There are lots of alternative learning methods and environments to explore. Some of these have proven themselves to be effective, others are still experimental. My wife Elizabeth and I have 2 boys at the Chippewa Valley Montessori School and have deeply appreciated the different approach they offer. Our neighbors in the Augusta School District have the Wildlands School, where they are also doing very inspiring work with a teacher-led school and a project-based approach to learning.
Three of the four boys in my family have also attended Lakeshore and DeLong in Eau Claire, and I have found them to also be fantastic schools. I believe all our schools in Eau Claire are working hard and doing amazing things every day. But I want to see more opportunities in Eau Claire for charter school experiments that are open to all, and for innovation zones & other initiatives so we don’t limit these outside-the-box approaches to just our charter and private schools.