Public charter schools lack research that determines what makes them successful. Charter schools are relatively new, existing for around 30 years in the United States. The depth and breadth of research focusing on public education rarely includes charter schools. The research focusing on charter schools specifically is quite limited. Like…

Principal leadership is at the core of successful school turnaround. This qualitative study explored principals' perceptions of the success or failure of turnaround methods in their New York City charter school communities. Principal leadership of low-performing schools is one of the most important elements of turnaround success (Stronge & Xu,…

In England, schools are able to take on academy status, which is intended by the central government to give them greater autonomy (DfE, 2018). Groups of academies can form multi-academy trusts (MATs), which typically grow in size with additional schools becoming academies and joining. One mechanism for MAT growth is sponsorship, which occurs when…

This qualitative study sought to learn why authorizers offer current under-performing charter schools the option of turnaround, as well as how, and what models of accountability they use to set up the balance of autonomy and accountability to improve low-performing charters rather than close them. Conducting interviews with nine individuals and…

School improvement in chronically under-performing schools remains a formidable challenge for school leaders. Recent policies in the U.S. have created incentives for school leaders to attempt new strategies to improve outcomes, and increasingly, school leaders of charter management organizations and other multi-school organizations (MSOs) are…

Most research focuses on principal mobility generally, but little assesses charter leadership specifically. This exploratory study examines how leaders in stand-alone and charter management affiliated schools in New York and New Jersey made their decisions to lead, stay, and transition to different roles. Leaders cited excitement about autonomy…

For close to a decade, the Jefferson County School District (JCSD) was characterized by failed academic performance and financial instability. Some of the factors that drove these outcomes include school board dysfunction, poor use of financial resources, failure to recruit and retain highly effective teachers, revolving school leaders, and the…

States increasingly lean on charter organizations to take responsibility for their most underperforming turnaround schools. These efforts employ a different constellation of regulation, market forces, and community involvement that constitute more complex environments for charters. This article relates the experience of operators within the…

Nationally, the number of charter schools opening and the enrollment size at charters is on the rise. But what happens when charter schools are low performing? For most charter schools and their authorizers, closing low-performing schools seems inevitable. However, school closures have dramatic impacts on students, families, and communities --…

In the School Turnaround and Leadership Development program, the Utah State Board of Education (Board) annually identifies low-performing district and charter schools: those that have been in the bottom three percent for two consecutive years. The school board or charter school authorizer of the low-performing school establishes a school…

This qualitative study seeks to explore teacher and administrator perceptions of teacher recruitment, retention and support within a Californian turnaround high school run since 2007 by a charter management organization referred to here as New Schools. Upon the basis of previous research that has documented statistically significant improvements…

In this article, Erika Kitzmiller analyzes the reactions of teachers to district officials' decision to close their traditionally managed public school and reopen it as a privately managed charter school. While many scholars have examined the impact of this reform on communities, families, and youth, little attention has been paid to the effects…

This brief provides an overview of five strategies used for persistently underperforming schools that demand significant changes to how schools are organized. It draws upon published research, as well as the experiences of cities pursuing different types of improvement strategies. None of the five strategies offer a surefire way to improve…

As districts across the country search for ways to turn around their lowest-performing schools, a growing number are partnering with external providers--often charter operators--to implement "restarts." These providers receive operational autonomy and bring their own approach to schooling, positioning them to implement deep and…

We examine the role of ideas in the politics of school choice policy and situate our study within scholarship that understands frames and logics as types of ideas operating in the foreground and background of policy debates. Our data are from a case study of political contention over portfolio management reform (in which a central office oversees…