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Dogs and cats, working together
The city least likely to produce a fruitful collaboration between a traditional public school and a top charter school surely must be New York. After all, the mayor is famously anti-charter; his schools chief hands out public hugs to the teachers' union president.
Yet it's happening. Uncommon Schools, one of the country's highest performing charter groups, is working with several city schools. This appears to one of New York's best kept secrets, possibly due to the political awkwardness of the situation.
That's unfortunate, because there's a powerful story to tell here, one that Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña should be trumpeting — and leaders in other cities should be learning from.
I recently visited two collaborators, Brooklyn Landmark Elementary School and its partner, Uncommon's Leadership Prep Ocean Hill charter, both located in high-poverty Brownsville.