Staff Picks: Enterprise, Charity, & Governance

Caroline Picks “Getting Smart Envisions a Smart System of Schooling”

Caroline says, “Read Michael Horn’s review of Tom’s book, Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World.  Horn mentions a few of his prediction including that in five years ‘low-cost blended-learning private schools will serve close to 200 million students in India, China, and Africa.”

Tom picks a David Brooks column, “The Spirit of Enterprise”

Tom says, “This is the best 800 word summary of the world economic crisis I’ve seen.  I share his concern about eroding incentives for hard work, but I do think we’re in the early stages of an exciting startup economy particularly in education and learning.

Sarah Picks Too many cooks, too many kitchens

Sarah says, “At Getting Smart, we often write about learning technologies, but the area in greatest need of innovation is the way we govern the delivery of public education.  Mike and Checker got it right, ‘It’s well past time to rethink, re-imagine, and reinvent education governance for the twenty-first century.'”

Karen Picks “News Analysis: How dollars flow down Santa Monica Boulevard”

Karen says, “I spent the majority of my K-12 schooling experience in private parochial schools and started my children in private schools.  We enrolled them in public schools when my husband became a superintendent.  I was surprised to learn about the intense and intricate politics of private giving in a public school system.  In this podcast, Fordham explores the tricky world of private donations to public schools.