CRPE’s Robin Lake on COVID School Closures & Learning Loss

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), a non-partisan research and policy analysis organization developing transformative, evidence-based solutions for K-12 public education. Robin describes the type of research CRPE conducts and how it has evolved over time, and shares her view of the impact it should have on schools, teachers, and families. She discusses CRPE’s work tracking school closures across the country at the height of the pandemic, the methodology used, and the findings so far. Robin reviews key takeaways from CRPE’s July report on how districts are allocating federal COVID-19 relief funds, and talks about how districts should spend those dollars. After sharing what her team will be focusing on as we emerge from the pandemic, she describes the challenges of leading a non-partisan research organization and remaining committed to the mission during a highly partisan era, with schools and curricula increasingly being drawn into political battles.

Stories of the Week: Finance and economics education improves young people’s financial literacy and helps prevent credit card and student loan debt, and insufficient savings for retirement. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio is ending the school district’s Gifted and Talented program by fall 2022, in favor of a new program which he claims is more equitable.

Guest:

Robin Lake is director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) a non-partisan research and policy analysis organization developing 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 co-authored, with Paul Hill, Charter Schools and Accountability in Public Education, and has provided invited testimonies to the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee as well as various state legislatures. Lake holds a BA in International Studies and an MPA in Education and Urban Policy from the University of Washington.

The next episode will air on Wednesday, October 20th with guest, David Reynolds, a Distinguished Professor of English and History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the 2020 author of Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, selected one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Tweet of the Week:

News Links:

New York Post: NY to Phase Out Gifted and Talented Program

CNBC: To raise successful children, teach them about economics