Inside Charter Schools

“Published a decade after the introduction of charter schools, the most dynamic and important school reform movement in recent memory, this collection offers rare insight into charter classrooms as well as a framework for the public policy discussion that surrounds them… The book is at its best when it lets the stories of the schools speak for themselves, unable to answer the broad policy questions but helping readers understand their complexity.”—Jodi Wilgoren, The New York Times

“In this book Fuller offers six essays—as much works of journalism as they are academic pieces—on six very different charter school experiments… Fuller deftly ties the grab-bag together with his own opening and closing thoughts on the philosophical and political tension between allowing free-thinkers to experiment and maintaining a community commitment to free and equitable education for all… The book provides a useful benchmark for a movement that in many ways is just getting started.”—Jay Matthews, The Washington Monthly

“As many public schools grow larger and more diverse, the charter school movement gains equal and opposite momentum statewide. Bruce Fuller has charted this movement as it gains momentum across the state and nation. His Inside Charter Schools: The Paradox of Radical Decentralization offers a peek inside six such schools… Fuller steers clear of a blanket like-or-dislike viewpoint. Instead, he shows the problems individual charter schools face.”—Colleen Flannery, Education Beat

“This insightful…[and] wide-ranging discussion gives readers a real feel for what charter schools are like, allowing them to step inside a school and see what the hope and hype are all about… Providing no easy answers, this study offers practical lessons to parents, educators, and policymakers aiming for reform and support of public education as a whole.”—Leroy Hommerding, Library Journal