"Education Sector’s November 24 report, Growing Pains: Scaling Up the Nation’s Best Charter Schools examines the problems CMOs face trying to replicate their various philosophies of teaching and learning in new public schools. Considering the source, the content and conclusion are predictable and deserve little attention: While each CMO faces operational problems, the concept’s success is more a matter of removing charter advocates’ longstanding list of government barriers – inadequate per pupil payments, a lack of access to facilities or financing, etc, etc.
Yet, the report demands close review - because it’s real author, content and conclusions have gone missing. Until now."
Apparently, no one wrote Growing. In fact, it is a much-edited version of EdSector co-founder Thomas Toch’s Sweating the Big Stuff: A Progress Report on the Movement to Scale Up the Nation’s Best Charter Schools. Based on interviews with CMO insiders, publicly available data, and his own analysis, Toch presents a compelling indictment of the “new philanthropy’s” primary investment strategy for education reform. His arguments should be available to all and addressed on the merits. Instead, someone at EdSector hacked away at Toch’s evidence until it fit the rhetoric of CMO advocates.
Growing Pains: Scaling Up the Nation's Best Charter Schools Education Sector Reports -