Charters and School Choice

What We Do

Our goal is to promote equitable access to high-quality educational opportunities that improve student outcomes and meet the needs of families. We fulfill this goal through the following domains of our work.

Promoting systemic improvement

We collaborate with leaders across the choice ecosystem to improve access to and sustainability of high-quality school options for all students. 

Building capacity to support all learners

We build the capacity of schools of choice to serve students with disabilities, English Learners, and students from historically underserved communities.

Ensuring high-quality authorizing

We work with charter authorizers, state departments of education, and charter support organizations to strengthen systems for authorizing, monitoring, and renewing high-quality charter schools.

Researching and evaluating innovative school choice programs

We study and conduct rigorous evaluations of school choice programs (e.g., magnet schools, charter schools, micro-school programs), and provide recommendations and insights to program teams to support continuous improvement.

Monitoring and supporting grant implementation

We monitor and support grant and project implementation activities for hundreds of grant-funded charter and magnet schools to support program improvement and increased student outcomes.

Our Approach

To ensure schools enroll and serve all students, we provide technical assistance and develop solutions with state and local educational agencies, charter authorizers, charter networks, and individual schools. We collaborate with leaders across the choice ecosystem to improve access to and sustainability of high-quality school options for all students.

Establishing strong partnerships and sharing ownership with families and communities is a vital part of our work to ensure school choice options are accessible and accountable.

Our work includes rigorous evaluations, policy analyses, best practices research, and formative evaluations that inform program impacts and improvements. We also conduct mixed-method, impact, and implementation evaluations for school choice grants.