America grows more diverse every day. In the future, today’s young people will need to be able to thrive amid a multiplicity of nationalities, perspectives and practices; our society and economy count on it. But too many of our public schools continue to isolate students from peers and adult role models of different backgrounds. One promising [...]

There is a small but growing number of leaders engaging in intentionally diverse charter schools. To understand these schools and everything they are trying to achieve, it helps to listen to people creating, working in and sending their children to them. Intentionally diverse educational settings can be incredibly beneficial. These schools aim to bring students, staff [...]

Simply put, charter school governing boards and authorizers need to take responsibility for strong oversight of financial matters. This means appropriately overseeing a school’s financial operations, including responsible budgeting, financial controls, and procedures, as well as preventing, identifying and remedying fraud. While this may not sound controversial, too often, discussions of charter school quality [...]

The charter school movement includes a lot of very reasonable people. Case in point, last week the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released the latest version of the model charter school law. Like its predecessor, this is an important and pragmatic document. Just as the original model law has been instrumental in the growth and success [...]

In the debate about charter school discipline, the voices of people who work in charter schools deserve more attention. Many charter school leaders have improved their approach to discipline to help more kids learn while reducing exclusionary practices like suspension and expulsion. You can hear from some of them through a set of video case [...]