Thought Charter and District Schools Couldn’t Work Together? Newark Has Found a Way

It’s often noted that the original vision for charter schools, championed by legendary teachers’ union leader Al Shanker and others, was that they’d be “laboratories…

Coffee Break: Denver Charter School Leader Bill Kurtz on Finding the Right Brew of Quality, Access and Integration

Denver’s DSST charter schools are one of the nation’s premiere secondary school networks. Led by longtime CEO Bill Kurtz, DSST has expanded steadily in Denver…

Yes, You Should Use Social-Emotional Learning With School Discipline, But It’s Not Easy

There is an escalating debate about the role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in education. Proponents of SEL believe it’s correlated with positive outcomes for students,…

It’s Going to Be a Lot Harder to Shade Newark Public Schools With These Graduation Rates

It’s easy to be skeptical about improvements to Newark Public Schools (NPS), given its sordid history of corruption, desultory oversight, and—most critically—poor student outcomes. But…

Arts Education Isn’t Taking a Backseat in Chicago Public Schools

In the midst of a financial crisis, Chicago’s public schools have continued to strengthen their commitment to arts education. So says a new report from the…

Common Enrollment Is Just the First Step Toward High School Equity in Chicago

This week, the Chicago Board of Education voted to adopt a common enrollment process for high school admissions next year. This could be a great…

The Second Great Migration for Black Families Is Embracing School Choice

Like hundreds of thousands of Black families, my paternal grandmother and several of her relatives participated in the Great Migration, one of the most dramatic…

Betsy, Can We Really ‘Uber’-ize Public Education? Here’s Why That’s a Terrible Idea.

This morning, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos delivered a keynote address at the Brookings Institution for the Center on Children and Families’ release of its fifth…

When the Only Real Choice Is Private: My Unlikely Attraction to School Vouchers

I felt that the free education my daughter was getting was just too expensive. I needed to find a school that would start filling her academic gaps while also providing culturally responsive pedagogy.…

Public Dollars Should Pay for Public Schools: That’s Why I Support High-Quality Charter Schools and Not Vouchers

We live in a free country and a parent should have the right to opt out of the public school system. But that parent does not have a right to take with them a proportional share of public education dollars any more than a pacifist can extract his share of defense spending. …