Rocketship Education's plan for school in Milwaukee advances

Erin Richards, via a kind Chan Stroman-Roll email:

A young and tech-savvy charter school network that's gotten attention for reducing the achievement gap in San Jose, Calif., got the green light from a Common Council committee Tuesday to bring the model to Milwaukee.

Rocketship Education, a nonprofit management company, has applied for a charter from the City of Milwaukee that would allow it to open a publicly funded school in the fall of 2013, with the eventual intent to serve up to 4,000 children in eight K-5 schools by 2017. Each school would have to show measurable progress before subsequent schools could open.

The organization, started in 2006, currently serves about 2,500 students in five San Jose area elementary schools.

A majority of members on the Steering and Rules Committee on Tuesday approved sending Rocketship's application to the full council for consideration.

Rocketship CEO and co-founder John Danner explained the organization's three areas of emphasis: engaging parents through teacher-led home visits and training them to advocate for their children; developing talent by growing a pipeline of teachers who can become school leaders; and giving all students individualized learning plans that blend six hours a day of face-to-face instruction with two hours of lab time spent working with online computer programs and low-cost tutors.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 20, 2011 3:25 AM
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