Brand New NY-Based Charter-Boosting Nonprofit Has Michigan as First Customer
The School Empowerment Network (SEN) is a Brooklyn, NY-based nonprofit that received its nonprofit status in February 2016.
Just-born SEN specializes in three services: principal development, teacher development, and new school development. Its home page features an obvious link entitled, “START A NEW CHARTER SCHOOL.”
SEN’s three board members are computer science major Daniel Pasette as president; former TNTP (The New Teacher Project) and NYDOE exec director Alex Shub, and former NYDOE COO (Portfolio Planning) Eduardo Contreras.
As of August 18, 2016, it lists on its website a single funder, the Walton Foundation, and a single client: Michigan’s state-takeover Education Achievement Authority(EAA). It turns out that paint-barely-dry-on walls SEN is “leading” EAA, as the SEN website notes:
The Education Achievement Authority of Michigan (EAA) is a public system of schools whose mission is [to] turn the lowest performing schools in Michigan into the highest performing schools through people development, proven instructional strategies, and seamless operations.At the EAA, School Empowerment Network is leading the design and implementation of teacher development pathways as well as an Achievement Leadership Institute (ALI) to prepare the next cohort of school administrators. As teachers build a track record of success in EAA schools, they have opportunities to reach more students, earn more money, and grow professionally by moving up our career ladder, from “Model” to “Lead” to “Master” Teacher—and eventually, if they are so inclined, into school administration positions.SEN is also leading the implementation of Small Learning Communities (SLCs) to improve student academic and social/emotional outcomes. Our model assigns a cohort of staff to a specific grade or grade band of students, building one-year-at-a-time a clearly defined school culture which is modeled and embodied by all. As a result, small school communities are able to understand and meet the needs of each and every student. In 2015-2016, two SLC academies were launched in the district, and School Quality Review results already show evidence of new and much stronger school cultures, where clearer behavioral expectations have been established and are largely being met.
What lovely SEN marketing– and such a contrast to EAA reality, which includes likes of EAA embarrassment, former chancellor John Covington, who cut out as EAA leader amid questionable financial management issues.
Though Michigan’s state-run EAA is in its final year, the schools remain under the auspices of the state’s school reform office. The future jurisdiction of these schools is connected to a restructuring of the Detroit Public Schools.
Given the timing of the legislated EAA dissolution and the establishment of SEN as a nonprofit, it is possible that SEN was created to oversee the EAA school transition. Brand New NY-Based Charter-Boosting Nonprofit Has Michigan as First Customer | deutsch29:
