High School Redesign
VUE Number 8, Summer 2005
An interview with Constancia Warren 
Audio Clip 1
Former senior program officer and director of urban high school initiatives at Carnegie Corporation of New York.
What do you mean by a portfolio of schools?
Click on the 
bar below to start the audio.
TRANSCRIPT:
I want to start with the backdrop, that in our context in the United States, schools and districts are powerful mechanisms for allocating and legitimating opportunities, resources, and power. So the core issue that we're confronting in trying to create entire systems of excellent schools within a school district is equity, or the lack of equity.
If you think about most urban school districts, they already have some elements of a portfolio. They have schools that are different sizes, schools that have different pedagogical approaches and different thematic orientations. And many of them also already have schools with different operators. Of course, the majority of schools are operated by the district. But over the last few years, in addition to the schools that have traditionally been operated under contract by community-based organizations for alterative populations, we've seen the growth of charter schools. Most urban districts now already have a mixture or an array that people are starting to call a portfolio.
But what we're talking about is a more intentional array. And not just an array that addresses all students, but a strategy for creating a dynamic that leads to having all schools be excellent. In that scheme, the fact that choice is universal and obligatory is a critical element. It's not just that parents can choose where to send their students, but that all students and parents have to make a choice of high schools. (And, of course, you need a lot of support for that kind of choice.) That's intended to break the link between geographic location that we now see, and students' educational and socio-economic destinies. You can choose a local school, and all local schools have to be a good option. But wherever you do go, whether it's local or not, you have to make a choice.
