charter-schools
(7)
The Charter Network That Beat the Odds - and the Rankings
A single Harlem school that opened with 165 kids in 2006 now tops New York State's math rankings and expands into Florida. Here is how Success Academy built it, and who is paying for it.
The Company Running Public Schools Like a Network - and Teaching Courage on Tuesdays
National Heritage Academies has spent three decades turning a Grand Rapids experiment into a 103-school operating system. Its pitch is consistency: centralized support, measurable academics and a character curriculum built around one virtue at a time.
Uncommon Schools
Uncommon Schools is a nonprofit charter management organization that starts and runs outstanding urban public charter schools designed to close the achievement gap and prepare students from low-income communities to graduate from college. Founded around North Star Academy in Newark in 1997 and relaunched as a multi-state network in 2005, Uncommon operates roughly 53 K-12 schools serving about 20,000 students across New York City, Newark, Camden, Rochester, Troy, and Boston. Beyond running schools, it is a national force in teacher development - home to Doug Lemov's 'Teach Like a Champion' methodology - and pairs rigorous, data-driven instruction with long-term alumni college coaching.
Julie Jackson
Julie Jackson is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit network of high-performing public charter schools serving roughly 20,000 students across New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. The first Black Co-CEO in the organization's history, she has spent three decades in education, starting as a Teach For America corps member in Paterson, New Jersey in 1994 and rising from founding teacher and principal to President and now Co-CEO. She oversees all 53 K-12 Uncommon Schools and has trained more than 25,000 teachers and leaders across the United States and abroad. Known for her belief that schools should be places of both joy and rigor, she is a recognized voice on teacher development, college completion, and equity in urban public education.
Reportwell
Reportwell is a Detroit-based, AI-powered compliance and reporting platform built for the K-12 education world - charter school authorizers, districts, agencies, and the schools they oversee. Founded in 2023 by a team of former education agency and school leaders, it scans for new laws, board decisions, and regulatory shifts, keeps policy documents current automatically, and answers plain-language legal questions through an AI chat. The goal is simple: turn the dreaded audit scramble into a routine, so educators can spend less time on paperwork and more time on students.
Jacob Allen
Jacob Allen is the co-founder and CEO of Reportwell, a software startup that turns the slow, paperwork-heavy work of regulatory compliance reporting into a clean, AI-assisted portal, starting with K-12 schools and the agencies that oversee them. He came to the problem the hard way: as the co-founder and CEO of pilotED Schools, a charter network built around identity and sociology, he drowned in state and city compliance reports and decided to build the tool he wished he had. A Teach For America alum, Echoing Green Fellow, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education honoree, Allen has spent his career on the conviction that students do better when they understand who they are, and that the adults serving them deserve software that does not get in the way.
Frances Messano
Frances Messano is CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy that backs early-stage education entrepreneurs across the U.S. A Brooklyn native, first-generation college graduate, and Harvard-trained economist, she left Wall Street (Morgan Stanley equity derivatives) for a decade-long arc through consulting and Teach For America before landing at NewSchools in 2015. She rose to President, built the Diverse Leaders investment strategy, and in January 2023 became the organization's first woman of color to serve as CEO. Under her leadership, NewSchools has deployed $23M+ supporting 80 teams in a single year, with 76% of portfolio companies led by people of color.