It’s 2033. Education systems have transformed, advancing educational equity. What does education look like compared to today? What did schools, districts, and states do to transform?
With these questions, we threw CPRL’s Spring 2023 cohort of graduate students into the deep end of public education change. Weighed down by frank assessment of existing racial and economic inequities, entrenched segregation, and uneven distribution of strong educators and accelerated learning opportunities, but buoyed by an introduction to system changes that at different points have helped improve student learning, students went to work planning out how leaders could create the more equitable schools of the future.
At CPRL, this is not an academic exercise. It prepares students for consequential projects for U.S. school systems and education organizations engineering real change. This semester, one team is helping the NYC Public Schools convene educators, students, families, researchers, and lawyers to advise the district on rethinking its literacy education. Another team is working with a client to identify and advance policies to support and sustain a diversifying teacher force.
The 32 members of our Spring 2023 cohort bring a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, knowledge, and interests to this work: They join us from graduate programs of law, business, education, policy, and data sciences from across the country; hail from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Vietnam, and the U.S.; and have worked as educators, consultants, business leaders, and in philanthropy and community service.
Integrating an array of disciplinary knowhow and skills into the trans-disciplinary problem-solving CPRL teaches, students conduct research, analyze laws, policies, and data, manage projects, and convene diverse groups of stakeholders to co- and re-design systems, structures, and practices that have systematically failed generations of young people. We have used this process over 11 years to make progress on some of education’s biggest challenges. We’re excited for the semester ahead and for our work to help school systems get continuously better at making sure each and every child is prepared for wherever college, careers, and their realized passions take them.
-- Liz