Archive for May, 2011

Next Entries »

Atención

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

This week’s School of Thought column in TIME takes a look at education and Hispanic Americans. Here’s the punchline:

On Tuesday, when President Obama traveled to El Paso, Texas, to again make the case for immigration reform, he talked about the tragedy of a policy that denies children the chance to earn a college education because of the way that their parents entered the country. But in many ways, we’ve already failed our fastest growing ethnic group, Hispanics Americans, long before they reach college and regardless of whether they were born here or not…

…These two tectonic issues—our rocketing Hispanic population and the inadequate education of Hispanic students—are on a collision course that could either end in disaster or in another story of successful assimilation in America. The stakes are clear: How we meet this challenge will impact our politics, economy, and our society itself.

Read the entire thing here.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Uncle Arne Wants You?

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

I’m all for making teacher pay more of an incentive and lever – both by paying more and paying differently, for instance differentiating along more dimensions than just years of service and degrees.  So I liked a lot in this recent NYT op-ed by Dave Eggers and Ninve Calegari,  But while topical and catchy, the lede is overly romantic, obscures some issues, and doesn’t make a lot of sense. Since it’s fast becoming the new blueberry myth it’s worth discussing.

The point on shared accountability is certainly right but the description of how the military changes is not.  After the Vietnam War the United States military took a  serious and unsparing look at its fighting force. The Marines, in particular, made a number of changes.  But all branches changed and as a nation we obviously went to an all-volunteer force.  The result is the highly professional, effective, and lethal force you see today.  There are some lessons there for public schools there (for instance how to differentiate roles, grow an effective and diverse leadership corps) but the fundamental one the military teaches us is that people matter a lot and there is not a lot to be gained from ducking the hard conversations about that.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Aged Wine In New Bottles?

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

As today’s Washington Post shows, gay marriage is an issue with a stark delineation by age – the younger you are the more likely you are to support making gay marriage legal.  Among those 18-29, 73 percent favor making gay marriage legal, among those over 65 only 23 percent do – and support clearly tracks age.  Other polling data shows the same effect, an unusually strong one on social or political issues.

So here’s a question: How much of what’s being debated in education now is a function of generational change and changing views? Or how much is simply because there is more data available and parents are becoming choosier consumers, which has less to do with age and more to do with the times we live in.  Or is it more deeply ideological than that?  I have a strong hunch, based on both some data and a lot of conversations with parents when I was a state board of education member, but what’s yours?

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Klein Speaks

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Joel Klein has a long piece in The Atlantic reflecting on American education. It’s a must-read and will spark some debate because it lays out his case forthrightly – he’s an attorney after all.  Too many pull quotes to reproduce here, so go read it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Good And Bad Judgement

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Luke Kohlmoos has taken to the blogs. You get ed policy, poker policy, and more.

This case of the cheerleader forced to cheer for a guy who sexually assaulted her is jaw dropping. The court case seems right on the legal merits – students do have diminished free speech rights in school, that’s long established.  But that doesn’t mean the school district couldn’t have handled this situation entirely differently and it’s ridiculous it’s reached this point.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Political Maze

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Solid New York Times story on the school choice matching system in New York City. Specifics aside, what’s striking about stories like this more generally is just how much we tolerate scarcity in public education – probably because it’s generally the poor most adversely affected by the insufficient supply of good schools.  A few weeks ago I was talking with a high school student who travels an hour plus each way to get to school, which in her city means leaving and returning home in the dark for most of the year.  She passes a lot of schools on the way…

In general when someone has something good or in demand to offer we let them expand or raise prices.  Pricing is not the issue in public education, obviously, because we don’t (directly) charge for public schools.  But we could be thinking so much bigger on the expansion side for both successful schools and successful programs than we do today.  Instead, we have a dumb debate about charter schools (when the supply question is much larger than charters) and outside of some relatively marginal stuff around online/distance education pay basically no attention to helping proven educators expand what they’re doing to other schools, school systems, or states.

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments »

STC conference

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Schools That Can conference in May in Cleveland, a lot happening there.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Appreciation

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Washington Post with a smart take on respecting teachers-this week and every week. Also brings to mind this post from Tim Daly last summer.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

5 Biggest Myths About College Admissions

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

This week’s School of Thought at TIME takes a look at the annual agonizing over college and the five biggest myths about acceptances, wait lists, affirmative action, future earnings, and transfers.

Now that acceptance and rejection letters have all been mailed, students and parents are taking stock of their lot. Some are happy, but a great many more probably feel disappointed. An enormous amount of energy and anxiety gets expended trying to get into college, but the truth is that the admissions process is much more haphazard than people like to think. The good news? In the long run it’s generally less important, too. Here are the five biggest myths about this annual angst-a-thon:

Read the entire column here.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

New In Newark

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Cami Anderson is the new superintendent in Newark, New Jersey.  The New York Times focuses on her connection to Newark Mayor Cory Booker but largely ignores all the good work she’s done as a superintendent in New York City – especially on behalf of disconnected youth.  I wrote about that in U.S. News a few years ago. She stole the show at Bellwether’s official launch last spring. Bottom line: Great news for Newark.  Past mentions on the blog here. Update: Via Whitney Tilson’s blog, more links to past Anderson stories.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Odds, Ends, and Blue Ribbons

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

In D.C.? Then get your blue ribbon on.

May 9th at CAP they’re talking teacher and leader pipelines with some leaders from the charter sector. Phillip Howard stopped by The Daily Show to talk regulation. And a new look at different blended learning models.

Fun and interesting conversation yesterday at Bipartisan Policy Center about education policy – good pre-K discussion toward the end.

Who knows who will win the assessment race but did PARCC just win the website race?

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Edujobs

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
Excel Academies in Boston is looking for school leaders, a President/COO, and a Managing Director of Development and PR.  Opps for professional growth as well, learn more here.

And some good ones (internships and senior roles) at the D.C. Public Education Fund - important mission plus you get to work with the great Cate Swinburn.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Charting An Old Course In Ohio?

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

Ohio has been one of the most frustrating states on charter school policy for some time.  If you’re frustrated don’t miss Terry Ryan’s take on the current state of play.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Next Entries »