This edition of our newsletter includes the following features stories, and more: Resetting Teaching: Mitigating the Great Resignation Making sense of the conflicting reports about teacher shortages and resignations may take many more months, but CNET took a solid look in The Great Resignation Hasn’t Hit School Teachers Yet. Here’s Why It Still Might. It highlights […]
Growing Idaho: Study shows need for more than 100 new schools by 2030
KTVB, February 8, 2022, by Tristan Lewis. A study commissioned by BLUUM shows there could be more than 42,000 more K-12 students in the state by 2030, compared to 2020. As the state of Idaho grows in population, Gem State school populations are growing as well. A new study by Idaho non-profit BLUUM showed Idaho […]
Idaho Charter Market Analysis: Exploring Growth Opportunities for Idaho Charter Schools
Statewide analysis seeks to understand the market opportunity for new charter schools in Idaho, using population growth projections and a quality seats analysis.
Meeting the Potential of a Virtual Education: Lessons from Operators Making Online Schooling Work
Report highlights the experience of two nonselective virtual charter schools making online schooling work for their student.
Meeting the Potential of a Virtual Education: Lessons from Operators Making Online Schooling Work
In general, virtual charter schools have had poor outcomes. A 2015 study from CREDO (the Center for Research on Education Outcomes) found that, on average, students enrolled in online charter schools lost 180 days of learning in math and 72 days of learning in reading compared to similar students in brick-and-mortar schools. But virtual schools […]
How Charter School Facility Incubators Can Overcome Common Charter Barrier: Case Study from Public Impact
Charter schools frequently confront inadequate facility funding, few affordable and suitable buildings, inadequate facility expertise among charter founders, and gradual expansion of enrollment and grade levels that requires more or new space. Charter school facility incubators provide affordable, short-term space for new and growing charter schools. In a new report, Charter School Facility Incubators: A […]
Big Ambitions: IDEA Public Schools Aims High for Growth + Quality
In 2000, IDEA Public Schools opened its first campus on the U.S.-Mexico border. Today, IDEA operates 79 schools serving 45,000 students in six regions, proving that it’s possible to grow rapidly while maintaining quality. And IDEA plans to keep its foot on the gas. It’s on track to enroll 100,000 students by 2022, and one […]
Autonomous District Schools: A New Path to Growing High-Quality, Innovative Public Schools
Report illuminates how districts are implementing autonomous district schools to gain charter-like flexibilities and opportunities.
Built to Grow: How IDEA Public Schools is Expanding to Serve a Million Students
Report describes how IDEA continues to expand and thrive as the charter sector slows.
Betting on a Brighter Charter School Future for Nevada Students
For too many children in and around Las Vegas, getting a great education has been a losing bet. As their Clark County School District exploded to become the country’s fifth-largest district, poor and minority students found themselves shut out of its top schools and concentrated in the county’s lowest-performing district and public charter schools. And […]
Learning from Tennessee: Growing High-Quality Charter Schools
In just five years, Tennessee went from 29 charter schools and six charter management organizations (CMOs) serving 5,500 kids to 98 schools and 24 CMOs serving 29,000 students—while emphasizing the need to replicate high-performing and high-potential charters in underserved communities. How did Tennessee do it, and what lessons can other education leaders learn from this state?
As we document in Public Impact’s new report for the Charter School Growth Fund, Growing a High-Quality Charter Sector: Lessons from Tennessee, the state benefitted from the convergence of favorable policy conditions, political leadership, public-private grants, and an existing supply of local high-quality charter operators. That created an environment for the Tennessee Charter School Incubator and the Charter School Growth Fund to carry out unique philanthropically supported strategies focused on identifying and developing promising new school leaders and expanding high-performing CMOs in Memphis and Nashville. Though the state has too little data yet to fully judge the impact on student achievement, early academic results are promising, and the newest charter schools are predominantly run by organizations with a record of success.
Growing a High-Quality Charter Sector: Lessons from Tennessee
Report describes how favorable policy conditions, political leadership, and public-private grants accelerated the growth of high-quality charter schools in Memphis and Nashville.