Facilitator: Alex Medler, Senior Director, National Charter Schools Resource Center
Presenters:
- Sarah Yatsko, Senior Research Analyst, Center on Reinventing Public Education
- Jordan Posamentier, Deputy Director of Policy, Center on Reinventing Public Education
Description: Charter schools have operated in conflict, or at least at odds with, local school districts for as long as they have been around. Given the competitive nature of school choice, limited education funding, and rampant misconceptions on both sides, this is not surprising. What is surprising is that there are places around the country where district and charter leaders have tried to bury the hatchet and work together to solve some of the most intractable problems in improving options for students in public education.
For the past five years, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has closely tracked the work in cities that have attempted cross-sector collaboration and has written extensively on what is working, what gets in the way, and how local conditions matter when it comes to cross-sector collaboration. Recently, CRPE has turned its lens toward SEAs to understand how state laws and policies impact local collaborative efforts.
This webinar provided attendees with a real-time update on the state of district charter collaboration nationally as well as preliminary findings from a series of interviews CRPE conducted with SEA leaders. Presenters from CRPE shared:
- National trends in the pursuit of district-charter collaboration;
- Recent and noteworthy local efforts around the country to work across sector lines; and
- How some states have begun to exert influence (sometimes unintentionally) on local collaboration efforts.
At the end of the webinar, Sarah and Jordan engaged in a Q&A. In closing, participants had an opportunity to discuss these issues with the presenters and their peers in the Q&A session.