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A Reform-Driven System
Via this ambitious strand of work, we seek to deepen and strengthen the K–12 system’s capacity to deliver quality education to every child, based on rigorous standards and ample choices, by ensuring that it possesses the requisite talent, technology, policies, practices, structures, and nimble governance arrangements to promote efficiency as well as effectiveness.
Recent Publications
Governance in the charter school sector: Time for a reboot
Adam Emerson / March 28, 2013
When charter schools first emerged more than two decades ago, they presented an innovation in public school governance. No longer would school districts enjoy the “exclusive franchise” to own and operate public schools, as chartering pioneer and advocate Ted Kolderie explained. Charters wouldn’t gain all of the independence of private schools—they would still report to a publicly accountable body, or authorizer—but they would be largely freed from the micromanagement of school boards, district bureaucracies, and union contracts. Autonomy, in exchange for accountability, would reign supreme. Over the course of its twenty-year history, however, American education and its charter school sector have evolved in important ways. One of the significant ways is school governance—not a topic that gets a lot of attention but, as it turns out, a crucial one that is overdue for an overhaul (and not just in the charter sector). The growth of nonprofit charter networks (CMOs), the ubiquity of for-profit school-management companies (EMOs), and the emergence of “virtual” charter schools have all upended the notion that charters would mostly be freestanding “community-based” schools of the “one-off” variety. Yet the public policies and practices that characterize charter governance haven’t kept pace with these real-world changes. To examine this mismatch more closely and consider how it might be set right, we interviewed nearly two dozen analysts, authorizers, board members, and practitioners with interest in and knowledge of charter schools. Not one of them felt that the inherited assumptions and regulations about governance in the charter sector are truly well suited to present-day realities. This brief explores several ways that charter governance might be rebooted.
Searching for Excellence: A Five-City, Cross-State Comparison of Charter School Quality
March 13, 2013
Conducted jointly by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Public Impact, the new research study Searching for Excellence: A Five-City, Cross-State Comparison of Charter School Quality sheds light on charter performance — in Albany, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, and Indianapolis. These cities were highlighted because they have relatively large numbers of charter schools and charter school students. These are cities where charters have been part of the educational landscape for a decade or more. Read this exciting report today!
Steps in the Right Direction
February 27, 2013
Dr. Paul Hill evaluates Governor John Kasich's education budget proposal.
When Teachers Choose Pension Plans: The Florida Story
Matthew M. Chingos , Martin R. West / February 21, 2013
In an era of budgetary belt tightening, state and local policy makers are finally awakening to the impact of teacher pension costs on their bottom lines. Recent reports demonstrate that such pension programs across the United States are burdened by almost $390 billion in unfunded liabilities. Yet, most states and municipalities have been taking the road of least resistance, tinkering around the edges rather than tackling systemic (but painful) pension reform. Is the solution to the pension crisis to offer teachers the option of a 401(k)-style plan (also known as a "defined contribution" or DC plan) instead of a traditional pension plan? Would this alternative appeal to teachers? When Teachers Choose Pension Plans: The Florida Story sets out to answer these questions.
Commentary & Feedback on Draft II of the Next Generation Science Standards
Paul Gross , Douglas Buttrey , Ursula Goodenough , Noretta Koertge , Lawrence S. Lerner , Martha Schwartz , Richard Schwartz , William H. Schmidt , W. Stephen Wilson / February 4, 2013
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has provided big-picture feedback and detailed, standard-specific commentary for the second draft of the Next Generation Science Standards—standards that done right, set a firm foundation upon which the rest of science education across the states will be constructed. In our comments on the first draft, we concluded that “the NGSS authors have much to do to ensure that the final draft is a true leap forward in science education.” In comments on Draft II, we address to what extent NGSS writers have moved closer to a set of K–12 science standards that even states with strong standards of their own would do well to adopt.
Recent Articles
Flypaper
The right response to the Atlanta cheating scandal
April 5, 2013
Intelligently mend test-based accountability, don't end it
Ohio Gadfly Daily
Bill Gates not a fan of Ohio's PE evaluations
April 5, 2013
Bill Gates piece in Washington Post sides with Terry Ryan's commentary about Ohio's physical education evaluations.
Common Core Watch
In the Knowledge Economy, It’s Knowledge That Matters
April 5, 2013
The industrial economy that typified the twentieth century has been replaced by what has been dubbed the “knowledge” economy. And experts agree that while the industrial economy was driven by productivity, the knowledge economy is and will be driven by ideas.
Ohio Gadfly Daily
What explains KIPP’s success?
April 4, 2013
Mathematica doesn’t find the magic formula for KIPP’s success. But, there are a few tantalizing results.
Choice Words
Left-of-center reformers: Join the voucher movement today
April 4, 2013
In which Mike addresses the left's main concerns with voucher programs
