Giving Compass' Take:

• Frederick Hess, writing for AEI, interviewed Liz Chu about her experience as the executive director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL), which is currently training the next generation education leaders. 

• What kinds of education reform need to happen to make the public education system more equitable?

• Read about the importance of teacher buy-in in education reform.

Liz Chu was recently named executive director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL), which trains graduate students for careers in education reform. Before joining CPRL five years ago, Liz was an assistant professor of practice at the Relay Graduate School of Education. She started in education as an English teacher in the South Bronx. I recently talked with Liz about CPRL and training the next generation of education leaders.

Rick Hess: So Liz, congrats on the promotion. For starters, for those who don’t know, what is the Center for Public Research and Leadership [CPRL]?

Liz Chu: Thanks so much. CPRL is an education research, policy, and consulting center focused on training the next generation of education leaders—ones who are prepared to lead learning organizations that deliver improved and more equitable student outcomes.

RH: What’s the big idea here?

LC: Our dual and mutually reinforcing mission is to change the way we train the next generation of leaders and, in doing so, strengthen the public education system so that it better and more equitably serves kids.

We see deficiencies in the way most public education systems are governed as a root cause of their failings and shortcomings. We believe we are one of the only—if not the only—program that prepares graduate students with the policy-making, stakeholder engagement, legal, management, operational, and leadership skills needed to transform public education systems from outmoded public bureaucracies to learning organizations.

Read the full article about training the next generation of leaders by Frederick M. Hess at AEI