Two of my favorite people in education reform are launching a new organization designed to tackle one of the most pressing challenges in urban schooling: the disappearance of inner-city Catholic schools. Aquinas Education Partners, named after the great Catholic saint and theologian Thomas Aquinas,* promises to bring new ideas, renewed energy, and much more to this invaluable but beleaguered sector of American K-12 education.
This effort couldn't have two better founders.????Scott Hamilton has been a top-flight education reform leader for years. He did stints at the White House and the US Department of Education and helped launch Massachusetts' highly successful charter school sector from inside the state's department of education. He was one of the first people on the scene of the Edison Project, played important board roles for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the California Charter Schools Association, and served as the managing director of the Pisces Foundation.
In this role, he helped two young teachers create the KIPP Foundation. Though school leaders Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin and philanthropist Don Fisher are rightfully given great credit for KIPP's launch and development, Scott was an integral, indispensable part of this success (as documented by Jay Matthews' book Work Hard, Be Nice and this excerpt from Education Next).
I first got to know Scott during his service on NAPCS's board. Even in a room full of sharp, experienced, committed people, Scott stood out. During the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008, we worked on parallel projects from different perches--he editing a report on saving Catholic schools for Fordham and I writing a White House report on preserving faith-based urban schools. We talked frequently, and I was always smarter when we were through.
Stephanie Saroki has been the head of K-12 education programs at the Philanthropy Roundtable for nearly six years. In that role, she's helped donors make wise education investments and in the process developed an extraordinarily wide and deep understanding of the education reform landscape. Her programs, like this one, are must-attend events and invariably bring together the brightest lights of education thinking, doing, and giving. She's also walked the walk herself as a Teach for America corps member in Oakland, CA. ????From my considerable personal experience with Stephanie, I can say she's sharp as a tack, indefatigable, and kind.
This sector couldn't find better advocates than Scott and Stephanie. ????As Aquinas wrote,???????????There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.??????? Inner-city Catholic schools have found two dear friends.
However, these schools face very real and serious challenges. They have much to learn from the rest of the education reform world, including lessons from charter schooling, human capital initiatives, and the standards-assessments-accountability movement. In truth, this sector has,????in some cases,????become too bureaucratic, too change-averse, and too reliant on old ways of doing things. Such insularity is nearly always a danger. Indeed, as Aquinas himself wrote,????"Beware the man of one book."
Thanks to their broad expertise in K-12 reform,????Scott and Stephanie????will bring a polymathic approach to the reform and improvement of urban Catholic schooling. I'm excited about their new venture and wish them Godspeed.
* Update: The organization has since changed its name to Seton Education Partners, an equally fitting monicker. ????Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first native-born American to be canonized and is widely considered the patron saint of Catholic schools, having started a school for Catholic girls in Maryland.