Friday Forza!
A Beautiful Week in Washington
It’s Friday for a few more hours — and time for a renewed focus on Forza, or strength. That’s really what I aim to spotlight here each week. And this week, there’s strength everywhere — within our movement and far beyond — that deserves recognition (and, in a few places, a little push).
Expecting Better
This week’s episode of EdReform in 10 — the flash-podcast from CER and Dash Media — continues our showcase of innovative minds and ideas from April’s ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego. This episode features best-selling author, professor, and economist Emily Oster, who sat down with CER’s Chief Program Officer and Yass Prize Director Caroline Allen to discuss how her platform, Zelma AI, is the most comprehensive data tool that can help, parents, states and education leaders make more informed decisions,
helping us all to expect better from the institutions serving our students.
A Champion for Special Education
When Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced — to our great excitement — that Diana Diaz-Harrison, founder and executive director of the Yass Prize-winning Arizona Autism Charter Schools, would serve as the U.S. Department of Education’s new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, we knew we had to celebrate.
National Charter Schools Week gave us the perfect opportunity.
Since the school’s founding in 2014, AZ Autism’s model — grounded in applied behavior analysis — has gained national attention. As early as 2015, its success was being studied and replicated by schools of all kinds across the country.
On Thursday evening, CER and the Yass Prize family celebrated Diana’s appointment alongside Education Department colleagues, leaders in special education, and innovators from across the edreform space — all of whom recommitted to Diana’s vision to transform special education for kids. It was a night to remember.
Podcasting with the Pioneers
Right off a US Senate Roundtable on Charter Schools, some of the pioneers in chartering gathered at CER HQ to tape more episodes of #Edreform in 10. Detroit Achievement Academy Founder Kyle Smitley was in to talk about their pathbreaking success and innovative partnership with Cristo Rey; in another episode, Laura Cassidy, the founder of Louisiana Key Academy which serves dyslexic children well, puts the identification and treatment of this unique quality front and center for students, and school Founder Ruben Morris came all the way from Aerospace and Aviation High School in Alabama to share what makes his charter’s efforts unique. As he tells us-
“On Fridays when many other high school students are taking their end-of-the-week performative assessments, our students will be in a hangar working alongside an airframe or power plant mechanic learning about rivets in different types of aircraft. Or maybe they’ll be in ground school learning about the weather so they can pursue a commercial pilot or commercial drone pilot’s license. These are the opportunities we’re giving our students — right here, right now in Bessemer.”
Education Without Limits
These folks are but a few of those that this year’s Presidential Proclamation — the 22nd since President George W. Bush first commemorated National Charter Schools Week in 2002 — celebrates. Given all the conversations we just had, we thought it was just so appropriately themed:
“Education Without Limits, Opportunity Without Boundaries.”
Having been in this work since before these proclamations existed, I find it rewarding to see the mission so perfectly captured. From D.C. to state capitols to small towns, leaders gathered this week to honor the parents, teachers, and students who’ve found their best education in a charter school.
As Time Magazine once put it back in 1994, charters were a “grassroots revolt” — a response to the need for better, more personalized learning, and a call for teacher freedom to create and lead. Today, with more than 8,000 charter schools in 47 states, we know what works.
But we also know that laws matter. And not all - in fact most - are not great. Imagine if every state had laws that truly opened boundaries and expanded opportunity for kids?
Keep an eye out for CER’s 2025 National Charter School Laws and Ranking Scorecard, coming next week, to see how your state stacks up. And don’t forget to check our updated Parent Power! Index, which remains the go-to source for understanding what rights and opportunities your state’s policies provide.
Looking Ahead
Next week, we expect Congress to enact a budget bill that includes the first-ever national tax credit to support scholarships for low-income kids. It’s a fight — but a virtuous one.
Have a great weekend.
Until next time —
Jeanne