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A Charter-City Deal That Doesn’t Really Help Kids
6/11/15 | New York Daily News

Behind the Headline
Inside Successful District-Charter Compacts
Fall 2014 | Education Next

Instead of trying to come up with an unsatisfying compromise between pro- and anti-charter forces, legislators in New York should really be working to broker a compact between charter schools and the school district like the one Denver has. So argues Richard Whitmire in today’s New York Daily News.

A longer article by Richard Whitmire about how district-charter compacts work and how they benefit kids appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of Education Next. He explains

More than 20 public school districts across the country, including the large urban districts of Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, have quietly entered into “compacts” with charters and thereby declared their intent to collaborate with their charter neighbors on such efforts as professional development for teachers and measuring student success.

He continues

The compacts fill needs on both sides. School districts want to import some of the classroom culture and sense of urgency they see in charter schools. Some want charters to take more special education students or to hold low-performing charter-school operators to account. Fair enough. Best of all, they get to “claim” the test scores turned in by the charter students. What mayor or school superintendent doesn’t want to see headlines about rising test scores? Charter school leaders need building space and can pursue the mission of many charters, to help improve the broader system.

-Education Next