Review of "Charter-School Management Organizations

Review of Author: Bruce Fuller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
This report details how charter schools are increasingly run by private, nonprofit management organizations called charter school management organizations (CMOs). The researchers find that most CMOs serve urban students from low-income families, operate small schools that offer more instructional time, and attract teachers loyal to each school's mission, based on survey data and site visits. The authors conducted an impact analysis focused only on middle school grades, finding that a small fraction of CMO-run middle schools boosted achievement growth at notable levels. But on average, student performance in the CMO-run schools did not outpace achievement growth in other charters or in host districts for a statistically matched set of students. This review finds that the report offers an objective assessment of the comparative benefits for middle-school students of a highly select set of CMOs. It also helps to identify organizational features that operate in successful CMO-run schools that are modestly associated with stronger student growth in the middle grades. However, the authors downplay aspects of their methodology that resulted in significant selectivity concerning which CMOs were studied, raising questions regarding the population of charter schools to which they hope to generalize. (Contains combined notes and references.) [For related report, "Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts. Updated Edition," see ED528536.].

Review of "Charter-School Management Organizations

Review of Author: Bruce Fuller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 17

Get Book Here

Book Description
This report details how charter schools are increasingly run by private, nonprofit management organizations called charter school management organizations (CMOs). The researchers find that most CMOs serve urban students from low-income families, operate small schools that offer more instructional time, and attract teachers loyal to each school's mission, based on survey data and site visits. The authors conducted an impact analysis focused only on middle school grades, finding that a small fraction of CMO-run middle schools boosted achievement growth at notable levels. But on average, student performance in the CMO-run schools did not outpace achievement growth in other charters or in host districts for a statistically matched set of students. This review finds that the report offers an objective assessment of the comparative benefits for middle-school students of a highly select set of CMOs. It also helps to identify organizational features that operate in successful CMO-run schools that are modestly associated with stronger student growth in the middle grades. However, the authors downplay aspects of their methodology that resulted in significant selectivity concerning which CMOs were studied, raising questions regarding the population of charter schools to which they hope to generalize. (Contains combined notes and references.) [For related report, "Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts. Updated Edition," see ED528536.].

What Works Clearinghouse Quick Review

What Works Clearinghouse Quick Review PDF Author: What Works Clearinghouse (ED)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 2

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Book Description
The study examined the effect of non-profit charter-school management organizations (CMOs) on middle school academic achievement and rates of high school graduation and post-secondary enrollment. Within eight geographically diverse states, the authors matched each charter school student with similar students attending conventional public schools. The sample included nearly 14,000 students attending 68 middle schools operated by 22 CMOs and nearly 3,000 students who attended 13 high schools operated by six CMOs. The study reported that, on average, there were no statistically significant effects of attending a CMO-operated school on state assessments in math, reading, science, or social studies among middle school youth. There were also no statistically significant impacts on high school graduation and college enrollment rates. The study reported substantial variation in both the magnitude and level of statistical significance of the impacts across the participating CMOs. The study is not a randomized controlled trial and, therefore, cannot receive the highest rating of "meets WWC (What Works Clearinghouse) evidence standards". It used a quasi-experimental design, established that CMO and non-CMO students were similar on measured characteristics such as baseline test scores and demographics, and controlled for baseline characteristics of students in the analysis. A more thorough review (forthcoming) will confirm whether the study "meets WWC evidence standards with reservations". [The following study is reviewed in this What Works Clearinghouse Quick Review: "Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts. Updated Edition" (ED528536).].

Reinventing Public Education

Reinventing Public Education PDF Author: Paul Hill
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226336530
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
A heated debate is raging over our nation’s public schools and how they should be reformed, with proposals ranging from imposing national standards to replacing public education altogether with a voucher system for private schools. Combining decades of experience in education, the authors propose an innovative approach to solving the problems of our school system and find a middle ground between these extremes. Reinventing Public Education shows how contracting would radically change the way we operate our schools, while keeping them public and accessible to all, and making them better able to meet standards of achievement and equity. Using public funds, local school boards would select private providers to operate individual schools under formal contracts specifying the type and quality of instruction. In a hands-on, concrete fashion, the authors provide a thorough explanation of the pros and cons of school contracting and how it would work in practice. They show how contracting would free local school boards from operating schools so they can focus on improving educational policy; how it would allow parents to choose the best school for their children; and, finally, how it would ensure that schools are held accountable and academic standards are met. While retaining a strong public role in education, contracting enables schools to be more imaginative, adaptable, and suited to the needs of children and families. In presenting an alternative vision for America’s schools, Reinventing Public Education is too important to be ignored.

Choices and Challenges

Choices and Challenges PDF Author: Priscilla Wohlstetter
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
ISBN: 1612505430
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
As charter schools enter their third decade, research in this key sector remains overwhelmingly contradictory and confused. Many studies are narrowly focused; some do not meet the standards for high-quality academic research. In this definitive work, Wohlstetter and her colleagues isolate and distill the high-quality research on charter schools to identify the contextual and operational factors that influence these schools’ performances. The authors examine the track record of the charter sector in light of the wide range of goals set for these schools in state authorizing legislation—at the classroom level, the level of the school community, and system-wide. In particular, they show how the evolution of the charter movement has shaped research questions and findings. By highlighting what we know about the conditions for success in charter schools, the authors make a significant contribution to current debates in policy and practice, both within the charter sector and in the larger landscape of public education.

A Management Review of Commonwealth Charter Schools

A Management Review of Commonwealth Charter Schools PDF Author: Massachusetts. Office of the Inspector General
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Charter schools
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
...Review of the business operations of 24 commonwealth charter schools; this report identifies weaknesses in the contracting, procurement and financial management of some of these schools...

What's Public About Charter Schools?

What's Public About Charter Schools? PDF Author: Gary Miron
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 0761945385
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This book contains evidence about charter schools that can provide important data on evaluating this new public-private hybrid and its success at serving the core purpose of public education. The book focuses on charter schools in Michigan, which is regarded as having one of the most permissive charter laws in the country. The first three chapters provide a theoretical framework for, and the descriptive context of, the charter-school reform in Michigan. Chapter 4 analyzes charter-school finance in Michigan. The remainder of the book seeks to evaluate the "public-ness" of Michigan charter schools according to the definitions introduced in the first chapter. The last chapter summarizes evidence and provides an answer to the question, "What's public about charter schools?" These schools appear to be doing a reasonably good job of creating communities of teachers with commonly held educational viewpoints, but may be doing so at the expense of equitable access to the schools and student-achievement gains. Three appendices contain key historical developments in Michigan that affected public and private schooling, background and documentation for analysis of student achievement, and a list of education-management organizations and schools they operated in 2000-01. (Contains 157 references.) (RT)

Review of "Charting New Territory"

Review of Author: Tina Trujillo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 11

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Book Description
"Charting New Territory: Tapping Charter Schools to Turn Around the Nation's Dropout Factories" argues for a more prominent role for charter operators in turning around perennially low-performing high schools. However, the report's ultimate findings and conclusions are out of proportion to the strength of the research evidence on school turnarounds, charter schools, and charter management organizations, as well as to the data on which the analysis is based. As such, its recommendations are of little utility in guiding policy on charter management organizations as tools for turning around struggling schools. Further, the report fails to justify the general practice of converting chronically low-performing schools to charter status. Instead, the report reproduces familiar arguments for market-based school reforms that are grounded in little empirical evidence and that use our nation's neediest schools--those serving primarily poor children and children of color--as laboratories for educational experiments, notwithstanding existing evidence that the experiments will not succeed. In doing so, the report distracts policymakers and practitioners from more fundamental and worthwhile questions about the types of policies that can secure the necessary conditions for all students to succeed. (Contains 21 notes.) [This document presents a review of: Lazarin, Melissa. "Charting New Territory: Tapping Charter Schools to Turn Around the Nation's Dropout Factories." Center for American Progress and The Broad Foundation, June 2011.].

Selling School

Selling School PDF Author: Catherine DiMartino
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807776785
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
This timely book outlines the growth and development of marketing and branding practices in public education. The authors highlight why these practices have become important across key fields within public education, including leadership and governance, budgeting and finance, strategic initiatives, use of new technology, the role of teachers in marketing, and messaging. From an organizational perspective, they explore the implications of edvertising on the democratic mission of public education, especially as related to issues of equity and access for students who have been historically underserved. The authors argue that expansive marketing campaigns, unequal funding sources, and lack of regulation are quickly and profoundly reshaping public education without the benefit of robust research or public debate. Selling School is important reading for principals navigating increasingly marketized school systems, for policymakers constructing legislation, and for parents negotiating school choice. “DiMartino and Jessen are right in their prescient discussion of the muddling of public and private models in public education through marketing.” —From the Foreword by Christopher Lubienski, Indiana University, Bloomington “This book pioneers new ground as the authors move the literature on the marketization of education into a more nuanced analysis of how branding discourses and practices have entered the logic of public schooling.” —Gary L. Anderson, New York University “Essential for readers interested in learning about how private sector practices affect the functions of public schools.” —Janelle Scott, University of California, Berkeley

Taking Measure of Charter Schools

Taking Measure of Charter Schools PDF Author: Julian R. Betts
Publisher: R&L Education
ISBN: 160709360X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
This book breaks new ground on how policymakers and journalists can fairly assess charter school performance. The editors and authors show how good approaches to charter school assessment would also work for regular public schools, which is important because of the requirements of No Child Left Behind.

The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness. Charter-School Management Organizations

The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness. Charter-School Management Organizations PDF Author: Joshua Furgeson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Charter schools--public schools of choice that are operated autonomously, outside the direct control of local school districts--have become more prevalent over the past two decades. There is no consensus about whether, on average, charter schools are doing better or worse than conventional public schools at promoting the achievement of their students. Nonetheless, one research finding is clear: Effects vary widely among different charter schools. Many educators, policymakers, and funders are interested in ways to identify and replicate successful charter schools and help other public schools adopt effective charter school practices. Charter-school management organizations (CMOs), which establish and operate multiple charter schools, represent one prominent attempt to bring high performance to scale. Many CMOs were created in order to replicate educational approaches that appeared to be effective, particularly among disadvantaged students. Attracting substantial philanthropic support, CMO schools have grown rapidly from encompassing about 6 percent of all charter schools in 2000 to about 17 percent of a much larger number of charter schools by 2009 (Miron 2010). Some of these organizations have received laudatory attention through anecdotal reports of dramatic achievement results. The National Study of CMO Effectiveness aims to fill the gap in systematic evidence about CMOs, providing the first rigorous nationwide examination of CMO achievement effects. The study includes an examination of the relationships between the practices of individual CMOs and their effects on student achievement, with the aim of providing useful guidance to the field. Mathematica Policy Research and the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) are conducting the study with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, and project management assistance from the NewSchools Venture Fund. This report provides key findings from the study on CMO practices, impacts, and the relationships between them. Additional reports will explore promising practices in greater depth and examine longer-term impacts of CMOs on high school graduation and college entry. Appended are: (1) Construction and Analysis of School Practice Measures Used in Chapter III; (2) Validation of The Quasi- Experimental Methods in Experimental Sites; (3) Propensity Score Matching Method; (4) Baseline Equivalence of Student Comparison and Treatment Groups; (5) Method for Dealing With Grade Repeaters; (6) Multiple Comparison Adjustments for Impact Analyses; (7) Impacts by Year and Subject; (8) Impact Estimates for independent Charter Schools; (9) Subgroup Impacts; (10) Methods for Correlating Impacts and Practices; and (11) Detailed Results from Correlation of Impacts and Practices. (Contains 11 tables and 46 figures.) [This report was written with assistance from Michael Barna, Emily Caffery, Hanley Chiang, John Deke, Melissa Dugger, Emma Ernst, Alena Davidoff-Gore, Eric Grau, Thomas Decker, Mason DeCamillis, Philip Gleason, Amanda Hakanson, Jane Nelson, Antoniya Owens, Julie Redline, Davin Reed, Chris Rodger, Margaret Sullivan, Christina Tuttle, Justin Vigeant, Tiffany Waits and Clare Wolfendale. For related report, "The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness. Report on Interim Findings," see ED516865.].