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School districts across the country have long been finding ways to give greater autonomy to school leaders to enable them to make decisions that best meet their students’ needs. While the charter model is perhaps the most well-known approach to school-level autonomy, school districts themselves have been pioneering on this front for decades, developing new models and approaches to autonomy within the traditional district context. 

In Massachusetts, state leaders created the Horace Mann charter school model as a hybrid between the charter and district sectors: These schools have much of the same flexibility as charter schools but are approved by, and remain part of, their local school districts. How successful is this model in bringing together the best aspects of charter and district schools?

Horace Mann Charter Schools: Their Past, Present, and Promise analyzes the extent to which the Horace Mann school model lives up to its founding legislation, and outlines a set of recommendations to better support its success as well as incorporate the model into strategies for district improvement. Click HERE to learn more.