Statewide Districts: A Way to Unleash Creative New Learning Options—and Study Them as They Grow

Robin Lake is director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. CRPE’s mission is to develop transformative, evidence-based solutions for K–12 public education. Her research focuses on U.S. public school system reforms, including public school choice and charter schools; innovation and scale; portfolio management; and effective state and local public oversight practices.

Lake has authored numerous studies and provided expert testimony and technical assistance on charter schools, district-charter collaborations, and urban school reform. She is the editor of Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools and Children with Special Needs and editor of Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools. She has provided invited testimonies to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee as well as various state legislatures.

She presents regularly at conferences and summits around the United States, and has advised on charter school implementation in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Lake serves as a board member or advisor to various organizations, including the Journal of School Choice, the National Center on Special Education in Charter Schools, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and Education Next. She was named to the summer 2016 class of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellows Program, designed to support exceptional leaders reimagining U.S. public schools.

Lake holds a BA in International Studies and an MPA in Education and Urban Policy from the University of Washington. She also serves as a professor of practice in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.

Kelly Young is the Founder and President Emeritus of Education Reimagined. Kelly is a nationally respected leader and advocate for the transformation of education in the U.S. For over two decades, her leadership has helped advance and support the learner-centered education movement. All of her work is grounded in her previous roles and experiences as an organizer, community engagement leader, and mother.