Friday, July 20, 2012

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Here's What the Charter Initiative Should Be

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Here's What the Charter Initiative Should Be:


Here's What the Charter Initiative Should Be

So there was a bit of a kerfuffle between Diane Ravitch, the noted educator and Chris Cerf, New Jersey's Education Commissioner, over what he said about Albert Shanker, who is thought to be the father of the charter school movement.

Now, I outlined Mr. Shanker's role in charter schools in my multi-part series on charters, saying that he approved of lab classrooms within schools where teachers could try different methods and then to push out the ideas that worked to the larger school group.

Unfortunately, as time went by, Mr. Shanker saw the writing on the wall and denounced charters.

But Mr. Cerf just took the early history of what Mr. Shanker said.

Mr. Cerf said in an editorial: