Tag: State Policy

Recently in the Wall Street Journal and Education Next there were accounts of the origins of chartering. We thought we might take the liberty of adding our version, since the first legislative implementation of the idea occurred in Minnesota and a number of those now in Education|Evolving were involved.

In this report to Minnesota’s Association of School Administrators, the organization’s executive director wonders whether states need entirely new systems to meet today’s educational goals.

In a guest post for Education Innovating, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville describes the motivation behind that state’s recently-enacted Innovation Schools law, enabling districts to create schools with autonomy reflective of chartering. This significant systemic reform is similar to Boston's Pilot Schools, as well as Minnesota’s Site-Governed Schools law passed in 2009. Already in 2010 two new schools were created under the law.

Against the tide of comprehensive reform asserts that problems do not arise themselves but are the result of conditions. Instead of trying to foresee all possible problems, and seeking to know all answers, wouldn’t it be more effective to create the best environment at the school level for self-improvement, and to productively identify and work on problems as they occur?