In 2023, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools elevated the voices of charter school students, educators, families, and advocates. The organization persevered through challenges and expanded access to high quality public charter schools for a greater number of students around the nation. This annual report covers what the sector…

Wisconsin--and, in particular, urban Milwaukee--has been at the forefront of a half-century of public education experiments, from desegregation and "school choice" to vouchers and charter schools. "Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City" by Barbara J. Miner, former…

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…

In communities nationwide, public charter schools are meeting the growing demand for high-quality education opportunities. This is especially true in communities with underperforming public district schools that are not meeting the academic needs of students, including poor and minority students. Forty states and the District of Columbia have laws…

School choice improves parents' satisfaction with their children's schools, and public schools that face competition have shown improved performance, yet opponents continue to oppose reforms that give parents the opportunity to choose their children's schools. State and federal policymakers should reform existing education policies to give all…

Disgusted by what he and his staff considered to be poorly written, poorly stapled, and generally disorganized mandatory citywide exams sent to Fritsche Middle School by the Milwaukee Public Schools central office in the fall of 1999, Principal Bill Andrekopoulos committed an act of ownership theretofore unheard of in the 100,000-student school…