Inventor of Portfolio School Reform Confirms It Isn’t Working Well | janresseger

Inventor of Portfolio School Reform Confirms It Isn’t Working Well | janresseger:

Inventor of Portfolio School Reform Confirms It Isn’t Working Well

Posted on July 30, 2014 by janresseger

The portfolio strategy of school reform embodies the idea of school choice. The provision of a range of privatized charter schools and the elimination of assigned school attendance zones are central to the theory, which was developed by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, whose website declares, “The portfolio strategy gives families the freedom to attend their neighborhood schools or choose one that is the best fit for their child.”  Robin Lake, the Center’s director, might be called the mother of this theory that envisions the governance of education through the lens of creative disruption—schools managed like a business portfolio, with new schools continually introduced and failures dropped from the portfolio.

I was impressed that when Robin Lake recently visited Detroit, she was quoted in the Detroit Free Press investigative series on charter schools in Michigan criticizing the management of school choice.  I have always hoped that proponents of privatization might take a second look if it were proven that charters and vouchers are not accomplishing what was promised: closing achievement gaps and significantly and measurably improving the education of children who are struggling in public schools.  I was encouraged to read in the Free Press that Lake agreed with critics that school choice in Detroit these days is a morass.  In Detroit, Lake said charters “have created a lot of new opportunities, and a lot of great new schools are up and running as a result.”  She added, however, that “not enough attention has been paid to quality and equity access in Detroit.” She said that today Detroit has a massive oversupply of schools but “a lack of high-quality seats.”  She said parents “are having a difficult time navigating their options.”  “What’s happening in Detroit is very messy right now.”  “It’s not clear who’s keeping an eye on the city’s schools and making sure that every neighborhood has access to a high quality school.”   Lake’s conclusions, however, at the end of her Free Pressinterview disappointed me.  She reverted to ideology, minimized the problems she had justInventor of Portfolio School Reform Confirms It Isn’t Working Well | janresseger: