Travis Pillow

Editorial Director
tpillow@uw.edu

Travis Pillow is the editorial director at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. He started his career as a journalist based in Florida’s capitol, covering politics, budgets, health care, and education policy for several online publications and Gannett newspapers. He later became editor of redefinED, a website chronicling the new definition of public education in Florida and elsewhere, and did other policy and communications work for Step Up For Students, the nonprofit that administers two of the nation’s largest private school choice programs.

10/2020
What Does It Take to Educate Students with Mild to Moderate Disabilities in General Education Settings? Lessons from Washington’s Public Charter Schools

This report includes in-depth case studies of five Washington State charter schools to understand their strategies for full inclusion...

03/2020
Finding a Great Fit: Improving the School Choice Process for Students with Disabilities

Two briefs provide a summary of the special education landscape in New Orleans and Washington, D.C., and offer recommendations for further steps that might be taken to strengthen the cities’ support...

10/2019
Seizing the Opportunity: Educating Students with Disabilities in Charter Schools

This report is the first step in developing an evidence base about how charter schools meet the needs of unique learners, how they can improve in this work, and what aspects of chartering as a governance model support...

04/2019
Sustaining Improvement after State Takeovers: Lessons from New Orleans

This report examines how New Orleans education officials have managed the return of nearly all of the city’s public schools to the control of the local elected school board for the first time since the state takeover of public...

11/2018
To Serve Every Student Well, Design for the Tails, Not the Mean

This essay explores how an education system built to meet the needs of “square pegs” could benefit all students.

Notes from our database: The latest on 2021-22’s rocky return to school
Aug 30 2021

This week, more districts are tightening health precautions and clarifying quarantine procedures.

More masks, more vaccines, more online learning, but what about quarantines? The latest on school district fall reopening
Aug 23 2021

Details are still emerging about how districts plan to manage the interruptions as students, or some entire classes or grades, miss days or even weeks of school because of exposure to COVID-19.

Bolder leadership needed to keep students safe and learning next year
Jul 30 2021

Schools cannot afford to squander another year because of tepid leadership and political squabbling; they owe students a chance to gain back the learning opportunities they were denied last year.

First look at ESSER priorities: Districts are placing their bets on what they know
Jul 15 2021

Our review finds few plans, at least so far, to invest stimulus funding in ways that will address long-term systemic challenges.

Are smaller class sizes without the pitfalls possible? Pandemic pods make the case
Jun 24 2021

School systems recovering from the COVID-19 crisis may be able to recreate the high level of individual attention students saw in successful pandemic pods.