Correction

I wrote two posts about Quest to Learn under the impression that it’s a charter school. I was mistaken. Quest to Learn is not a charter school; it’s a New York Department of Education public school. Although in some ways it looks more like a charter than a traditional public school (it has outside sponsors, and students choose to attend rather than being assigned by residence), it is not a charter.

Clearly, I was wrong to criticize Popular Science for leaving out “information” about Quest to Learn that I myself didn’t get right. My apologies go both to Quest to Learn and to Popular Science for my mistake.

One result of competition from charters, online schools, and other options is that public districts respond with innovative schools of their own. In this case, New York did such a good job that I couldn’t tell the difference!