Student Work

Undergraduate students in Yale’s lecture course, “Public Schools Public Policy” 2017 were asked to complete group projects examining charter management organizations, entities that control a large number of charter schools. The majority of the group were selected from Getting Smart’s list of the 70 best charter chains.

Given this background, students were asked to answer the following two questions: How does the education provided by this CMO compare to the available public alternatives? What impact is this CMO having on public education? In their analysis, they collected federal, state, district and charter data in order to examine the history, pedagogy and mission, school demographics, student achievement, school discipline, accountability and oversight, funding, staffing, and relationship to the district.

Achievement First, Children Second? by Stephanie Addenbrooke, Miriam Cohen, Thomas Chu, José López.

Arizona’s BASIS for High-Achieving Charter Schools by Alison Levosky, Amalia Ono, Esteban Elizondo, and George Huynh

Aspire Public Schools, Akintunde Ahmad, Hannah Alexander, Franklin Eccher, Tran Le

Green Dot California Schools, by Grace Ambrossi, Nate File, Laura Lodono Pardo, Mariana Suarez-Riebeling

Gulen Schools: One of America’s Largest and Most Controversial CMOs by Edgar Aviña, Shoshana Davidoff-Gore, Caitlin Dermody, Daniel Vernick

K12 Inc.: Virtually Failing our Students, by Sydney Babiak, Emily Patton, Jaclyn Price, and Billy Roberts

Knowledge is Power, but at a Cost: KIPP CMO Report, by Evelyn Torres Abundis, Amanda Crego-Emley, Otis Baker, Jorge Lema

National Heritage Academies: A Case Study of For-Profit Educational Management Organizations; by Brian Pok, Clare Carroll, Denzell Jobson, Eliza Scruton

Rocketship Schools: Taking Steps Towards Closing the Achievement Gap, by Layla Treuhaft-Ali, Emil Friedman, Lindsay Efflant, Jake Fender

STRIVE Preparatory Schools (Denver, CO) by Julie Zhu, Lucas Riccardi, Momo Chapa, Caroline Francisco

New York’s Success Academy Charter Schools: A Tentative Success, By Alejandra Corona-Ortega, Sara Harris, Elijah Mas, and Ben Wong

Final Policy Projects

As a final Education policy project, students had the choice to either 1) highlight a model working well 2) diagnose an area of education with problems 3) conduct an autopsy on a failed policy or 4) create a blueprint for an innovation.

Akitunde Ahmad, The Manhood Development Program

Alejandra Corono-Ortega, Bilingual Education in Connecticut: Failing Those Who Need Us

Alison Levosky, Restorative Justice through Arts Programs

Amanda Crego-Emley & Layla Treuhaft-Ali, Thinking Beyond the Deficit Model: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and the Achievement Gap

Ben Wong, Getting There is Half the Battle: How the College Advising Corps is Bridging the College Access Divide

Billy Roberts & Tom Chu, The Opposite of TFA: A National Teacher University to Build the Teaching Profession

Brian Pok, The Origin of Unions and their Application to Teachers

Caroline Francisco, Sex Ed in the Era of Trump: City-Led Reform and Standardization on a Scale that Works

Clare Carroll, How Inclusionary Housing in Sacramento has led to Integration in Neighborhoods and Schools

Daniel Vernick, Fighting for a Future: The Massachusetts ‘No on 2’ Campaign and Its Impact on Public Education Advocacy

Denzell Jobson, Is the Harlem children’s zone accomplishing its goal? Should HUD’s promise zone initiative be the future of American public education?

Evelyn Torres-Abundis, From No-excuses to social-emotional learning: a different approach for charter schools

Edgar Avina & Sydney Babiak, A Framework for Creating an Effective Afterschool Program for Social and Behavioral Skills

Elijah Mas, Low Income, High Success: Economically Disadvantaged Students at two Connecticut Public Schools

Emil Friedman, Massachusetts and the Charter Cap: Accountability, Balance, and Implications for the Nation

Emily Patton & Eliza Scrunton, Teaching for Two: Public Education and Pregnant Teens

Franklin Eccher, The Myth of the Rural Attainment Gap: Rural Access to Higher Education and the Problem of the Education Desert

George Huynh, Recruiting and Retaining Asian American Teachers

Grace Ambrossi, Rezoning NYC Public Schools: Parents of Color Resistance to Rezoning As a Means of Integration

Hannah Alexander & Laura Londono Pardo, Mentor for America: Exploring Unified Best Practices in After-School Mentoring Programs

Jaclyn Price, Building Failure Factories: How Pinellas County is failing its Black Students

Jorge Lema, The “New” NYC Renewal Schools Program

Jose Lopez, Final Policy Project: Bars for Bars

Julie Zhu, “Shopping for Schools” and the Perpetuation of Racial Segregation in Schools

Lindsay Efflandt, The Need for Higher Teacher Pay in Rural America: What’s Being Attempted, and How Wyoming is Doing it Right

Lucas Riccardi & Esteban Elizondo, What can we learn from the Perkins Act?: Assessing vocational schools’ performance standards and accountability measures

Mariana Suarez-Rebeling, Bilingualism’s Cry for Attention: how bilingualism can help curb the current wave of nationalism

Miriam Cohen, Community Schools: Addressing the Poverty Gap at Its Roots

Molly Ono, The Liminal Presence of Arabic in American Public Schools

Momo Chapa, Legislating School Climate: Examining LAUSD’s Suspension Ban

Nate File, Tracking – Policy Brief

Otis Baker, The Boys Are Back: All-Boys Education in New Haven and Beyond

Sarah Harris, Don’t Say Gay: Why States Are Erasing LGBTQ Students, and How They Have the Power to Change It

Shoshana Davidoff-Gore, AP Enrollment and Equity in New Haven Public High Schools

Stephanie Addenbrooke, Understanding the dyslexic drop-out: why students with learning disabilities graduate at a lower rate than their peers

Tran Le & Jacob Fender, How Housing Policies Serve as Education Policies