Good afternoon! Thank you for joining me during my portion of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ Virtual Back to School Day.
Morgan Brown: Good afternoon! Thank you for joining me during my portion of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ Virtual Back to School Day. I am honored to participate in today’s event and want to thank Nelson Smith, President of the Alliance, and everyone who helped coordinate this day-long discussion of charter schools.
Prior to arriving at the U.S. Department of Education last month, I worked at several non-profit organizations and a state education agency for nine years promoting education reform and providing outreach to families regarding their educational options. My most recent post was serving as the director of the Division of School Choice & Innovation at the Minnesota Department of Education. While there, I managed the administration of 25 programs in such areas as school choice, nonpublic school options, and supplemental educational services.
In my new position heading up the Office of Innovation and Improvement, my staff and I spend a lot of time thinking about school choice, how we can best support it, how we can effectively evaluate it, and how we can expand it. Public charter schools play a prominent role in these discussions not only because of OII’s administration of the Charter School Program (CSP) under the No Child Left Behind Act, but also because I believe that charter schools are creating an “open sector” of public education that will better meet a broad range of students' academic and social needs.
My two elementary-school-age sons got a kick out of the fact that Dad was going to be joining them in going “back to school” today so I asked them if they had any advice they thought I should pass on to others who are participating in this event. They jointly offered the following words of wisdom: “Remember to be on time, follow the rules, do your homework, and get good grades.” It’s hard to improve on that, but I’ll do my best and look forward to answering your questions.
Date: 5 Sep 2006
Given in this interview: Guest Speaker: Morgan Brown, Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education