The Spook Who Sat by the Charter School Door

I am the fly in the school reform buttermilk. An outsider, now marginally on the inside, trying to plot the revolution.  Young, gifted and Black, I founded a charter school support organization in Oakland at the dawn of the movement in the ’90s, followed Katrina into New Orleans to help resuscitate the (charter) schools, and…


The Best NYC Charter School Story You Haven’t Heard

A predictable war of words has erupted around interpreting the latest set of NYC test scores. The charter sector has touted its successes, with Success Academy Charter Schools front and center, and the mayor has increasingly pushed back, critiquing the results, Success Academy itself, and broadly tarring the sector. Missed in the battle of the elephants…


Schools to Celebrate- Autism Inclusion in Harlem

New York City has a great program for autism inclusion in its district schools.  Thing was, there wasn’t one in Harlem.  We helped change that. While folks often see charters as modeling practices for the District, we stole the District’s model and put in a charter.  And it’s working. It all started over steak-frites.  A…