Supporting a Diverse Choice Ecosystem From the Bottom Up

In the wake of COVID-19, the development of multiple AP-like consortia aligned to different educational visions for grades K-12 could help foster quality, coherence, and pluralism across a diverse range of education providers.

The movement to empower families to exercise educational choice has yielded significant progress. Though the struggle to empower every parent to choose a great option for their kids is far from over, the trend lines are undeniable: More families are choosing how their children are educated than ever before. Much of this growth was the result of public policy change that expanded access to within- district choice options, public charter schools, and private school choice programs.

Families are also increasingly exploring more granular sub-schooling educational options, such as tutoring or online courses. The COVID-19 pandemic played a key role in accelerating this trend as families supplemented or replaced their children’s traditional schooling with online providers and learning pods. The growth of these new options wasn’t the product of policy change — it was driven by the emergent preferences and needs of families.

In an increasingly diverse educational ecosystem — especially one driven by family demand rather than policy design — supporting quality and coherent options is a much more complex endeavor that calls for a more decentralized approach.

• Download the brief via Bellwether Education Partners