effectiveness. This study attempted to determine whether students attending Midwestern urban charter schools outperformed students in traditional schools on the state's accountability system over a 5-year time period. Using a quasi-experimental research design, data were…

This dissertation examines the complexity involved in teachers' perceptions and experience of time on school-related activities. The Intensification Theory explains that test-based accountability has caused a time crunch for teachers, increasing their stress level and burnout rate. Research literature has shown that teachers experiencing high…