Federal Investment in
Charter Schools - A
Proposal for
Reauthorizing the
Elementary and Secondary
Education Act
"...charters have
flexibility over
staffing, budgeting,
curricula, and
school operations,
such as length of
the school day and
year."
"Reward states and
districts that
engage high-quality
charters in turning
around their
chronically
underperforming
schools."
"...transforming
public education and
the paths and
barriers to
expanding
high-quality charter
school programs,
including the
federal role in this
transformation."
"...more likely to
expand learning time
beyond the
traditional school
day and year."
"...more likely to
consider teachers'
classroom
performance in
determining salary
and reward teachers
that take
hard-to-staff
positions with a
higher salary."
"...held to the same
state standards as
tradtional schools
and must serve the
needs of all
students including
low-income students,
English language
learners and special
education students."
"The federal
government's
investment in
charter schools
reached new heights
under the Obama
administration."
"...reward states
and districts that
support bolder
turnaround plans
like restart option.
This may include
encouraging states
to award larger
subgrants to
districts and
schools that
implement the
restart option."
Hopes, Fears, & Reality
- A Balanced look at
American Charter Schools
in 2012
"Decissions about
whether to make
charters a force for
integration and
redistribution are
still ahead of us."
"Charter school
incubators are
organization that
seek to improve odds
that new schools
will succeed."
"...Or are there
ways of organizing
instruction so that
schools need fewer
teachers?"
"The lab rotation
assumes using 25
percent fewer core
teachers and one
technology aide per
70 students..."
School District
Governance Reform: The
Devil is in the Details
"...we also discuss
other alternative
governance
approaches,
including district
dissolution and
state receivership."
"The transfer of
power usually allows
the mayor, state, or
both the ability to
appoint school board
members, hire a
superintendent,
control the budget,
and make decisions
regarding student
curriculum and
programs."
"Similarly, a desire
to make schools more
uniform could impact
parental choice
within the district
and cause more
parents to seek
other mechanisms for
choice, such as the
voucher program,
charter schools, or
open enrollment in
suburban schools."
"A state take cover
could theoretically
result in more
revenue, while a
mayoral takeover may
enable some
efficiencies
to be achieved in
collaboration with
city departments."
How Small Is Too Small?
- An Analysis of School
District Consolidation
"Moreover, very
small districts are
more difficult to
hold accountable for
student outcomes
because their small
enrollments do not
yield statistically
significant
results."
"However, we are
concerned that state
and federal
accountability
systems cannot draw
meaningful
conclusions about
student performance
in very small school
districts."
Size Matters: A Look at
School-District
Consolidation
"...policymakers
have begun to
rethink the
fundamental design
of our education
system."
"Could we reform the
structure of our
education system in
ways that might
increase student
achievement?"
"Rather, these data
are educated
guesses,.."
"..by lost potential
capacity, we mean
money that may not
have been spent if
the district was
larger and these
data are estimates
of potential lost
dollars based on
established methods
of determining the
cost of providing a
sufficient education
(By sufficient we
mean reaching state
and federal
standards.)
"..small districts
often have small
schools, and small
schools can have
higher overhead
costs."
"Extraordinary Authority
Districts"
"Extraordinary authority
districts" - turnaround
districts in which
states gain legal
authority to take over
and operate chronically
underperforming schools
and/or districts - can
fundamentally transform
school structures and
practices."
Elected School
Board member
Alturrick Kenney
and Milwaukee
Teachers Union
President Bob
Peterson respond
to Netflix CEO
Reed Hastings
call to abolish
elected ...
" It is estimated that
by 2010, about five
percent of the nation’s
public schools, many of
them in high-poverty
areas, will have moved
into the most extreme
NCLB designation—one
that calls for school
restructuring.
In some states, the
figure approaches 50
percent of public
schools."
Andy Calkins from Mass
Insight Education was
mentioned on the page:
"In
March 2009, the National
Association of State
Boards of Education (NASBE)
and the Council of Chief
State School Officers (CCSSO)
invited Andy Calkins
from the Mass Insight
Education and Research
Institute and Sam
Redding from the
National Center on
Innovation and
Improvement to address
state board of education
chairs and chief state
school officers on
designing a coherent
strategy to turn around
the lowest-performing
schools."
"Scaling
up what works and
leading systemic change
are inherently difficult
because they
require changing the
behavior of all
individuals at every
level of the system."
"The
core strategies include
crafting a carrot and
stick approach, creating
differentiated levels of
intervention in
districts based on the
degree of need, and
balancing flexibility
and autonomy for
districts to leverage
their willingness to
change prior to losing
control to the state
under the final NCLB
designation—reconstitution."
As Deputy Director for
Next Generation Learning
Challenges (http://nextgenlearning.org),
Andy Calkins helps to
lead strategy
development,
organizational
management, and program
execution across all
phases of the
initiative. His 30 years
of experience in K-12
reform complement the
largely higher
education-focused
background of other NGLC
staff and of EDUCAUSE,
the non-profit
organization managing
NGLC.
Prior to joining NGLC in
April, 2011, Andy served
as Senior Program
Officer at the Stupski
Foundation, Senior Vice
President at the
influential education
reform group Mass
Insight, Executive
Director of Recruiting
New Teachers, Inc. (the
non-profit behind the
national "Reach for the
Power: Teach"¯ campaign
working to build a
highly skilled, diverse
teacher workforce), and
as the editor of Electronic
Learning magazine
at Scholastic Inc. Andy
holds a B.A. from
Harvard College and was
a Henry Fellow at
Cambridge University in
the UK. He is the lead
author of The
Careers in Teaching
Handbook and The
Turnaround Challenge,
Mass Insight's 2007
report on turning around
the nation's
persistently
underperforming schools.
Here is their approach:
"Dramatic
change requires urgency
and an
atmosphere of crisis.
The indefensibly poor
performance records at
these schools—compared
to achievement outcomes
at model schools serving
similar student
populations—should
ignite exactly the
public, policymaker, and
professional outrage
needed to justify
dramatic action."
