Babe Ruth, Pedro Martinez and…Brett Peiser? Top ballplayers aren’t the only ones defecting to rivals in New York City. Boston “has quietly lost some of its top educators to the Big Apple,” writes James A. Peyser, a partner with NewSchools Venture Fund, in the Boston Globe. After years as a hot spot of education reform, especially in the charter school movement, “Boston is losing some of its best players, raising fears that public education may suffer its own curse of the Bambino.”
A little over three years ago, the founders of three nationally recognized Boston charter schools - Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Academy of the Pacific Rim, and Boston Collegiate - helped to create an ambitious network of charter schools in New York and New Jersey. Last year, the head of City on a Hill Charter School, which has helped 100 percent of its graduates gain admission to college, moved to New York City to become Chancellor Joel Klein’s charter schools chief. And this fall, the founder of East Boston’s Excel Academy, which ranks among the state’s top five middle schools in eighth-grade math, is stepping down to explore new school reform opportunities in the New York metropolitan area.
“Massachusetts has distinguished itself as one of the nation’s leaders in school reform, and an important part of that success story has been its charter schools,” Peyser writes. “Nevertheless, as the charter movement has taken off in other states and cities, our leadership position has waned.”
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The Center for Education Reform (CER) honored 53 of the nation’s best charter schools as part of its National Charter School of the Year program held in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club and on Capitol Hill. Chosen from the nation’s nearly 4,000 charter schools for their achievement, innovation, and accountability, the honorees hailed from 24 states.
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