Charter schooling has long suffered from a “more-of-the-same” problem. For all the opportunities to rethink the familiar schoolhouse, few of the nation’s 8,000 charter schools have actually done so. While they tend to outperform their district counterparts due to high expectations and elbow grease, many charter schools just aren’t all that different from nearby district schools.

Why? It’s due to culture, practice, and policy. From facilities to funders, there are a slew of forces urging charter leaders to do the usual, just “better.”  This is what the former CEO of New Schools for New Orleans famously lampooned as the “suck less” mindset.