The COVID-19 pandemic and recovery period is a unique opportunity to understand contemporary issues in high school reform. Evidence has clearly demonstrated lingering COVID impacts on adolescent students that have deepened pre-existing inequities and worsened teen mental health. There's a natural desire to regain normalcy after the pandemic. But…

The scorching, arid northeastern state of Ceará, Brazil has long been known for growing cashews and coconuts. Now, it's defied expectations by cultivating one of the world's best public elementary school systems, despite high rates of poverty. How Sobral transformed its public school system and attained near-universal literacy offers lessons for…

Public schooling has always been politically fraught, but current disagreements over issues related to race, sexuality, gender, and COVID-19 have reached a tipping point. According to this report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education and RAND, half of school system leaders say that these disagreements are disrupting schooling. Almost one…

As school systems struggle to recover from years of disruption, new programs, policies, and nontraditional organizations that support innovation in the teaching role will need to grow to support all students' learning. But what is it like to teach in new ways? What are the advantages and drawbacks? What brought educators to these unconventional…

Public education depends on expertise, work, money, and cooperation from multiple actors who have different interests and beliefs. These lead to competition and negotiation--in other words, politics. Failure to consider the politics of reform implementation and sustainability has doomed many promising K-12 school improvement initiatives. This…

In this report, we complement our latest fall 2021 survey research from the American School District Panel with in-depth interviews of leaders on the ground in five school systems. Our goal with these interviews was to learn from system leaders about the academic needs of children as they return to school, how districts and charter schools are…

Pandemic learning pods revealed teachers and other adults are highly interested in playing more varied roles in children's education. And some pod-like staffing arrangements may continue to exist and grow in out-of-school settings, such as after-school programs. But this report examines a different potential development: "is it possible that…

Arizona Autism Charter School (AZACS), a public charter school for K-12 students, opened in 2014 to provide individualized education for students with autism and other disabilities alongside typically developing peers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders moved quickly to adapt instruction to online and hybrid models, coordinate comprehensive…

As in other states, disruptions in schooling amid the pandemic have impacted public school enrollment in Washington State. This brief examines shifts in public school enrollment in Washington since the pandemic began last spring, using data reported by OSPI in October 2020, and statewide headcount data from the Office of Superintendent of Public…

As of December, a statistically representative sample of 477 school districts showed that 31 percent were operating fully in remote learning--a larger percentage than at any other point during the fall semester. This brief gives an update from our ongoing review of reopening plans from around the country. We found: (1) Districts take two steps…

After eighteen months of school closure and disrupted learning, civic leaders, researchers, and educational leaders are getting a clearer picture of how students fared through the pandemic, and what new reality school systems face as they return to in-person schooling in 2021-22. Increases in community infection rates and parent hesitancy have…

This report is part of the American School District Panel (ASDP), a joint project between the Center on Reinventing Public Education, the RAND Corporation, Chiefs for Change, the Council of Great City Schools, and Kitamba, an education consulting firm. The ASDP's primary work is conducting a series of nationally-representative surveys of school…

To identify promising strategies for full inclusion, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and the National Center on Special Education in Charter Schools conducted in-depth case studies of five Washington State charter schools as part of a national study of special education in charter schools. These studies were conducted during the…

As school districts across the country braced themselves for the immensely complicated task of preparing reopening and recovery plans amid a global pandemic, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and the Collaborative for Student Success convened experts in emergency planning, health and safety, parent and family advocacy, special…

When Colorado Governor Jared Polis declared a state of emergency on March 10 in response to the coronavirus, the timing was fortunate for Aurora Public Schools (APS). Spring break was starting three days later. To provide a little more breathing room, the district extended its break by one week. In the months that followed, APS's response to…