Have efforts to cultivate "vocational" citizenship skills failed to satisfy the broader obligation of schools to cultivate the next generation of citizens and civic leaders?

Today, there are more than 4,600 charter schools across the United States with an enrollment of over 1.3 million students. While this represents impressive growth for a type of school that did not exist two decades ago, even staunch proponents concede that not all charter schools are outstanding. Furthermore, the...

What kind of success had educational entrepreneurs had? What challenges lie ahead?

Dynamic new ventures like the KIPP Academies, Edison, or Green Dot Public Schools are increasingly being asked to stand in for failing district schools.

Even as charter schooling has been at the forefront of education reform efforts, we know remarkably little about how these schools approach this critical dimension of education. What have charter schools done with the opportunity to rethink civic education? Are there lessons to be learned? Are there challenges that impede their ability to teach citizenship?

Accountability and school choice are not solutions, but they are useful tools.

At this event panelists will offer their perspective on how federal and state policy can better support the success and growth of innovations in education.

We are scholars and analysts who support school choice in some fashion, though we have varied perspectives regarding the optimal nature, extent, and design of choice-based arrangements. Choice's track record so far is promising and provides support for continuing expansion of school choice policies.