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The Purple Zone
Welcome to The Purple Zone (formerly Our Kids Our Schools).
Bridging the Gap between Public Policy, Practice & People.
The Purple Zone explores what it really means to align how we govern, how we educate, and how we show up for our communities.
Hosted by Alexis — a PhD student in public policy and administration, and longtime educator and advocate for kids, communities, and the systems that shape our lives. This podcast connects the dots between policy and practice, without the politics or platitudes.
It’s about naming what often goes unsaid — and making space for a more honest, human approach to systems that impact all of us.
How systems shape our communities, from policy on paper to action in practice. + Thinking Out Loud as a PhD Student
The Purple Zone
All about Charter Schools and the Missing Innovation Pipeline with Duncan Robb
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Idaho has had charter schools for nearly three decades. They were created to innovate, and the question today is: are they doing that? In this episode, I’m joined by Duncan Robb, education policy expert and the writer behind the Substack K–12 Education in Idaho (k12educationidaho.substack.com). We break down the basics, what charter schools are (and aren’t), how they’re governed, and the role of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission...then zoom out to the bigger policy design question: if charters were meant to be “labs of innovation,” who is responsible for making sure what works actually transfers to traditional public schools? We also talk through current education policy debates, including state testing, accountability, and what meaningful flexibility really looks like in practice. By the end of the conversation, it was clear we had only scratched the surface, so stay tuned for more conversations with Duncan as we continue digging into charter schools and education policy in Idaho. Bonus: Duncan and I don’t agree on everything, which makes for a fun conversation.
Find Alexis on Instagram and JOIN in the conversation: https://www.instagram.com/the_idaho_lady/
JOIN the convo on Substack & STAY up-to-date with emails and posts https://substack.com/@theidaholady?r=5katbx&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
Send Alexis an email with guest requests, ideas, or potential collaboration.
email@thealexismorgan.com
Find great resources, info on school communities, and other current projects regarding public policy:
https://www.thealexismorgan.com