This case study follows an early-career teacher from an undergraduate educator preparation program into her first teaching position in an urban high-stakes charter school organization. At the beginning, the cognitive dissonance between her emergent educational philosophy and the extreme features of the charter school environment, such as the…

While dual language immersion (DLI) programs have emerged as one approach to promote culturally and linguistically sustaining education, teachers are not prepared to instruct students who live in the intersection of ability and linguistic differences. Dual language learners (DLLs) with disabilities often do not have access to culturally and…

Charter school policy represents two simultaneous forms of accountability, in which schools are accountable to both parents and authorizers. This study of a K-8 charter renewal decision interrogates these accountability relationships and the role of race and power in privileging the interests of particular stakeholders over others. Using…

Background & Context: Accurate, reliable, and scalable measurement of classroom quality is critical to ensure that children benefit from early childhood programs. Early childhood classroom quality is most commonly measured using classroom observation tools serving multiple purposes including (1) teacher support (e.g., coaching, professional…

In March and April 2021, conservative education leaders representing state education agencies, charter networks, foundations, think tanks, research organizations, testing companies, universities and teachers convened in a private, three-part working group to discuss the future of state assessment and accountability systems. This brief highlights…

This poll was conducted between September 20-25, 2024 among a sample of 1,034 Teachers. The interviews were conducted online. Results based on the full survey have a measure of precision of plus or minus 3.60 percentage points. This report highlights: (1) views on K-12 education; (2) teaching profession and experiences; (3) school choice policies;…

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…

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…

We studied how six high-performing, high-poverty schools in one large Massachusetts city implemented the state's new teacher evaluation policy. The sample includes traditional, turnaround, restart, and charter schools, each of which had received the state's highest accountability rating. We sought to learn how these successful schools approached…

Public charter schools (PCS) are thought to succeed because they have greater autonomy and are held more accountable than traditional public schools (TPS). Though teachers are central to this expectation, there is little evidence about whether teachers in PCS enjoy more autonomy and are held more accountable than teachers in TPS. Also, it is…

This annual survey--developed and reported by EdChoice and interviews conducted by our partner, Braun Research, Inc.--measures public opinion and awareness on a range of K-12 education topics, including parents' schooling preferences, educational choice policies, the federal government's role in education and more. We report response levels,…

Purpose: This article highlights the complexity of accountability issues associated with one charter school from the charter application process, operation, and functioning of the external mechanism and the internal mechanism to hold the charter school accountable, closure of the school, and consequences of the charter school's closure on its…

This comparative case (Merriam, 2009) study explored two charter school principals' engagement in instructional leadership. Analysis of three data sources--interviews, observations, and documents--revealed that principals were almost exclusively focused on state accountability and possessed limited knowledge of pedagogical practices. In…

This study examined the influence of media framing on attitudes toward charter school reform. Participants in an Internet-based experiment were presented, at random, with one of three manipulated news articles framing charter school reform as (a) supportive of values such as freedom, choice, and innovation; (b) conflicting with values such as…

Policy makers, practitioners and scholars agree that teachers need sustained job-embedded professional learning experiences to help students meet the demands of new accountability systems, higher education, and the workforce (Smylie, Miretzky, & Konkol, 2004; Valli & Buese, 2007). Research shows that job-embedded learning for teachers can…