Issue #181

I Got Schooled: The Unlikely Story of How a Moonlighting Moviemaker Learned the Five Keys to Closing America’s Achievement Gap, by M. Night Shyamalan. Simon & Schuster. 306 pp. $25.00 (hardcover). Purchase here.

Many community development organizations approach the issue of public education with trepidation. Too many public schools have been entrenched in mediocrity for too long. The politics are messy. Public schools […]

In the community development field there are innumerable conversations about improving a struggling neighborhood or moving toward economic equity that have been ended abruptly by the observation, “Well, but it […]

It might seem like 10, or even 30, years is a long time to require affordability—until it’s over and your public investment is lost.

Austin, with prodding from advocates, pushes its economic development policy to go beyond big deal chasing.

An influx of more affluent families and their resources and advocacy is just what every struggling school needs, right? Well . . .

In the face of widespread school choice, some D.C. residents are advocating for an equitable system of neighborhood schools. But what’s the chance that will become a reality?

What is the relationship between charter schools and neighborhoods—and what could it be?

Charter schools in gentrifying neighborhoods have the power to exacerbate the inequity that exists between low-income residents and wealtheir newcomers. How can they use their power to instead ensure their student populations are as diverse as the neighborhoods they operate in?

Community schools support kids, families, and neighborhoods in their mission to improve education.

As the school reform debates rage on, community groups struggle to stay out of the politics and yet keep influencing the quality of education in their neighborhoods.

The choice to support privately-operated, publicly-funded schools puts these lenders at odds with many of their usual political allies and constituencies. So what’s the motivation?

Despite the controversy surrounding them, charter schools have become a major segment of the CDFI field’s business, requiring new assessment tools to keep the lending mission-focused.

Shelterforce got a chance to speak with Secretary Julian Castro about some of the current ways in which he’s working to make HUD a force for good in people’s lives, and what steps there are left to be taken.