Education & Youth Blog 

This post is the second in a seven-post series exploring the practices of leading blended learning practitioners across the country. The blog series comes in conjunction with the release of five detailed case studies on blended learning operators written by FSG with support from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. This particular post explores KIPP Empower Academy’s journey to blended learning, and highlights some of the results the school has achieved.

by Mike Kerr, Founding Principal, KIPP Empower Academy, Los Angeles

By Eric Paisner, Vice President, Knowledge and Partnerships, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Every year my organization, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), examines the growing student enrollment in public charter schools across the country. Among other things, we identify which communities have the highest percentage of public school students enrolled in public charter schools. NAPCS knows that in communities where parents have a choice, they are increasingly choosing public charter schools over the traditional public schools available to them. For the 2010-2011 school year, six school districts had at least 30 percent of their public school students enrolled in public charter schools. Charter schools in New Orleans enrolled an astounding 70 percent of public school students. DC was next at 39 percent and Detroit a close third at 37 percent public student enrollment. In total, 18 school districts had 20 percent or more of their public school students enrolled in charter schools—twelve more districts than when NAPCS first printed this report six years ago. The data tell us that the public education landscape is shifting dramatically.