ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the descriptive analyses of the innovation measures individually across charter and traditional public schools, and disaggregates the overall charter sector into independent charter and affiliated charter schools. It looks at educational innovations of several types including those that emphasize values as being part of the curriculum, teacher development of instructional materials, innovative instructional strategies and student evaluation. The chapter also includes extended learning time, instructional grouping of students, instructional organization of teachers, and school policy strategies aimed at student engagement. The differences among the innovation indicators show some promise for exploring the variability of achievement effects comparing charter public school and traditional public school. At the classroom and school levels, charter schools were more likely to report innovative educational practices than traditional public schools. These findings suggest that research examining specific innovative practices of schools and classrooms provides a promising avenue to understanding differences among different school choice options.
