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Big Ideas for Education

Closing Achievement Gaps in Diverse Schools

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U.S. education leaders have spent decades highlighting and attempting to close achievement gaps, focused especially on the gaps between African-American and Latino students compared to their white and Asian peers, as well as the gaps between low-income students and others. But that focus can overlook the struggles in much wealthier areas: 55 percent of African-American students and 54 percent of Latino students attend schools with low or moderate poverty rates. In these more economically and racially diverse schools, students of color and low-income students fare better than in high-poverty schools—but they still face large achievement gaps. In this report by Public Impact, commissioned by Oak Foundation, we propose a fresh, complete package of approaches to closing achievement gaps in diverse schools.  [Read more…]

Raising the Bar: Why Public Charter Schools Must Become Even More Innovative

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Raising the Bar coverA better, bigger, broader charter school sector—that’s what the U.S. needs to meet students’ needs in a competitive and interconnected world, this report says. Twenty-five years after the first charter law was enacted in Minnesota, the public charter school sector has helped spark significant public education improvements, particularly for urban students and students of color. But the U.S. lags behind other developed countries in student achievement, about 1 million students are on charter school waiting lists nationwide, and many student groups are still underserved by all public schools, traditional and charter. This report, co-authored by The Mind Trust and Public Impact, calls on all involved in charter schools to make the sector better, broader, and bigger in order to expand its reach and meet the students’ needs—which will require innovation that breaks the mold of most schools today. The report recommends various steps charter school operators, policymakers, city-based education organizations, and philanthropic funders may take to spur more innovation in the sector.

Technology and Rural Education

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Tech in Rural Ed cover thumbnailTechnology holds great potential for rural schools, such as extending the reach of excellent teachers and expanding course offerings. But digital devices in a pre-digital school structure will not transform K-12. This paper, written for the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho, offers policymakers and philanthropic leaders a set of recommendations to capitalize on the potential of technology to serve students: expand broadband access to schools lacking it, create an elite corps of proven teachers who would be made available to students across the state, and provide districts and schools with the flexibility to develop new models of staffing and technology and to achieve the most strategic combination of personnel, facilities, and technology.

Going Exponential: Growing the Charter School Sector’s Best

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Going-Exponential_2011-1The supply of seats in the nation’s best charter schools is not growing rapidly enough to serve the millions of low-income children who need better schools.  Based on lessons from the fastest growing organizations in other sectors, this report for the Progressive Policy Institute provides breakthrough solutions for growing the best charter schools and charter management organizations. With specific advice for charter sector leaders, policymakers and philanthropists, Going Exponential offers strategies that could enable every child living in poverty to have access to schools as good as today’s top ten percent charter schools by 2025. Recommendations address the major barriers limiting growth of the sector’s best, such as scarcity of excellent school leaders, funding for growth, and motivation of charter leaders to grow while maintaining excellence.

Shifting Risk to Create Opportunity: A Role for Performance Guarantees in Education

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PerformanceGuaranteesEducationcoverIn this report, authors Bryan Hassel and Daniela Doyle note that to improve upon the successes of entrepreneurial providers and raise student achievement, more districts and states must be willing to give new education services a chance. Districts, however, are hesitant to hand over schools and school functions to outsiders. The authors suggest that performance guarantees, similar to car warranties or a home builder’s bonded contracts, could provide an incentive for districts to experiment with new services by shifting risk from the district to the provider. The report explores a range of design issues that districts, providers, and investors could work through as they set up viable performance guarantees.

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Opportunity Youth Network—A Collective Approach to Transforming Lives and Communities
Report examines Newark Opportunity Youth Network, a network of partners reconnecting youth to quality education programs and opportunity.

Addressing Indiana’s Quiet Teaching Crisis—A Sensible Blueprint for Progress
Report makes three key recommendations for smart policies to bring Indiana teacher pay to the regional median.

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.

Built to Grow—A Case Study of IDEA Public Schools
Report describes how IDEA continues to expand and thrive as the charter sector slows.

Closing Achievement Gaps—In Diverse and Low-Poverty Schools
Report commissioned by Oak Foundation proposes a fresh, complete package of approaches to closing achievement gaps in diverse schools.