Special Education Governance in New Orleans
In recent years, schools in New Orleans have made outsized progress in educating students with disabilities. This is due first and foremost to the efforts of educators and entrepreneurs who have worked relentlessly to develop new and better ways to serve these students. But they do not work in isolation. New Orleans’ success is a […]
When YES Means No
News broke today that YES Prep pulled out at the last minute from an agreement to take over a Memphis school under control of the Memphis Achievement School District. It will take a while to uncover all the lessons from this story, but one thing is obvious: we need more charter providers who are willing […]
Time for Charters to Lead on Special Education
Last week I jumped all over Andy Smarick on Twitter for suggesting that practices like the DC Public Charter School Board’s Secret Shopper program (where staff pretend to be parents searching for a school for a child with a disability) and requiring charter schools to take students mid-year place the needs of a small number […]
Honoring Our Contract: D.C.’s Effort to Ensure Equity in Public Education
When charter schools were first introduced as an alternative to the traditional school system, the promise was that high levels of autonomy and rigorous accountability would allow schools to produce exceptional results for the students they serve. Simply put: autonomy + accountability = results. Accountability for schools has historically been measured in terms of financial, […]
Black Education Leaders on Why Reformers Need an Attitude Adjustment
We recently invited Kenneth L. Campbell, Founding Board Member of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), Tonya Allen, President and CEO of the Skillman Foundation in Detroit, and Raymond A. Jetson, Pastor at Star Hill Church in Baton Rouge and President/CEO of MetroMorphosis, to share their thoughts on education reform and community engagement. In […]
Agents of Change: The Portfolio Strategy CEO
Leaders of big-city portfolio strategies last longer on average than other school superintendents. But all eventually leave their jobs, whether for career or personal reasons or because local politics has turned against them. What makes for a successful portfolio strategy CEO? When city leaders need to find a CEO what should they look for? The […]
Tulsa: Emergent District-Charter Collaboration
Tulsa, which operates in a state not widely receptive to charter schools, has set a bold course of collaboration between the district and charter sectors. Following a difficult history that included anti-charter litigation in 2007 by Tulsa Public Schools, TPS and three district-authorized charter schools signed a District-Charter Collaboration Compact in January 2014. Superintendent Keith […]
What We’re Missing on Community Engagement
To wrap up our 2-day Portfolio Network Meeting in January, a meeting focused on good educational options and choices for all families, we asked Raymond Jetson to address these questions: “Why is community engagement not working? Why are families and communities unhappy with reformers’ efforts to improve low-performing schools?” Raymond A. Jetson is pastor at […]
Let’s Kill Innovation
In the past couple of years I’ve probably used the word “innovation” thousands of times and read or heard it thousands of times more. Naturally. I worked in an Office of Innovation (inside the Division of Talent, Labor and Innovation) running “Innovate NYC Schools” (Twitter handle @innovatenycedu), which was funded by a grant from the […]
Walking in Memphis: A Reality Check on Civil Rights and Education
As an education reporter, I frequently inserted this oft-uttered phrase into my articles: “Education is the civil rights issue of our time.” I did so because it is very difficult to engage readers, even parents, on education topics. There’s a dearth of education reporters and a tendency for education stories to focus on over-tested kids, […]