Between Public and Private examines an innovative approach to school district management that has been adopted by a number of urban districts in recent years: a portfolio management model, in which a central office oversees a portfolio of schools offering diverse organizational and curricular themes, including traditional public schools, private organizations, and charter schools. This volume examines crucial issues related to portfolio management, gauges both the promise and potential pitfalls of the model, considers important contexts for assessing these ambitious efforts to reform district management, and offers in-depth cases of four urban districts Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans that have pioneered this new model.