Here you will find reports, research and articles covering various views on school choice issues, i.e. charters, magnets, vouchers. Posting here does not indicate Georgia Partnership endorsement.
The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness - CMOs: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Impacts
Mathematica Policy Research and The Center on Reinventing Public Education
A follow-up to a major study on the performance of charter school networks shows that they are yielding varied results when it comes to their students' progress in graduating from high school and going on to college. Relating story. (January 2012)
The Road to Autonomy: Can Schools, Districts, and Central Offices Find Their Way?
Education Sector
This report looks at whether a culture of autonomy in education brings the same rewards that it does in business, as proponents claim. (August 2011)
Keeping Informed About School Vouchers - A Review of Major Developments and Research
Center on Education Policy
Voucher proponents have shifted their advocacy efforts from extolling the academic achievement of voucher participants to focusing on the value of school choice as a virtue in itself. Relating article. (July 2011)
KIPP Schools' Report Card
Knowledge Is Power Program
This report includes school profiles and student achievement data for the 82 KIPP schools with reportable results from the 2009-10 school year. It also shares both the academic and non-academic factors that KIPP believes matter most to school health. (June 2011)
http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/PA%20State%20Report_20110404_FINAL.pdf
Charter School Performance in Pennsylvania
Stanford University
This study concludes that "students in Pennsylvania charter schools on average make smaller learning gains" when compared with their traditional counterparts (ECS). Relating article. (June 2011)
A Failed Experiment: Georgia's Tax Credit Scholarships for Private Schools
Southern Education Foundation
This report finds that the state's program of tax credit scholarships for private K-12 schools has failed to achieve its primary public aim of providing the state’s low income children attending troubled public schools with new, affordable opportunities for a good education. Relating article. (June 2011)
Reforming Districts Through Choice, Autonomy, Equity, and Accountability: An Overview of the Voluntary Public School Choice Directors Meeting
Center on Reinventing Public Education
This conference report provides specifics on the most pressing issues faced by localities committed to public school choice. Panelists addressed several areas open to choice districts. (May 2011)
Preparing for Growth: Human Capital Innovations in Charter Public Schools
Center for American Progress
Charter schools and successful charter management organizations that run them have grown significantly over the past decade but they must dramatically increase their scale in order to meet the demand for high-quality public school options for America’s children. (May 2011)
You're Leaving? Sustainability and Succession in Charter Schools
Center on Reinventing Public Education
Seventy-one percent of charter school leaders say they plan to leave their schools within five years, raising questions about the stability of the culture of those schools, according to this report. (December 2010)
A Growing Movement: America's Largest Charter School Communities
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
Public charter schools have been part of America’s public education system for 18 years, and the number of these unique public schools is growing more each year. (November 2010)
Charter School Autonomy: A Half-Broken Promise
Thomas B. Fordham Institute
This study finds that the typical charter school in America today lacks the autonomy it needs to succeed, once state, authorizer, and other impositions are considered. (April 2010)
Trends In the Use of School Choice - Statistical Analysis Report
National Center for Educational Statistics
Did you know that more school-age children are schooled at home full time than attend charter schools? That statistical tidbit comes from federal data released earlier this month. (April 2010)
Teacher Turnover in Charter Schools
National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education
This report looks at higher teacher turnover in charters, a key distinction from traditional public schools. (December 2009)
School Choice Issues in the State - The Economic and Fiscal Costs to Failing to Reform K-12 Education in Georgia
The Friedman Foundation/Georgia Public Policy Foundation
The study's author, emphasized the real world impact of the high school diploma. "Because so many of Georgia's young people fail to graduate from high school, a high percentage of native Georgians have not been able to contribute or fully participate in the fruits of Georgia's new economy." (December 2009)
Better Value, Fewer Taxpayer Dollars
Ethan Allen Institute
This free market think tank believes in limiting government and is recommending that Vermont save money by allowing students to choose what schools to attend - PEN. (December 2009)
Growing Pains: Scaling Up the Nation's Best Charter Schools
Education Sector
This report that takes an objective look at how prepared the nation's best charter schools are to meet the challenge of rapid expansion. (November 2009)
National Charter School Study
CREDO - Stanford University
This report found that there is a wide variance in the quality of the nation’s several thousand charter schools with, in the aggregate, students in charter schools not faring as well as students in traditional public schools. (Published June 2009 posted December 2009)
The Effects of New York City's Charter Schools on Student Achievement
Stanford University
Students who entered lotteries and won spots in one of NYC's 99 charter schools performed better on state exams than students who entered the same lotteries but did not secure charter school seats - ECS. (September 2009)
Matchmaking: Enabling Mandatory Public School Choice in New York and Boston
Education Sector
These choice systems, though not without challenges, have stimulated a new entrepreneurialism among many public educators, improved the perception of public education among middle-class families, and more. See relating video.(September 2009)
An Examination of the Financial Health of Georgia's Start-up Charter Schools
Fiscal Research Center - Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University
This report sheds light on the financial health of start-up charter schools in Georgia during the 2006-07 school year. (August 2009)
A New Model Law For Supporting The Growth Of High-Quality Public Charter Schools
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
The organization's intent is for the new law to be useful to the 41 jurisdictions with charter laws as well as the 10 states that have yet to enact a charter law. (June 2009)
Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States
Center for Research on Education Outcomes, Stanford University
As charter schools play an increasingly central role in education reform agendas across the United States, it becomes more important to have current and comprehensible analysis about how well they do educating their students. (June 2009)
Food for Thought: Building a High Quality Choice Market
Education Sector
Nearly 20 years after the first charter schools were founded, it has become increasingly clear that opening up markets to new providers is only the first step in dramatically improving the supply and demand for great public schools. See accompanying article. (May 2009)
Local Demand for School Choice: Evidence from the Washington Charter School Referenda
National Center for the Privatization in Education
Are charter schools a partisan issue? This paper looks at precinct-level returns from three ballot referenda in Washington State. (May 2009)
We should expect excellence in schools
Memphis Commercial Appeal
We have both served as U.S. Secretary of Education -- under the first President Bush from 1991-1993 and now under President Obama -- and have seen the potential that charter schools can have in getting results for American students. (April 2009)
School Choice Demonstration Project - Milwaukee Parental Choice Program
University of Arkansas - Department of Education Reform
A new study comparing the academic progress of students in Milwaukee's voucher program with students in public schools shows no major differences in success between the two groups. (March 2009)
When Private Schools Take Public Dollars: What's the Place of Accountability in School Voucher Programs?
Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Voucher opponents often argue that it's unfair to hold public schools accountable for results under the No Child Left Behind Act and various state rules while allowing private schools that participate in voucher programs to receive taxpayer dollars without similar accountability. This report doesn't entirely buy that argument but argues there's room for a reasonable middle ground. (March 2009)
Charter Schools in Eight States - Effects on Achievement, Attainment, Integration and Competition
Rand Corporation
This study aims to inform the policy debate by examining four primary research questions in several geographic locations. (March 2009)
Vouchers Are Not the Silver Bullet
Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education
The organization feels that school vouchers are not the silver bullet that will heal all public school ills. Accountability of taxpayer money must be at the heart of voucher legislation. (March 2009)
Inside Urban Charter Schools - Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools
Harvard Education Press
A new book "Inside Urban Charter Schools" by researchers at the Harvard School of Education looks at five consistently high-performing charter schools in urban areas in Massachusetts. Read the introduction and a sample chapter here. (Public Education Network - February 2009)
Return on Investment? Public Schools in Georgia
Center for Educated Georgia (January 2009)
Using publicly available data from federal and state government sources almost exclusively, this paper analyzes K12 education spending and public high school graduation rates in Georgia over the last generation.
Hope, Fears and Reality
Center on Reinventing Public Education (December 2008)
The fourth annual analysis from the National Charter School Research Project, looks at what's going on in charter schools, how well they're doing, where they need to improve, and what can be learned from the research on these types of public schools.