Enter: Decentralization
Though PostCommon has taken a long hiatus, I’m curious to explore how decentralization in education is gaining ground and what it could mean for families, students, and the sector moving forward.
Act III in American Education
Two concepts have directed public K-12 education over time: enrollment and standardization. Even without coercive coordination from the federal government, these core themes have shaped policies and practices across state and local institutions charged with educating 50,000,0000 children everyday. First, we focused on enrollment: get all the kids into school. Then, we adopted common methods and approaches that for nearly 70 years have kept school in Connecticut looking rather similar to school in Texas.
No longer.
These institutions’ inept response to the pandemic created an opening for competing concepts to move from the margins to the mainstream. Thousands of schools abandoned their commitment to enrollment across the '20-'21 school year and there's been a startling lack of adopting new standards for remediation and recovery. While not a new idea in education, decentralization is gathering momentum and it's the emerging concept I'm tracking most closely.
Though PostCommon has taken a long hiatus, I’m curious to explore how decentralization in education is gaining ground and what it could mean for families, students, and the sector moving forward.
To start, here’s a quick roundup of related news. It’s easy to cherry-pick in support of a thesis. It's also fun.
- Kaya Henderson and the growth of Reconstruction
- Synthesis School Raises $12M
- Primer Raises a Series A and Launches Micro Schools in Florida
- Alpha School in Austin (related: Substack by a student at Alpha)
- Dacia Toll and the launch of StepMojo (presentation and overview here)
- Kevin Huffman and Janice Jackson Launch Accelerate
- Rick Hess and Checker Finn on The End of School Reform (It’s notably quiet on what’s next: “Given that history, it's a safe bet that some new coalition will eventually rise from the ashes. What shape it may take and how long it will be until then, we cannot yet say.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Chris Stewart with as forceful a call for “exit” as I’ve read and more
- Interview with Paymon Rouhanifard, interesting throughout.
- New Hampshire Granting School Credit for Outside of School Learning Experiences
- Oh, and school vouchers expand in Arizona (is Texas next?)