This 2004 report from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement discusses elements of effective charter schools and provides profiles of eight charter schools:
This March 2013 report released by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation discusses the development and practices of YES Prep Public Schools of Houston, Texas, which was founded in 1998 and won the inaugural $250,000 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools that was awarded in 2012 for overall academic performance.
This 2012 agreement between the Odyssey Academy charter school in Galveston, Texas, and the Galveston Independent School District describes the terms and responsibilities for the preparation of meals by the district for service at the charter school.
This 2012 report covers the implementation and impact of strategies from successful charter schools at nine low-performing traditional district schools in Houston, Texas, in the 2010-11 school year. The five strategies were increased instructional time, new staff, differentiation with tutoring or computerized instruction, data-driven instruction, and a culture of high expectations.
In this policy brief, the American Youth Policy Forum authors highlight best practices that improve the college and career readiness of adolescent English language learners. The authors identified these practices during a May 2010 visit to innovative programs in Austin, Texas.
The Austin (Texas) District-Charter Compact involves the Austin Independent School District and partner charter schools. The document notes that the city has doubled in size in the past 20 years, that it prides itself on being entrepreneurial, and that the “strained financial landscape” and higher academic standards have encouraged partnerships to improve schools and operate more efficiently.
This is the Spring Branch, Texas, Charter-District Collaboration Compact announced in December 2011 as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation project to encourage cooperation between charter and district schools. The compact involves the Spring Branch Independent School District, KIPP Houston, and YES Prep Public Schools.
This study, conducted by RAND researchers, used student-level data to compare public charter schools in Chicago, San Diego, Philadelphia, Denver, Milwaukee, and the states of Ohio, Texas, and Florida, with traditional public schools.
This 2007 article describes seven alternative certification programs in detail, drawing on interviews and document reviews. The seven programs are: Teacher Education Institute in Elk Grove, California, Unified School District; Milwaukee’s Metropolitan Multicultural Teacher Education Program; North Carolina’s NC TEACH; New Jersey Provisional Teacher Program; New York City Teaching Fellows Program; Teach for America; and the Texas Region XIII Education Service Center’s Educator Certification Program.
Using a data set from Houston, Texas, this 2005 article links student characteristics and achievement with data about their teachers' certification status, experience, and degree levels from 1995-2002. The article examines whether certified teachers are more effective than those who have not met the testing and training requirements. The article also compares the effectiveness of Teach for America candidates to similarly experienced certified teachers.
