Autonomous District Schools–A New Kind of High-Quality, Innovative Public School
Report illuminates how districts are implementing autonomous district schools to gain charter-like flexibilities and opportunities.
Autonomous District Schools: A New Path to Growing High-Quality, Innovative Public Schools
This report from Public Impact considers how U.S. school districts increasingly create autonomous district schools to give their schools the flexibility afforded to charter schools, in an effort to provide high-quality, innovative, and diverse public schools at scale. Like charter schools, autonomous district schools are exempt from some policies governing state-funded schools, and they have autonomy over some staffing, curriculum, budget, and operational decisions. They may be operated or supported by external school management organizations, but they remain part of the school district, which holds them accountable for their performance through contracts or alternative governance structures. This report, developed with the support of the Walton Family Foundation, examines autonomous district school models, how they differ from traditional district and charter schools, and design and implementation elements that districts should consider when creating autonomous district schools.
Built to Grow NEW
Built to Grow–A Case Study of IDEA Public Schools
Report describes how IDEA continues to expand and thrive as the charter sector slows.
Built to Grow: How IDEA Public Schools is Expanding to Serve a Million Students
Charter growth may be slowing across the country, but IDEA Public Schools remains committed to bringing its proven model to as many students as possible. This case study breaks down how IDEA overcomes the barriers to growth that stop so many of its peers by applying many of the same strategies that private companies use to expand and thrive. As a result, IDEA has built the systems necessary to replicate with consistency and efficiency year after year, while meetings its talent, facilities, and funding needs to the benefit of its 45,000 students and counting.
Coker-Wimberly: Setting Kindergarteners Up for Success Starts Day One
EdNC, February 6, 2019, by Liz Bell
When children come to the first day of kindergarten, they come with a variety of needs, personalities, abilities, and backgrounds. The most important thing in those first few weeks is building a routine, said Annette Kent, a kindergarten teacher at Coker-Wimberly Elementary School in Edgecombe County.
“Routines are very important in kindergarten and building that stamina that they need when we start the reading process,” Kent said. “I really need them to be focusing and being on task the entire time and not losing any of their instructional time. So we’re trying to drill that importance of just being able to stay on that one task and keep that one task.”
The routine leads to more time to dive into academics.
“Kids now are expected to be able to read, write, answer comprehension questions, [in] their mathematics, they’re solving problems. I think people still think kindergarten is just counting, and it’s not,” said Coker-Wimberly Principal Katelin Row. “They’re doing addition, they’re doing subtraction, they’re doing almost everything. They’re doing foundations in geometry and working with 3-D shapes. Six year olds are doing 3-D shapes right now, and that’s not what kindergarten was 20 years ago, 30 years ago.” Read the full article…
Gov. Tony Evers Wants More Money for K-12 Education. Research Backs Many of His Ideas.
Post-Crescent, February 1, 2019, by Jen Zettel Vandenhouten
During his first State of the State speech last week, Gov. Tony Evers announced several education priorities he’d like to address in the next state budget.
They include $600 million more for special education, restoring two-thirds funding to Wisconsin’s K-12 schools, closing the achievement gaps for low-income students and students of color, expanding early childhood and summer school grant programs and increasing mental health funding.
To make any of these priorities a reality, Evers and his fellow Democrats will need to work with Republicans, who control both houses of the Legislature. Read full article…
Indiana Teacher Pay is Lower than every neighboring state. Here’s how much it would take to fix that.
IndyStar, January 29, 2019, by Arike Herron
A study released Tuesday sheds new light on the depth and breadth of Indiana’s teacher pay problem – and it puts a price tag on the solution.
$658.1 million.
That’s how much the study from two reform-minded education organizations found it would take to raise the average pay for Indiana teachers to compete with neighboring states. The study attempts to quantify the size of the problem in Indiana and make recommendations for how to fix it.
Aside from raising teacher pay, the study from Stand for Children and Teach Plus stands firmly behind two initiatives to provide more support and opportunity for classroom teachers. Read the full article…
