OUR Communities: Zach Craddock, Third Future Schools
By Ashlyn Huff
Education has played a significant role in 2025 American political discourse, from discussions of Critical Race Theory to private school vouchers. Yet beneath the debates, our public schools are struggling to meet the needs of students. Research from EdWeek found that the majority of parents lack confidence in their community’s public schools to adequately teach their children. Given the option to send their children elsewhere, many parents would take it without hesitation. This desire for change is the impetus behind Third Future Schools and its mission.
Third Future Schools is a nationwide network of charter schools, spanning 12 campuses across three states, poised to expand more than two-fold in the coming school year. As charter schools, these locations exist outside the purview of the traditional public school system, free from the barriers and bureaucracy faced by these districts. It is why Third Future has been able to transform low-performing public schools into thriving charters, much to the benefit of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are often left behind in the public school system. To aid their efforts, Third Future has found remarkable success using the OUR platform.
To Third Future superintendent Zach Craddock, there are three reasons he is committed to using OUR. Firstly, he values the “first-class” responsiveness of OurCo’s leadership. Any problems that arise are resolved quickly, and Third Future can provide immediate feedback on the platform. Secondly, Craddock has found the platform to be extremely intuitive. Onboarding new members is simple, and teachers and principals can navigate the UI easily. This has helped Third Future’s community amass close to 840 members; a number expected to grow in the coming year.
Yet the biggest draw of OUR for Third Future Schools is how it handles data. As superintendent, Craddock needs a way to measure the conviction of each school’s staff under the belief that teachers who are not only happier, but bought into their school’s larger mission, are likely to produce better student outcomes. Thus, each school’s staff is given regular surveys, with topics ranging from the handling of school discipline to broader alignment with the Third Future mission. When many teachers or administrators respond negatively, Craddock can communicate with that campus and coordinate a plan for improvement.
Without OUR, this process would be far more arduous. The platform presents data in real time and in a digestible manner, allowing Craddock to easily discern trends within certain schools or subject areas. Crucially, this setup allows Third Future to act with haste, wasting little time in implementing their findings. For K-12 educators, time is of the essence; students will only be attending a given school for so long. If they fail to act quickly, entire grades may be left behind. Yet with OUR, Third Future has been able to avoid this pitfall, using the platform to positively transform the lives of thousands of students.
