In a free country where the American dream revolves around dictating the direction of your own life, parents and students are still unable to detach from failing schools. With an overwhelming amount of support for school choice flooding the country, where is the implementation of programs to match desires? What can families do to free…

“Pump, pump, pump it up! Pump, pump, pump it up!” As I walked through the doors of Benning Elementary School on Friday morning, I could feel the hallways echoing with energy as the “DC Preppies” chanted their morning spirit songs. The school elicits a vibrant energy that transcends lesson plans and instead demonstrates a structured…

Education50 offers a toolkit on how to spot the candidate that’s truly focused on how to improve education for students. Joe Nathan, Director of the Center for School Change, offers some great advice on what specifically to ask school board candidates this #Election2014.   Here are five questions you might want to ask school board candidates or…

By Kara Kerwin I’m either experiencing severe déjà vu or history really does have a way of repeating itself. A lot of education reformers think the battle is won, and continue to celebrate the notion that charters are widely accepted and no longer controversial. The problem is, they are wrong. Today, not only are opponents…

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of attending a tour of AppleTree Early Learning PCS Southwest with the First Fridays program. The morning began with my own hopeless attempts to find the school, as phone maps have clearly not updated their charter school location system. After many circles around the block, two students, clad…

With the newly released State-by-State analysis, the panel room was buzzing with people eager to hear just how rankings were assigned. Todd Ziebarth, Senior Vice President of National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), began the panel by posing the question, “How do you even start to rate the charter school movement?” The National Alliance for Public…

Everyday we are inundated with technology. We wake up in the morning and watch television, we listen to the radio on the commute to school; but when we arrive to a traditional school, technology becomes a banned distraction entirely. As technology is enhanced, education has the opportunity to improve simultaneously. Blended learning is a unique…

Just like anything you choose to pursue in life, you are only as strong as your team of supporters. While programs with school choice programs are non-discriminatory, the inequity of the system goes deeper than simply sorting through options. The varying income levels that students come from make for a diverse but fragmented group of…

On Wednesday September 24, 2014, I had the honor of attending the opening ceremony for the Friendship Technology Preparatory Academy. I didn’t know what to expect but I knew from the moment I was greeted with a warm smile by the security and school personnel that I was in for a real treat. It was…

This past school year, 1,289 students, approximately 240 of whom with special needs, received an education centered around social justice, development and growth at the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School (WDP – LLPCS) in Philadelphia, PA. As the school has been busy rebuffing district efforts to unlawfully cap the charter’s enrollment and working…