How government delivers public services can have broad societal effects, beyond the impact on programmatic outcomes. Such societal effects are particularly likely in the delivery of public education, as educational concerns drive residential and school choices, and public schools are the second largest public employer in the United States. My…

This paper reports on a research study in which seven New York City high school mathematics teachers participated in a professional development opportunity around the teaching of mathematics for social justice. The teachers saw value in teaching math for social justice and were philosophically aligned with the pedagogy. Despite this and despite…

In the United States, charter school proliferation remains a top priority for neoliberal education reformers and their private sector allies. Such schools are owned and run by private operators yet receive public funding, resulting in large transfers of public assets into private hands. Co-location facilitates this process by providing charters…

U.S. charter schools are publicly funded through state school finance formulas that often mirror the traditional public school finance systems. While charter school advocates and critics disagree over whether charters receive an equitable share of funding, few discussions are based on rigorous analyses of funding and expenditures. Most prior…

The data used in this report come from the Principal Questionnaire of the 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), a nationally representative sample survey of public K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In the 2015-16 NTPS, public school principals were asked to identify their top…

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between specific leadership behaviors and student achievement in Illinois high schools excluding those within the Chicago Public School System. The leadership behaviors examined in this study include setting direction, developing people, redesigning the organization, and improving the…

Against the backdrop of the debate around exclusionary discipline practices, this case study asks readers to consider how leaders must balance autonomy with concerns about accountability and equity. In this case, a traditional public school principal in search of more autonomy accepts a principalship at a charter school, but as she attempts to…

This study contributes to the growing body of research concerning the strategic geographic positioning of traditional charter schools (TCS) in urban areas and their segregative effect by considering economist Michael Porter's concept of business clusters, in which businesses 'cluster' to maximize their potential profit and to gain access to a…

Seven years ago, Highland Park Schools went through a highly publicized period of turmoil and organizational upheaval. The troubled time for that Detroit-area district was brought on by a steep drop in enrollment and the deep financial crisis that followed. By contrast, the district's newest upheaval is rooted less in obvious signs of distress…

Public charter schools are unique public schools that foster innovative approaches to solving some of today's most difficult educational challenges. Free from many of the constraints that traditional schools face, the charter school movement has been a leader in innovation, school choice, and education reform for more than 25 years. At the same…

This causal-comparative ex-post-facto study examined the association between learning modality and academic achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic created an environment in which multiple modalities of learning, including blended and remote classrooms, were occurring simultaneously, challenging the existing practices of…

The public schools of Arkansas, open enrollment public charter schools, and education service cooperatives annual statistical report (ASR), 2020-2021 actual and 2021-2022 budgeted, is presented here. The rankings of selected items of the public schools, 2020-2021 actual, are also included. The school districts are listed according to Local…

Historically, debates about educational choice have wrestled with big, unresolved tensions that lie at the heart of American life, having to do with individual rights, community obligations, public and private interests, religious freedoms, and more. But in recent years, school reformers have tended to talk about choice as though it referred only…

Policy makers are increasingly attentive to the importance of supportive school climates, even as many students report that schools seem to be uncaring places. Using recent scholarship that foregrounds the organizational and contextual dimensions of educational caring and student engagement, we use qualitative case study interview data to examine…

Eight years ago, in 2014, the Civil Rights Project issued a report that raised awareness about the dire state of segregation in New York State and, in particular, New York City schools. That report spurred substantial activism, primarily led by student groups, parents, teachers, and administrators, which has been influential in the current…