Taking Measure of Charter Schools: Better Assessments, Better Policymaking, Better Schools (New Frontiers in Education) (Hardcover)
Charter schools offer something that public school systems, parents, and teachers need: a way to experiment with alternative ways of teaching, motivating students, organizing schools, using technology, and employing teachers. While people came down on both sides of support for or against charter schools, everyone was surprised by how difficult it was to assess charter school performance. The first part of this book focuses on how to improve estimates of charter schools' performance, especially their benefits to students who attend them; the second part suggests how policymakers can learn more about charter schools and make better use of evidence. The editors and authors suggest ways states and localities can improve the quality of data on which charter school studies are based and trace some of the ways charter school research influences policy.
Julian R. Betts is professor of economics and chair of the Department of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. He also serves as a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). He is also a member of the National Charter School Research Project's Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel. Paul T. Hill is the John and Marguerite Corbally Professor at the University of Washington Bothell and Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. He also chairs the National Charter School Research Project and leads its Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel, which authored the influential paper, Key Issues in Studying Charter Schools and Achievement: A Review and Suggestions for National Guidelines (May 2006).