The Education Evolving Blog

On July 21st FUSE Charter School, which will open in Northeast Minneapolis in the fall of 2017, was announced as one of fifty finalists (down from an initial field of 700) for one of at least five $10 million grants from the national XQ Super School Project Competition.

Backed by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the competition seeks to identify at least five grantees (both school districts and individual schools can apply) that have reimagined how high school...

When Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to replace the much maligned No Child Left Behind (NCLB) educators were left with two questions: How much power would the US Department of Education (USDE) actually hand off to the states to set their own accountability standards, and how would the states use that new power to change the way schools would be evaluated for effectiveness? The questions are of special interest to charter school advocates, who have complained for years that NCLB’s focus on standardized testing discouraged the kind of innovative pedagogy chartering was...

Prior to 2009, when legislators made major changes to the law regulating school chartering in Minnesota, more than 50 school districts, colleges and nonprofits had agreed to serve as what were then called “sponsors” for new charter schools. Today that number is down to 24, with several stating their intention to discontinue acting as what are now called “authorizers.” Why the drop in organizations willing to serve this critical role, and what does the drop mean for the future of chartering in Minnesota?

Eugene Picollo, head of the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools, attributes...

In the aftermath of the knockdown the Administrative Law Judge gave to the Minnesota Department of Education last week over its proposed rule change that would have swept charter schools into the regulations on desegregation, it would be easy for the chartered sector to breathe a long sigh of relief. And consider the matter closed.

That would be wrong.

It’s important to remember there are two fully distinct challenges to charter schools under...