Once we move from the debate on charters versus district schools, the next question for both sectors to consider is this: What does great education look like? According to Ted Fujimoto, founder of the Right to Succeed Foundation, it doesn’t look like what we have now...

For nearly 25 years of chartering, the debate has been about “charter vs. district” schools. As we begin our 25th year, can we finally put that argument to eternal rest? It’s the wrong approach. Let’s focus instead on what brings us together...

The term “innovation” doesn’t mean much unless it is definable and sustainable. That’s why I appreciated recent comments by Ted Fujimoto of Landmark Consulting, which is a firm dedicated to scaling innovations in learning...

New Tech Network (NTN) is looking for a few good partners. Charter schools? Yes. School Districts? Yes. Could your school be one? According to Ted Fujimoto of Landmark Consulting Group (dedicated to scaling innovations in learning) in this Education Dive interview, any community that wants to transform its existing schools or launch new ones can leverage nearly 20 years of experience...

How might policymakers create an “Innovation Zone” in K-12 education where learning is personalized and students are motivated to reach new heights? According to a March 4 Star Tribune Commentary by a former Minnesota Education Commissioner and two current school district superintendents, creating flexibility, autonomy and collaboration for educators is key to making Innovation Zones work...

I’ve often lamented that the original focus on “innovation” as key to our chartering law in Minnesota 25 years ago has been lost. Over the last decade, the word “innovation” has become diluted. We don’t know what it means...

How do you reduce transportation and operational costs in rural areas serving far-flung students? Try a four-day school week or supplementing with technology like “Beyond Textbooks.” A recent report by the National Charter School Resource Center at Safal Partners reported that the vast majority of the 100 school districts in 17 states currently operating on a four-day-week schedule are located in rural areas in districts serving fewer than 1,000 students...

Rural charter schools face special challenges, as described in our blog last week from a recent report by the National Charter School Resource Center at Safal Partners. But that doesn’t mean rural schools aren’t succeeding. They are! Why not celebrate the special relationship that rural schools have...

In an eye-opening report recently produced by the National Charter School Resource Center at Safal Partners, three key challenges were noted as barriers to growth of chartering in rural areas. While all charter schools face similar challenges, remote geography and sparse resources of rural areas make these challenges more acute for rural charter schools...

When I visited Idaho last month, a largely rural state, to boost their chartering sector, my eyes were opened. As Terry Ryan, President of the Idaho Charter School Network aptly summarized in a recent report, “The charter school revolution has largely bypassed rural America and its students.”...

The Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota conservative think tank, included a number of policy recommendations for Education “Student Achievement and Prosperity” in their 2014 Minnesota Policy Blueprint. With state legislatures again in session, the time is right to examine a few of them, particularly around chartering...

Minnesota educators can take some pride in overall education results. For example, we were ranked first or second, among all states, in several rankings reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2013. The problem, however, is that our main economic competitors in coming years will not be other states, but other nations...

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, in their 2016 ranking of state charter school laws, reports that 2015 “was largely a positive year for charter public school legislation across the country.”  For the most part I agree...

Yesterday I wrote this note to a reporter for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. I encourage every charter school leader to write a similar note whenever the same occurs in your community...

As I travel the country, I’m always surprised at how legislatures find ways to complicate the basic fundamentals of the original charter law. The model law of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is based on those fundamentals, so its annual ranking of 43 charter school laws in the U.S. is instructive...

For me, there is no greater privilege than to present the origins of chartering and help dispel the myths of chartering to an audience of legislators, including key education committee leaders. That was the opportunity presented me in Boise, Idaho January 18-19, hosted by the nonprofit organization Bluum, led by Chief Executive Officer Terry Ryan. It was my first state visit of 2016 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the passage of the first charter school law...

2016 is the 25th Anniversary year of the passage of the first charter school law in Minnesota in June, 1991. Since then, chartering has spread to 43 states, Guam, the District of Columbia, Alberta, Canada, and even to the Kurdish region of Iraq. Yet, seven states still resist passage of a charter school law...

With 16,140 events occurring around the nation for National School Choice Week January 24-30, 2016, you may want to participate in your state’s events with local parents, teachers and students...

A research team at Johns Hopkins University recently evaluated the impact of home visits that occurred in a partnership between Flamboyan Foundation and a dozen Washington DC elementary schools in which 95% of students were eligible for free or reduced lunch, and 96% of students were of color. Their findings...

Happy New Year! Welcome back from a year-end break. While the blog has been quiet for a few weeks, plenty is happening in 21st Century Education. We invite you, our loyal readers, to send us your ideas and happenings to spotlight through the year in this blog!