Describes the early experience of Texas with charter schools, which have been promoted as a way to restructure urban education through schools that are smaller, less bureaucratized, and more attuned to student and community needs. Discusses barriers to charter-school success and prospects for urban-school reform if charter schools are not…

Explores the role of charter schools and explains why the charter movement is so promising for transforming U.S. education, particularly in urban areas. Addresses three common objections to charter schools and asserts that charter schools can serve the needs of at-risk and disabled students. (SLD)

Suggests a few ways in which civic entrepreneurs can foster charter schools. Civic entrepreneurs, who need not be extremely wealthy, can help meet four critical needs of charter schools: (1) start-up capital, (2) technical assistance, (3) safeguarding freedom, and (4) fostering accountability. (SLD)

Detroit's Benjamin Carson Academy (BCA) is believed to be the nation's first charter school for juvenile offenders. Opened in 1999, BCA is housed in the newly built Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility, a state of the art, 89,300-square-foot building in downtown Detroit with half a dozen gymnasiums, two computer labs, a media center, mental…

This selection of readings in the field of educational reform presents 46 articles, mostly from the news media, and 2 cartoons related to improvement of the educational system. It opens with "Network Notes," brief reports and reviews about events and recent publications of interest to those concerned with educational reform. The first…

Charter schools, performance contracts, and school choice programs are among the initiatives for change that can be made into an integrated program for reforming urban education, one that shifts from a bureaucratic and archaic system into a deregulated system that focuses on student performance. (SLD)

Charter schools are created and managed by an entity composed of parents and/ or teachers, community and/or business leaders, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses. Many people believe that charter schools can provide a high quality education without the regulatory constraints of the conventional public schools. This digest reviews…

Question-and-answer format is used to provide guidance about the eligibility of public charter schools to receive funds, and the allocation of such funds, under Part A of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Part A provides federal financial assistance, through state education agencies (SEAs) to local education agencies (LEAs) to…

This periodical provides accessible, in-depth profiles of programs and policies that have made measurable differences in the lives of children and families. A particular focus is on initiatives that have helped reform child-serving institutions and systems and that have strengthened the physical infrastructure, economic vitality, and social fabric…