On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools Are Pushing the Envelope (Hardcover)

Introduction 1 Part 1: The Players Rocketship Finally Launches outside California 7 John Danner 9 Preston Smith 15 Danner's Big Pivot 19 Part II: The Startup Years A Charter Fund Designed to Nurture Top CMOs 25 Did the Butterfly Effect Give Wings to Rocketship? 27 Hurricane Katrina 29 Startup Meets Smokestack 31 Sci-Fi-Inspired Software 41 Joel Klein Does the Unexpected 43 Recruiting the Key (Outside) Players 45 The Hard Sell: Pitching the First Rocketship 53 Opening Mateo Sheedy: Tough Times 61 New Schools Launches Charter Accelerator Fund II 65 How to Build a Fibonacci School 67 Part III: The Growth Years The Ideal Personnel Department? Not within Rocketship 73 Alum Rock Rejects Rocketship Is That a Bad Thing? 79 Rocketship Finds a Friend 81 Charter School Growth Fund Puts Rocketship on the Map 85 Slivka's Sci-Fi Software Gets Shipped: DreamBox 87 Rocketship Wins Five More Charters 91 Finding Karen Martinez It's an Art 93 Achievement Gaps in Fabulous Silicon Valley? 99 District-Charters Compact Launched 101 Danner (and Reed Hastings) Discover DreamBox 103 Yet Another Boring Education Book? Not Exactly? 105 States Repeal Charter Restrictions (Okay, a Bribe Was Involved) 107 Fresh Charter Strategy from the Department of Education 109 Growing the High-Performing (and Blended) Charters 111 Double Setbacks Rocketship Changes Course 113 A Corporate Jet Packed with Movers and Shakers Touches Down 117 Leaders of Top Charters Tapped as State Commissioners 123 Top Charters to Get Stiff Test 125 Blended Learning Rocketship Style: This Stuff Works! 127 KIPP Opens Its One-Hundredth School 129 A Discovery That Would Lead to Big Changes (and Bigger Drama) 131 Rocketship Bids Big: Give Us Twenty More Charters in Santa Clara County 133 Setting Up Rocketship to Fail? 137 Rocketship Doubles Down on a Reinvention 141 One Million Rocketship Students by 2030? Not Happening 147 Rocketship and Unions: It's Complicated; A Rocketship Teacher Sits down with a Union Leader - Her Mother 149 Early Fallout from Model Change 157 The Pushback Gets Real: The Fight over Tamien 159 Part IV: The Push to Expand outside San Jose Welcome to South Milwaukee 171 A Power Play Backfires 173 School Starts in Seven Months - but Only Three Sign-ups! 177 Danner Steps Down; Smith Steps Up 181 Milwaukee Gets a Shakeup 183 Stretching to Lure Top Charters: The San Antonio Story 187 Smith's Worst Monday Ever 193 Exactly What Kind of a Difference Can a Fibonacci School Make? 199 Milwaukee Looking Up (a Bit) 201 Two Charters Make the Top Five List 205 If Rocketship Is the Digital Future Why Do Its Schools Look So Ordinary? 207 Fibonacci Developments in Massachusetts 211 More Progress in Milwaukee 213 A Day in the Life: Rocketship's Flagship School, Mateo Sheedy 215 Fresh Turbulence in Milwaukee 225 Surprise Shift on TFA 233 Milwaukee Parents Name Their School: Southside Prep 237 Rumor Just In: Rocketship Falls through the Ice 241 A Fibonacci Charter Group Is Honored 243 Build, Measure, Learn, Rinse, Repeat 245 One Month before Southside Prep Opens 251 How Many Sharon Kims Are out There? 253 Eva Makes Life Hard for Her Many Critics 263 Opening Week at Southside Prep 265 California Test Scores Released 267 Part V: The Future for Rocketship and Other High Performers Answering the Fibonacci Question: Will Rocketship Make It Big? 271 Fibonacci Charters Summoned to Memphis 279 Houston's Spring Branch Schools: The Future? 287 Where's the Tipping Point? 293 The Tennessee Launch 299 Conclusion 301 Acknowledgments 311 About the Author 313 Epilogue 315 Index 319