We need innovation in education
Yesterday we posted Senator Kyl’s comments on the need for creative problem solving in education.
Cory Booker (mayor of Newark, NJ), John Doerr (partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers) and Ted Mitchell (chief executive of NewSchools Venture Fund and president of the California Board of Education) echo those sentiments and call for more innovation in education in their article, “Better education through innovation.”
The evidence for making a national commitment to innovation in educationis compelling. Today, many of the most promising solutions are emerging from entrepreneurial organizations that embrace freedom and accountability. Indeed, such social entrepreneurs represent a growing force. They have started nimble, typically nonprofit organizations that work in partnership with creative mayors and school superintendents.
Entrepreneurial charter schools such as KIPP, Uncommon Schools, Aspire, the Inner-City Education Foundation, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools and Green Dot demonstrate what a single-minded focus on excellence can achieve with low-income students. These public schools, open to all students, are dedicated to the idea that college success and wide career choices must be a reality regardless of the ZIP Code of a child’s birth. And they are proving what’s possible, sending students from the poorest neighborhoods to college at rates typical of far more affluent communities.
