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Collaboration takes center stage at National Charter Schools conference
NNSP was invited to take part in this month’s annual conference of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools. The event gathered more than 5,000 charter school leaders to learn, discuss and engage in the work ahead for the charter movement.
In a breakout session, NNSP member members Washington Latin School and Excel Academy, along with executive director Claire Leheny, discussed how to take advantage of partnerships to boost growth and school performance.
They were not the only ones. Collaboration was a strong narrative thread throughout the four-day conference.
“Charters will still be incubators of innovation. But they will no longer just be outsiders knocking at the door of the traditional school system. To deliver on the dream, charters will become less like combatants in the battles over education and more like co-conspirators for change with traditional public schools,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan during his keynote remarks.
The results of Gates-funded district-charter “compacts” in 16 cities across the country were presented by Robin Lake, Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, and Don Shalvey, deputy director at the Gates Foundation. They spoke candidly about what was working and what was stalled in these cities. Despite some hurdles, Shalvey considered himself an “impatient optimist” and excited about what could be achieved with the next round of funding, totaling almost $25 million to seven cities. Read more in the CRPE’s interim report.
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