Brooklyn LAB, which operates a small network of charter schools in New York City, has asked Les Lynn, founder and director of Argument-Centered Education, to join its new Academic Committee.  The Committee is chaired by Corey Scholes, director of Education for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she advises the Foundation on strategic program initiatives and opportunities related to education.  Other Committee members include Noah Heller, a lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and Kevin Heffel, Chief Academic Officer of RePublic Schools, a network of schools spanning through Tennessee and Mississippi.

Eric Tucker, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Brooklyn LAB, said, “Standing up the Academic Committee is an important governance and accountability responsibility for LAB in terms of managing, tracking, and prioritizing our goals around student achievement, academic policies, and talent systems.” He continued, “We’ve gathered a strong group of subject matter experts, academic leaders, and educators who will be valuable resources to us as we map the strategic direction of our organization and elevate the quality of our academic program. In particular, we are excited to leverage the principles of Argument-Centered Education as we evaluate our academic systems. We believe that argument-centered instruction is a critical component of our academic principles as we guide our scholars to college readiness, encourage them to think critically, and teach them to approach their work with a close eye on textual evidence.”

Academic Committee meetings are scheduled monthly, beginning in February and currently scheduled through the June.  Said ACE founder and director simply, “We’re eager to help this very worthy charter school network, serving 95%+ low-income students across Brooklyn, succeed.”