How do you accelerate the transition from a dysfunctional school district to a 21st century school system? In Denver, replacing failing schools with charter schools is helping to lead the way. But according to the Progressive Policy Institute Report...

In spring, 2008, the Rocky Mountain News splashed a full-page photo across its cover of the first graduating class from Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST). Every one of its graduates gained admission to college–the first time that happened in a school with many low-income students...

The transition of Denver Public Schools (DPS) from a dysfunctional school district in 2005 to a 21st century school system today is also a study in building political success in situations demanding change. As reported by David Osborne in the Progressive Policy Institute Report A 21st Century School System in the Mile-High City, Denver’s reforms stirred controversy for years...

We’ve talked a lot in this space about 21st century schools and strategies. Rarely do we get to talk about 21st century school systems.   Yet some of the most dramatic gains in urban education have come from school districts that use a “portfolio strategy,” “reinvention,” or “21st century approach.” Usually these districts...

Have we lived up to the pioneering vision of chartering?  Education Week writer Arianna Prothero and I discussed this question last month as we reflected on 25 years of chartering. Here are a few thoughts from our discussion...

I visited last month in Minnesota with Education Week writer Arianna Prothero. She captured some of our conversation in her June 3rd blogpost.  Here are excerpts...

Perhaps most interesting in the turnaround efforts for LoveWorks Academy for Visual and Performing Arts (LWA) was the selection of an operator to lead the turnaround. Historically, Minnesota has not been friendly to charter school operators and networks. Over the past 25 years, Minnesota charter leaders have stayed true...

I’ve long believed that the most important thing that policymakers can do is to step back, remove the barriers, and allow citizens to take the lead. That policy is fundamental to the origins of chartering. But as demonstrated in a recent “Third Way” turnaround effort of a single school, that may be even more true on the micro level...

Larry McKenzie of Pillsbury United Communities–Office of Public Charter Schools (PUC), knew that academic data for LoveWorks Academy for Visual and Performing Arts (LWA) warranted charter revocation and closure. The authorizer needed to compel foundational change at the school but was limited by its statutory role in the interventions it could entertain...

As thousands of public district and charter schools across the country face chronic low academic performance, various turnaround efforts have been initiated to stem the tide. Some strategies work and some don’t. Part of the innovation of chartering is creating those turnaround efforts that have the greatest possibility of success...

It was great to hear insights from 25 years of chartering from Bruno Manno at a recent conference of charter school attorneys. Now Senior Advisor for K-12 Education at the Walton Family Foundation, Bruno has a long career in chartering. We served together years ago on the founding board of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools...

Six months, four weeks, two days. That’s how long it took for the Washington state charter school law to come back to life after the state Supreme Court struck it down September 4, 2015. For lawyers attending the Legal Seminar of the Alliance of Public Charter School Attorneys last month, the story had elements of a legal thriller...

He is a pioneer lawyer of 25 years in education reform litigation around the country, defending private and public school choice from Milwaukee to Arizona...

There’s a lot to like about Arizona charter schools these days.  It wasn’t always that way. For years after Arizona passed its charter school law in 1994, charter public schools grew rapidly.  They were a great fit for the families within Arizona’s libertarian culture...

The second charter school I visited on the island of Kauai earlier this month also serves the students and families of the Niihau community. Again very small, with a student population of about 50 students...

I was moved as I stood in the warm sunshine of Kauai earlier this month, listening to this musical native Hawaiian welcome by the students and staff of Kula Aupuni Niihau A Kahelelani Aloha (KANAKA) charter public school. Some of these students come from the small island of Niihau, off the shores of Kauai, and some are first-generation high school students...

Having toured six charter public schools in Hawaii, there are three things I especially appreciate about Hawaii chartering. I see great innovation; I see opportunity for culturally-focused charter schools to thrive; and I see real passion for their schools among chartering educators, students, and families...

When I traveled to Hawaii last week to work with charter school leaders and education policymakers, I didn’t expect to meet the lawmakers who first championed chartering in Hawaii back in 1994, more than 20 years ago. And I certainly didn’t expect to meet them in the office of the current Democratic governor, David Y. Ige....

Entrepreneurs have all kinds of ideas. All they need is money. That’s even more difficult if you are student entrepreneurs.   They may know how to build a robot, but they likely don’t have the skills to sell it...

The event was a weekend-long contest in which Minnesota’s adult technology entrepreneurs raced for 54 hours to bring startup concepts to life. Jack Sarenpa-Maldonado and his classmates were seventh-and eighth graders at Venture Academy, a Minneapolis middle charter school. They were in it for the experience...