Brave New World at Success Academy
In a remarkable webinar this afternoon, Success Academy shared their plans for going virtual starting Thursday. None of us have been through anything like this before, and no one can claim a solution for shuttered schools. But Success consistently delivers extraordinary levels of student proficiency. So as districts and networks struggle to find their way […]
As Outbreak Forces Schools to Go Digital, We Must Innovate—and Embrace Learning As We Go
I’m distressed that my hometown, Seattle, is ground zero for the U.S. outbreak of COVID-19. I am heartened, though, by the fact that our community is primed to offer innovative responses, including in K-12 education. As we face the prospect that the disease will spread in other parts of the country, it is imperative that […]
Ceding Power to Create More Transformative Innovation
This blog is the third in a series reporting on CRPE’s “Big Think Network.” Through this project, CRPE is convening a diverse group of practitioners who are working on a variety of projects, all geared toward the goal of creating a more customized and equitable education system. Our goal is to learn from the Network’s […]
We See the Challenges of School Choice and Special Education Through Parents’ Eyes
Finding the right-fit school is hard for all families, but it is particularly challenging for families with children with disabilities, like my own. As a research analyst at CRPE, I have had the opportunity to talk with many parents in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans this past year who are working tirelessly to find the […]
The Future of Charter Schooling May Mean a Return to Its Roots
Robin Lake and Steven Wilson disagree on some things, but both are right that chartering has a future. I’d suggest that this future looks more like the origins of the charter movement than its recent past. In the mid-1990s, the argument for chartering was that it provided the mix of autonomy and accountability that […]
Compatibility Error: Today’s High-Performing Charter Models Can’t Run on District Operating Systems
“A Charter for Change,” Al Shanker, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, titled his column in the New York Times one Sunday some three decades ago. Shanker had just returned from San Francisco, where 3,000 representatives from across the states had gathered for the union’s 70th convention. “The main idea that gripped the […]
A More Skeptical Take on Charter Growth
Steven Wilson, CRPE’s new Senior Fellow, makes a strong and compelling case here for the expansion of charter schools. Steven’s argument comes at a crucial time. The charter school movement is under full frontal attack. Opponents who have long viewed charter schools as an annoying sideshow have finally come to see their strong track record […]
The Main Barriers to Scaling Successful Charter Schools Are Political, not Substantive
With news that federal funding for charter school programs is in question, the time seems ripe for an open debate on the promise of—and the barriers to—charter growth. CRPE has a long tradition of cultivating internal dialogue and debate; every once in a while we have shared that debate publicly. This post from our new […]
What New Orleans Can Teach Us About the Forces Blocking Change in Education
This is a review of The Politics of Institutional Reform: Katrina, Education, and the Second Face of Power, by Terry M. Moe (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Nearly 15 years after Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans and prompted rebuilding effort that fundamentally transformed the city’s school system, observers are still confusing the parts for the whole. […]
The Real Secret of Success? Progressive Pedagogy at Scale
Success Academy doesn’t lack for press. And for good reason. There’s the eye-popping academic performance: 99 percent of students proficient in math, 90 percent in English Language Arts. There’s the charter school network’s astonishing growth: from one school in 2006 to 45 across New York City today, educating 17,000 children, mainly from poverty—a system nearly […]