The "Closing the Achievement Gap" series explores the Casey Foundation's education investments and presents stories, results, and lessons learned. This publication presents stories about two successful charter efforts and Foundation contributions. Contributions include: (1) Supporting a variety of activities and programs; (2) Financial support for coaching and other services that schools could not otherwise afford; (3) Development of effective and replicable authorizing and accountability systems; (4) Policy analysis; (5) Research funding on issues critical to quality and consistency; and (6) Recruitment of additional donors. [For the entire "Closing the Achievement Gap" series, see ED500487 through ED500493.]