The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an exploratory study of the early implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards in New York City by a sample of charter management organizations (CMOs) and Children First Networks (CFNs). Using the existing literature on policy implementation--specifically the concepts of boundary…

Policymakers have shown increasing interest in replicating high-quality education models as a way to improve chronically underperforming schools. Charter management organizations (CMOs) have been touted as one organizational model poised to be such a vehicle for reform. CMOs are nonprofit organizations that operate a network of charter schools…

The authors of the articles in this issue have provided a descriptive, analytic view of the politics of privatization, not a normative one. They have elected to view privatization more as a basic tool of government, with both uses and limitations, than strictly as an issue of ideology. Through their examination of the nexus between privatization…

Data from an evaluation of the Annenberg Challenge in Los Angeles, a reform effort that experimented with school networks as a vehicle for improving schools, revealed that when school networks created structures that decentralized power and distributed organizational resources throughout the network, they also enhanced school capacity for reform.…

Uses Cobb and Elder's theory of agenda setting in public policy arena to assess the politics and effects of school finance during the 1970s and 1980s. Four triggering mechanisms catapult issues to the formal policy agenda: unanticipated events, technological changes, ecological changes, and biases in resource distribution. Four categories of…

Examines budgeting policies in five large urban school districts that have adopted school-based management to characterize the extent to which dollars have been decentralized, along with decision-making responsibility and authority. Contrary to other studies, results suggest that new decision-making patterns exist that effectively empower…

Explores legislative conditions that promote charter-school autonomy, applying a conceptual framework of autonomy to assess variations among state charter-school policies. Results suggest that state policies offer different self-governance levels and thereby influence charter schools' innovative ability and performance potential. Variations are…