Earlier this week I used the New York example to discuss the larger question of what do/not do about low-performing charter schools. The actual RFA from the authorizer in New York is out. It’s basically a restart not a turnaround, if they can find the right operator. That’s a good approach but stayed tuned to this debate elsewhere.
The Maya Angelou New Beginnings program has been on the blog before and I’ve looked at the larger issue of incarcerated youth. In Ed Week Mary Ann Zehr turns in a must-read about New Beginnings. Important and too over-looked issue.
In all the manifesto madness the last few weeks you may have missed this smart take from Harlem Village’s Deborah Kenny in the Wall Street Journal.
For a guy obsessed with productivity, Rick Hess is not doing his part. In D.C. meetings and events are the acceptable alternative to work. Here are three Rick Hess is cooking up this month: Post election roundup next Tuesday, Arne Duncan on stretching school dollars on the 17th, and a great panel to discuss Rick’s new book on the 30th.
Here’s a post-midterm education discussion you can watch from your desk.
Last week we discussed a shrewd move NJ Governor Chris Christie made with regard to the teachers’ union there. It’s been followed-up by a boneheaded one. Going in front of groups you don’t agree with and discussing the issues is the right thing to do.
Karen Hawley Miles looks at the class size outcome in Florida. If you want to be depressed about the disconnect between research and policy the class size debate is a great place to start. Perhaps, as part of the dollar stretching theme, the Department of Education should sponsor a competition for creative research-based class size ideas that are cost-neutral. For instance a district that lowered-class sizes to the levels where it really matters, in the mid-teens, for at-risk kids and offset that by raising class-sizes elsewhere and deploying effective teachers and other tools to offset the difference?
When I wrote this Baltimore Sun op-ed and some papers a few years ago I was called a Chicken Little for worrying about the sustainability of education finance. Admittedly, Rick Hess is a worrier, too, but here he takes a look at the current education fiscal situation (pdf), it’s not good!
Speaking of productivity, in several senses, John Danner of Rocketship Education won the McNulty Prize today.
Kiryas Joel is back in the news in New York, this time with a RTT windfall. And Mayor McKee is back in office and still leaning into education.
Quantitative Teasing are a new group of emerging artist activists formed through collaborative workshops in the lead up to C.R.A.S.H.