Successful charter networks are working together in powerful ways, write Richard Whitmire and Andrew Rotherham in Education Week. They see a “defining moment” in the charter movement.
Four years ago, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein attracted KIPP, Achievement First and Uncommon Schools to the city, offering dollar-a-year rent to create new schools, they write. The newcomers decided to share resources and ideas.
The intermingling, which began with shared “lessons learned†and expanded into shared training and more, could yield the “Internet†era of charters, a time when the real impact of the idea manifests itself, as the best schools get even better and the low-performing charters (and low-performing public schools and districts) face increasing pressure to improve or close.
Charter network leaders are helping train new teachers through a “two-year master’s-degree program at Hunter College, which got off the ground when the charter founders discovered their ideal education school dean in the maverick education school reformer David M. Steiner.”
The Robin Hood Foundation, “the hedge-fund-fueled financial muscle behind this intermingling experiment” is working with the three charter networks to develop two new high schools.
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