Statement On Statements. Plus Is Education Always Last To Get The Memo? Plus Fish!

ICYMI — Laura Marcus from Tidelines Institute stopped by to talk about her education journey and the experiential education work she is leading in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Jed and I discussed several issues on the last WonkyFolk. Here’s a new analysis on AI from Bellwether. And here’s a new analysis of special education finance from Bellwether. It took Harvard 388 years to catch …

New WonkyFolk, Bellwether On AI, School Board Timing And Sleeper State Referendums. Plus Friday Fish!

Greetings! Will it ever stop raining? I hope so, because I’m riding in the PMC Unpaved this weekend in the Berkshires. If you see a rider with pink handlebar tape on a black gravel bike, that’s me—riding for a good friend. It’s not too late to join this year’s campaign, and I’d be grateful, as …

Freedom? Sure, I’m In! Wait, What? Plus, Covid Learning Loss And Fish.

ICYMI – a lot of new content Wednesday including a look at the new study on teacher strikes, philanthropy, and policy change. Jed Wallace and I want freedom, too (from dysfunction and lame education policies and for parents to choose schools…) Jed Wallace and I have a WonkyFolk out today. Looks at the D and R …

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil On FAFSA? Plus Join BW In San Diego, History, And Fish

If A Form Fails In the Forest And No One Hears About It… Imagine for a moment that hackers attacked Harvard’s computer systems, or someone dragged a huge magnet through Cambridge, and suddenly we had no record of who had attended and graduated for the past 40 years. Would it get a lot of media …

Dems, Dial It Back A Few Clicks. Please. It Matters. Down With Dress Codes! And Probably The Sweetest Fish Pic Ever.

ICYMI earlier in the week I wrote about why, despite the stridency about non-profit and for-profit status, tax status actually doesn’t matter a lot in key ways. Last week I took a look at AI and suggested that while bias is an issue given how these models work, we shouldn’t over-index on it. Google over-indexed …

A Rising Tide Lifts All Wonks, A Brazen Anti-Equity Play, Navratilova v. Swisher, Affirmative Action’s Impact, And Tom Gold v. A Fish!

A Rising Tide Lifts All Wonks On a new WonkyFolk Jed and I talk with David Griffith from Fordham about their new report on education competition in the nation’s largest school districts. And David shows off his fancy home for us. It’s an interesting report with some counterintuitive findings and also questions for policymakers and …

Odds, Ends, And Fish: Higher Ed, PISA, College Board…

Low points for higher education. Via Michael Powell: I had to wonder: What might have transpired had Gee emphasized the moral urgency of creating grand options for working- and middle-class students? What if he had taken the case for building a top university directly to West Virginians? Instead, the inescapable impression he leaves is of …

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, But We Do Have Fish!

Congrats to my colleagues Amy Chen Kulesa and Alex Spurrier for their winning essay in Fordham’s Wonkaton. Alex and Amy take a measured look at the potential of AI. Not kool aid, and not cold water. Dutch Treat. Earlier this week Secretary of Education Cardona gaffed. Apparently unaware that President Reagan was not much of …

Vibes And Narratives Are No Way To Go Through Ed Policy Son…Plus Fish!

This is a long one. Buckle up. But there is fish at the end. Coming attractions: Look for a LinkedIn live on Monday with Andy Jacobs, Christine Pitts, and me discussing the strike in Portland. Like other strikes lately remarkably little attention in the media. Andy and Christine are both education experts, and also Portland …

Maddox And I Talk Edu, Lazy Achievement Takes, Lazy Reading, Plus Enormous Fish

Holland & Knight sponsors a podcast about Washington policy, regulatory and political issues. I sat down with Lauren Maddox to talk education. Lauren’s first question was about the Pan Mass Challenge and why I ride in it every year, which was a lovely way to start. (Fundraising ends tomorrow!) Then we covered a range of …