Are U.S. Charters Really Free? What We Can Learn About School Autonomy From Other Countries

Are U.S. Charters Really Free? What We Can Learn About School Autonomy From Other Countries


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BCEC, Meeting Room 205A

This session will discuss how school flexibility operates internationally. Attendees will hear from both U.S. and international school reform experts about how school autonomy is overseen and protected in other countries, and will explore what charter schools in the U.S. can learn from these examples. OIDEL, a Swiss NGO with consultative status before the UN and UNESCO, is releasing the Freedom of Education Index 2023—a quantitative analysis of educational pluralism worldwide. Following the last publications in 2002 and 2016, this report not only gives an overview of the state of freedom of education in the world but also puts forward the evolution of that freedom in the last 20 years.

Format:
Facilitated Discussions
Audience:
Govern
Content Focus:
The Changing Landscape of Education
Learning Objective 1:
Participants will understand how school autonomy operates internationally.
Learning Objective 2:
Participants will learn how U.S. charter school autonomy compares to international school autonomy.
Learning Objective 3:
Participants will gain an understanding of what U.S. charter schools can learn from these countries.

Scroll down to view handouts.

Presenters


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Robert Enlow
President & CEO
EdChoice

Robert C. Enlow is the president and CEO of EdChoice. Before the establishment of EdChoice in 2016, Robert led the legacy foundation of Milton and Rose Friedman which was founded 1996. He has served as fundraiser, program coordinator, vice president and executive director prior to being named president and CEO in 2009. Under his leadership, EdChoice has become one of the nation’s most respected and successful advocates for educational choice, working in dozens of states to advance parental freedom in education by disseminating research, undertaking training, sponsoring seminars, conducting advertising campaigns and investing in and organizing community leaders.


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Ignasi Grau
General Director
OIDEL

Ignasi Grau is the General Director of OIDEL. OIDEL is an NGO specialized in the right to education and freedom of education, with Consultative Status with ECOSOC, UNESCO and the Council of Europe.


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Robin Lake
Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education
ASU

Robin Lake is director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) a non-partisan research and policy analysis organization at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. CRPE’s mission is developing transformative, evidence-based solutions for K–12 public education. Her research focuses on U.S. public school system reforms, including public school choice and charter schools; innovation and scale; portfolio management; and effective state and local public oversight practices. Lake has authored numerous studies and provided expert testimony and technical assistance on charter schools, district-charter collaborations, and urban school reform. She is the editor of Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs and editor of Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools. She has provided invited testimonies to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee as well as various state legislatures. She presents regularly at conferences and summits around the United States, and has advised on charter school implementation in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Lake serves as a board member or advisor to various organizations, including the Journal of School Choice, the National Center on Special Education in Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and Education Next. She was named to the summer 2016 class of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellows Program, designed to support exceptional leaders reimagining U.S. public schools. Lake holds a BA in International Studies and an MPA in Education and Urban Policy from the University of Washington.Robin Lake is director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) a non-partisan research and policy analysis organization at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. CRPE’s mission is developing transformative, evidence-based solutions for K–12 public education. Her research focuses on U.S. public school system reforms, including public school choice and charter schools; innovation and scale; portfolio management; and effective state and local public oversight practices. Lake has authored numerous studies and provided expert testimony and technical assistance on charter schools, district-charter collaborations, and urban school reform. She is the editor of Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs and editor of Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools. She has provided invited testimonies to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee as well as various state legislatures. She presents regularly at conferences and summits around the United States, and has advised on charter school implementation in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Lake serves as a board member or advisor to various organizations, including the Journal of School Choice, the National Center on Special Education in Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and Education Next. She was named to the summer 2016 class of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellows Program, designed to support exceptional leaders reimagining U.S. public schools. Lake holds a BA in International Studies and an MPA in Education and Urban Policy from the University of Washington.


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Christy Wolfe
Senior Vice President, Policy, Research, & Planning
National Alliance

Christy Wolfe is the Senior Vice President for Policy, Research and Planning for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. She has more than 20 years of experience working on federal education policy, and has been a strong advocate of charter schools ever since her first visit to a charter school in 1998 for a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce field hearing. Christy spent eight years at the U.S. Department of Education, serving as the associate deputy secretary for policy. In this role, she managed policy development and implemented regulations for all federal elementary, secondary, and special education programs. Christy was also a professional staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce, where she worked on major education legislation, including the No Child Left Behind Act.


Format:
Facilitated Discussions
Audience:
Govern
Content Focus:
The Changing Landscape of Education
Learning Objective 1:
Participants will understand how school autonomy operates internationally.
Learning Objective 2:
Participants will learn how U.S. charter school autonomy compares to international school autonomy.
Learning Objective 3:
Participants will gain an understanding of what U.S. charter schools can learn from these countries.

Scroll down to view handouts.