A Framework and Toolkit for Strengthening Public Education

The Partnership for the Future of Learning is pleased to share A Framework for Strengthening Public Education and the accompanying Toolkit, Convening Breakthrough Conversations: Charter Schools. 

These resources grow out of the Partnership’s work to address long-standing divisions in the public education community that undermine more powerful collective action to strengthen public education. 

Our network’s first conversation focused on charter schools – a deep fault-line in the education advocacy space. Are charter schools a strategy for improving public education or do they undermine it? And what does it mean for a school to be public in the first place? That’s the question we grappled with in this conversation series.

A Framework for Strengthening Public Education was developed through a months’ long dialogue among partners holding different views on charter schools and who share a deep commitment to public schools.

The Framework offers 12 guiding values for strengthening charter and traditional public schools to deliver on the promise and responsibility of public institutions to be connected, responsive, and accountable to students and their families and communities. 

Convening Breakthrough Conversations: Charter Schools draws on the experience of supporting partners in the Breakthrough Conversations: Charter Schools series. It shares examples, insights, and design tips for those seeking to hold dialogues on complex issues in your communities, whether on charter schools or other topics.