Ohio's charter-closure law is touted as one of the toughest in the nation because it requires the automatic closure of charter schools that consistently fail to meet academic standards. The law has been showcased by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) in its "One Million Lives" campaign, which calls for tougher state laws to close failing charter schools.
The widespread attention and support of the NACSA campaign has pushed Ohio's closure law into the spotlight as a model of accountability for low-performing charter schools. However, The Plain Dealer's editorial board, in a commentary on NACSA's praise of Ohio's charter school accountability standards, pointed out what NACSA did not: Ohio's charter school laws, while they may have stronger mandates for closure than those of other states, are still replete with loopholes.
Since the charter-closure law went into effect in 2008, 20 schools across the state have met closure criteria, and all are currently listed as closed by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). But an investigation of the schools by Policy Matters revealed that eight schools -- and the management companies that run them -- have found ways to skirt the closure law and remain open, severely undermining the law's effectiveness and highlighting the lax accountability that prevails in Ohio's charter sector. For-profit managers -- the Leona Group, Mosaica Education and White Hat Management -- operate six of the reopened schools.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Ohio
Community and Economic Development, Education and Literacy
Large-scale public school closures have become a fact of life in many American cities, and that trend is not likely to stop now. This report
looks at what happens to the buildings themselves, studying the experiences of Philadelphia and 11 other cities that have decommissioned large numbers of schools in recent years: Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tulsa and Washington.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Missouri-St. Louis County-St. Louis, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Missouri-Jackson County-Kansas City, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Michigan-Wayne County-Detroit, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Illinois-Cook County-Chicago, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Ohio-Cuyahoga County-Cleveland, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Ohio-Hamilton County-Cincinnati, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Wisconsin-Milwaukee County-Milwaukee, North America-United States (Northeastern)-Pennsylvania-Allegheny County-Pittsburgh, North America-United States (Southern)-District of Columbia-Washington, North America-United States (Southern)-Georgia-Fulton County-Atlanta, North America-United States (Southern)-Oklahoma-Tulsa County-Tulsa
Education and Literacy, Poverty
Evidence-based policy has been a goal of American education policymakers for at least two decades. School reformers seek data about student knowledge and skills, hoping to use this information to improve schools. One category of such evidence, international test results, has seemingly permitted comparisons of student performance in the United States with that in other countries. Such comparisons have frequently been interpreted to show that American students perform poorly when compared to students internationally. From this, reformers conclude that U.S. public education is failing and that its failure imperils America's ability to compete with other nations economically.
This report, however, shows that such inferences are too glib. Comparative student performance on international tests should be interpreted with much greater care than policymakers typically give it.
August 1970
Geographic Focus:
In 2009, the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI) and the Ounce of Prevention Fund (the Ounce) embarked on an effort to form a partnership whose vision is to "...build a model of public education for children and their families that begins at birth and creates success in school, and life."
UEI designed and operates four public charter school campuses offering families a pathway to college for their children that begins with prekindergarten (preK) and continues through high school. The Ounce created and operates the Educare School, which prepares at risk children from birth to age five for success in school. The partnership will initially demonstrate what it means when children begin their education early with Educare, enter UEI's charter campuses for elementary, middle and high school, advance to college, and persist to graduation. Ultimately, the partnership plans to harness and share the academic expertise and real-world experience of members of both organizations. The goal is to collaboratively and continuously align and create instructional practices, and academic and social supports, to demonstrate a new model of public education that seamlessly and successfully prepares children for college, beginning at birth.
In the United States, early childhood education (ECE) is not publicly mandated. All children in the U.S. receive public schooling that generally begins with kindergarten. As a result, many children do not have access to sufficient learning opportunities early in life, and may start kindergarten at a disadvantage. Given that K-12 attempts at closing the achievement gap are costly and generally ineffective, calls are being made to prevent the achievement gap from ever occurring. This requires intervention at a very young age, since differences in achievement based on income level can be seen as young as nine months and become larger by kindergarten. Even children who have been exposed to high quality ECE can experience a "fade" of those benefits upon entering K-12, depending on the quality of elementary school. For many children, the achievement gap begins to widen once again.
In the city of Chicago, high school graduation rates hover around 50 percent. Of those students who graduate, only 35 percent go on to attend four-year colleges and universities. The numbers grow even smaller for children who are African American, Latino, or low-income. The achievement gap that opens in early childhood tends to widen throughout K-12, and many children who start with a disadvantage at kindergarten never graduate from high school. If they do, they are unlikely to attend and graduate from college. Higher education levels are related to higher incomes, lower levels of unemployment, and other positive outcomes. In order to be competitive in a world where a college degree is increasingly important, the United States must ensure that children graduate high school and are prepared to graduate from college.
Preventing an achievement gap and ensuring that the fade of benefits from high-quality ECE does not occur in elementary school, while at the same time raising the bar to "college for all," requires collaboration between the worlds of ECE and K-12. In the United States, however, there exists a structural divide between the two fields. Despite the fact that they share similar goals for educating children, policies, standards, and funding streams contribute to a "disconnect."
The partnership's goals are to effect change in public education by creating a demonstration model of birth-to-grade 12 education that prepares students for success in college and life. In order to accomplish this, the two organizations will work together to share expertise, and align and co-create practices, to ensure the best possible chance for success for students. The partnership first needed to be established, strengthened, and trusted by key players from each organization -- this was not a simple task. UEI and the Ounce began this effort by developing a roadmap that includes a shared vision and mission, core values, and goals and activities of the partnership. We focus here on the formation of the shared vision and mission, a document that represents the goals and aspirations of the partnership between the two organizations. In the service of creating this document, a working group comprised of educators, administrators, researchers, and teacher leaders from each organization was formed. The working group used an iterative process, where they revised, questioned, and adjusted the roadmap during a series of ten three-hour meetings that took place over the course of nine months and were facilitated by a specialist. Working group members' testimonies about their experiences participating in the group are referenced in this study. We will also review iterations of the shared vision and mission as they changed over time.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Midwestern) / Illinois / Cook County / Chicago
Community and Economic Development;Education and Literacy
Institutions of higher education and community development financial institutions (CDFIs) have a long history of partnering with one another to strengthen their local communities. However, until now, there has been little research conducted to understand the breadth and depth of these partnerships. In November 2011, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund ("The Fund") commissioned Opportunity Finance Network ("OFN") to undertake a two-phase research study to explore the relationship between CDFIs and institutions of higher education.
The first phase of the study, a national survey of CDFIs, provided insights into the types and characteristics of partnerships that exist between CDFIs and colleges and universities. Seventy-two (72) organizations from 34 states and Washington, D.C. responded to OFN's survey. From this survey, three key themes emerged:
- Partnerships between institutions of higher education and CDFIs are more common than one might think: Eighty-two percent (82%) of CDFIs report working in partnership with higher education, generally with four-year institutions, and with public institutions more than private ones.
- While there are many types of partnerships, working together on community-focused initiatives is most frequent. The most successful partnerships leverage the financial resources and expertise from both institutions of higher education and CDFIs to co-invest in projects that build the local community. Other types of partnerships include research partnerships (the college or university provides research for the CDFI), and training/education partnerships (the college or university provides technical assistance or education to the borrowers of the CDFI).
- These partnerships are enduring, most frequently lasting five years or more. Factors driving the success of these partnerships include strong relationships between the CDFI and the college's leadership and staff, and the institution's commitment to community development and community relations.
In the second phase of the study, case studies were gathered to highlight examples of successful collaboration between institutions of higher education and CDFIs. These case studies illustrate the diversity of opportunities available to achieve shared or complementary goals through partnership, such as:
- Improving Access to Healthy Food: Food deserts, or minimal community access to healthy foods, are a problem seen across the United States. La Salle University and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) addressed this problem in northern Philadelphia as part of a larger community revitalization project. Together with other members of the community, TRF and La Salle developed an 80,000 square foot retail center adjacent to La Salle's campus. In addition to providing fresh, healthy food for the underdeveloped neighborhood, the project created 250 jobs and used green building methods to reduce energy consumption.
- Increasing Child Care and Education Options: The University of Chicago and University of Chicago Hospitals System, in partnership with IFF, a CDFI serving Chicago, embarked on an initiative to expand capacity for child care providers in the local economically distressed community. This project created new child care options for 60 additional children, and spawned two additional projects. With assistance from IFF once again, the University of Chicago created its own child care center on campus for employees' children, and subsequently opened its own charter school, which now has four branches serving low-income communities across the city.
- Developing Small Business and Entrepreneurship: Small business has long been acknowledged as a key pathway to economic prosperity, but entrepreneurs need both business skills and access to capital to succeed. The relationship between Hope Enterprise Corporation, a CDFI serving the Gulf Coast, and Delgado Community College is working to train entrepreneurs and provide access to capital in the greater New Orleans area. Under the agreement of the partnership forged through the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative, Delgado provides business training to entrepreneurs and Hope provides loan capital to those who complete the training.
- Revitalizing Distressed Neighborhoods: Located just one block north of Duke University's east campus, Walltown had fallen into disrepair in the early 1990s, with high crime rates and dilapidated houses. In 1994, Duke and Self-Help, a national CDFI headquartered in North Carolina, began a decade-long effort to revitalize and stabilize this neighborhood. With financing from both entities for construction and subsidies, they renovated or built 77 properties in the neighborhood and several community facilities, and made it possible for residents to become homeowners. As a result of the project, crime rates dropped by almost 50 percent in Walltown while property values rose in nearly all (99 percent) Walltown properties, including those that were not renovated in the project.
- Measuring Social Impact: CDFIs are always looking for ways to measure their social impact; meanwhile universities are constantly in search of significant research projects for their students and faculty. As a result of these complimentary needs, the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business (Darden) and Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU) teamed up to assess the social impact of opening new branches in "unbanked" Latino communities. Darden found that when LCCU opened a new branch, armed robberies declined by 22.6 percent and properties values rose by 3.8 percent. The groundbreaking report was widely disseminated and referenced in major publications, achieving the goals of university research. The research also helped LCCU communicate the impact of its work to its supporters.
Through this research, it is clear that partnerships between institutions of higher education and CDFIs provide solutions to a wide variety of challenges that face our communities. We hope that leaders of institutions of higher education and CDFIs will understand the great potential for building relationships with each other, and will explore new opportunities for collaboration and investment to benefit their communities.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States
Michigan school districts and charter schools are struggling to support teachers in building their skills, a report by the nonprofit Education Trust-Midwest found. "Good for Teachers, Good for Students" examines 28 local teacher evaluation models across Michigan and urges the state to make a new educator evaluation system a priority.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Michigan
Outlines discussions about the potential and challenges of competency-based learning in transforming the current time-based system, including issues of accountability, equity, personalization, and aligning policy and practice. Includes case summaries.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
Education and Literacy;Race and Ethnicity
Explores students' views about their choice of historically black colleges and universities, their on-campus experiences, and the value of HBCUs. Examines the role of pre-college contexts, HBCUs' impact on academic and personal growth, and implications.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States
