Foundational Charter School History Program Launched This Week
CER Press Release
Washington, D.C.
June 16, 2015
Thirty students from throughout the U.S. and a diverse array of backgrounds and organizations have been selected to join the first History of Charter Schools course, an advanced program created to help students achieve knowledge of the genesis of charter school laws, how the varying policies were first enacted and the impact of one state upon another and on communities within and across state lines. Students will acquire an understanding of the vast and unique political atmosphere of charter school policy, and be prepared to accomplish the creation of maximally effective charter school laws.
EdReformU™ operates much like a MOOC, using the QLearn Mobile technology platform created by Qualcomm for the nation’s leading universities, but provides opportunity for live collaboration and interaction with professors. It is led by CER Founder and president emeritus Jeanne Allen, who currently serves as Senior Fellow and Dean of EdReformU™. Classes are hosted as well by adjuncts of education reform.
“By using history as a guide, the possibilities to accelerate the pace of education reform, particularly charter schools, are endless,” said Allen.
The History of Charter Schools is a particularly important course. Despite the more than 20 years success of charter school laws as the first fundamental structural change made in the operations of public education since the creation of the common school, charter school policy suffers from legislative misunderstanding and implementation confusion.
The mission of EdReformU™ is to inform, educate and activate students in the history of the education reform movement. Participants will learn from the context of those early education reform experiences, which actually repeat themselves year after year, often unbeknownst to those involved.
This course follows the foundational education reform course, The Decline and Fall of U.S. Education, which will be repeated in the fall. Over time, EdReformU™ will offer multiple programs to educate a number of different kinds of individuals in the history, context and systemic changes needed to allow entrepreneurial people and their ideas to impact the education of young people.
Accomplishment in the eight-week course will be recognized with a certificate. To learn more about EdReformU™, go to university.edreform.com. To get on a list for future application periods, contact [email protected].