District Reform and Charter School Innovation Can Be Collaborative and Productive
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Major US cities strive to complement district schools with high quality charter schools
- New York City: A major focus of public school reform under Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein has been the creation of small, innovative public schools. This effort has been supported generously by a variety of donors, including notably the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The new schools effort in New York extends beyond the district to the city's charter school sector, where district leaders have sought actively to support high-performing charter schools led by a mix of local community groups and nationally recognized networks of charter schools.
- New Orleans: Superintendent Paul Vallas is pioneering a new vision of urban public education in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans’ rebuilt public school system will feature a mix of charter schools and traditional district schools, and the school system will encourage parents to choose among district and charter schools based on the ability of individual schools to meet the needs of students.
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Charter schools provide districts with a balanced approach towards improvement
Charter schools infuse districts with innovations that improve regular district schools
The charter school movement has long promised that innovative charters will have a positive impact on local district schools. School districts and highly successful charter schools are now working to make this promise a reality by integrating charter school experiments with district reform efforts. Districts are realizing that there is much to learn from successful charter schools as they design their own improvement systems. Charter schools, in turn, are learning that they can benefit from district practices, collaboration, and support.
1. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, High Performing School Districts: Combining Pressure, Support, Alignment, and Choice. June 2005.
In urban areas, high-performing charter schools can be a collaborative and productive component of wider school district reform. New York and New Orleans are examples of where charter school innovation and district reform complement one another:
When implementing change, school districts often focus on either improving existing district schools or offering alternative school choices for parents, often in the form of charter schools. Practice shows that these reform approaches can be most effective when combined, rather than implemented independently. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reported in June 2005 that the combination of “an aligned instructional system [in a district] and school choice [in the form of charters schools in particular]” is an emerging best practice for high performing school districts.¹ A high performing school system consists of high quality choice options that include district schools along with charter schools run by local leaders and community groups.