Anti-racism and social justice played a prominent role in the demise of several high-performing charter school networks, according to a new book. But that’s not the whole story.
By Alexander Russo
In his new book, THE LOST DECADE, former Ascend charter schools head Steven Wilson writes eloquently about what happened to him personally and to the school reform movement’s once-successful urban charter schools effort.
In essence, Wilson writes, the high-performing charter school sector that was once exemplified by KIPP, Achievement First, and Noble Street was destroyed by the past decade’s growing concerns about equity and anti-racism — dismantled from the inside by feckless boards, misguided DEI consultants, and a new generation of educators raising hard questions about charter school practices.
It’s a heartbreaking, deeply frustrating story that hasn’t been particularly well covered in the professional media. But, as the following conversation highlights, Wilson’s analysis is undercut by his unwillingness to hold himself or his former counterparts at other organizations accountable for their own mistakes and complicity.
It’s all too easy to exonerate allies and vilify outside forces. But what specific mis-steps were made by charter school leaders and school reform champions? What unnecessary decisions taken? Who could and should have done better — and how?
What specific mis-steps were made? What unnecessary decisions taken?
Watch or read below for the hour-long conversation below, which along with serious moments also includes brief discussion of hobbies and TV shows.
Many thanks to Wilson for tolerating my many impertinent questions and misguided beliefs.
Some choice quotes:
RUSSO: “Reading the book, I kept thinking — worrying a little bit — that you might put yourself back into the woodchipper. Because if I understand you correctly… you’re saying that high-performing charter schools have gone in a very bad direction, that a lot of people have been pushed aside unnecessarily or unwarrantedly, that DEI has has actually gone too far…. Do you want to (or fear, or both) generating this kind of controversy again?”
WILSON: “Not at all. I mean, quite honestly, I’ve experienced the dial set to 100. So if it recurs at 80, I feel like I have a thick skin. Look, school reform is a fight. And I think that we no longer think of it that way, but it is. And I’m actually urging a return to that conception… I think where we lost momentum is where we thought that we had to speak in platitudes, in anodyne terms. And I think that that actually harmed us. We need to be clear…. So no, I’m not concerned about that.”
RUSSO: “I don’t see the accountability on the reform side. I see a lot of describing of failings — of things done to the reform community — but not what the reform community should have done.”
WILSON: ‘Waiting for Superman’ was the peak of what I talk about in the book as this kind of charter triumphalism, where you go to conferences and people would talk about what heroes everybody there was — who were primarily white, of course, who were starting these networks, were involved in these networks. Look, that is nothing that we should be proud of. But at the same time, I understand the exuberance and I don’t think the exuberance was unwarranted… While that ‘Waiting for Superman’ period is cringy from today’s perspective, it’s not crazy that people got excited.”
Events and reviews of THE LOST DECADE:
He’s a Foe of D.E.I. in Schools but Not a Fan of Trump’s Crusade (NYT)
Bringing High Expectations Back to Education Rick Hess
Education Gadfly
Education Exchange
Federalist Radio Hour
The Education Exchange: Once-Thriving Charter Schools Sailing into Troubled Waters
Schools Experienced a ‘Lost Decade.’ How They Can Recover (Opinion) EW
Long-ago case studies I wrote about the school reform movement:
The rise and fall of Democrats for Education Reform
How ‘Waiting for Superman’ (almost) changed everything
Teach For America’s outsized influence on alternative certification
What happened when school reformers tried to make education a Presidential campaign issue?
A lightly-edited AI transcript of the conversation can be found here.
