Education Reform University Launches with Hundreds of Seminal Documents from Founding of Charter School Movement
Initiative of Center for Education Reform Coincides with Annual Charter School Conference
CER Press Release
Washington, DC
July 1, 2013
As thousands of school leaders, educators, civic and policy representatives descend on Washington for this week’s annual charter school conference, The Center for Education Reform today released hundreds of documents relating to the movement’s founding. From meeting notes and minutes to legislative strategy papers and even e-mail communications with various education players over the years, the first and only repository of such history is now available at Education Reform University, a new initiative of the Center.
“The need for a real history lesson has been made clear time and time again in our work,” said Center President Jeanne Allen. “In fact, we’ve come to realize that the single largest impediment to lasting, substantive, structural educational improvement is the lack of common knowledge of what has come before. Making this library available to all begins to address this issue.”
Allen added: “As the old adage goes, those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. We believe education cannot succeed for every child until everyone involved truly understands how policies that exist today actually happened and leverages such knowledge to accelerate the pace of reform. Progress has been made to be sure, but not nearly enough.”
According to the Center, while 4th and 8th grade scores on the nation’s report card are up, student proficiency in the US among all SES groups remains unacceptably low. Turnaround efforts are often stymied in the face of iron clad teacher union contracts. Even modest performance pay measures pale in comparison to the real notion of merit pay first piloted in the 1990s. And while charter schools are making great progress in solving some problems, the Center estimates the nation could fill another 5,000 charter schools with students on waiting lists, and laments that far too many state laws are compromised by political bargains often made by supporters.
“Our work with legislatures nationwide reinforces the need for a comprehensive understanding of the history of education efforts that have tried and failed, and those that have the staying power to effect student achievement,” said the Center’s Executive Vice President Kara Kerwin. “That’s why Education Reform University is an exciting development for the entire education community, and why the launch of this library is so timely.”
In addition to the new library that will place new publications and media “on the shelf” daily, Education Reform University this fall will begin to provide online courses delivered by experts. In addition, new programs in conventional institutions of higher education will be available to students on a public policy or education track.
Tomorrow at 2:15pm, the Center’s leadership will provide a glimpse of what Education Reform University will teach through a panel featuring former lawmakers from Florida and Ohio, at the National Charter Schools Conference, Room 209 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. More information is available here.
