A review of 8 years of the history of one school-university partnership and detailed field work for 3 years offers some new insights into this undertheorized organizational arrangement. Although much attention has been given to the advantages and disadvantages of working across the cultural boundaries between schools and universities, this work points to divergent interests and resources within each participating organization and several points of intersection between the two. Therefore, the authors suggest that a micropolitical perspective be used to analyze such partnerships. They speculate that partnerships sharing elements of the professional community may promote more improvement but that only subunits within partnerships are likely to become professional communities. Finally, they suggest that although people in a number of positions may be able to offer leadership for such partnerships, those in boundary-spanning roles are especially well placed to do so.

Charter schools have become an increasingly significant aspect of the educational landscape. After a decade of implementation and research, this article returns to some of the original ideas underlying charter schools—including autonomy, accountability, and performance outcomes—to assess what progress has been made and what is still unknown. Although some successes are evident, there is still much to learn about the quality of charter schools and the experiences of charter school stakeholders. There is strong evidence that parents and students who remain in charter schools are satisfied and that charter schools are more autonomous than other public schools. But the jury is still out on some of the most important questions, including those about innovation, accountability, equity, and outcomes. This article provides a framework for examining research on charter schools and some guiding questions for future work.

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