Local shorts: FWPS & NCLB, King Co screw up
1. The Federal Way Mirror, my home town paper, published a great piece explaining why the district (where I was superintendent 94-99) failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress. On one hand, Superintendent Murphy is lauded by EdTrust as a gap closer and consistently posts results higher than…
Race to the Top handicap
1. I still like Florida’s chances for RttT; mostly residual Bush reforms 2. I still like Louisiana’s chances for RttT given Pastorek’s leadership and RSD as improvement frame. 3. Colorado remains a sentimental favorite for RttT given Barb O’Brien’s leadership but improving data will be key…
The adolescent politics of virtual education
In 1995, I was sure that the explosion of the web would result in a good deal of online learning competition—and fast. I may have been right about the first but not the second. It took a dozen years for online learning to get big and competitive, but…
How will the new world order be created?
I’m finding an increasing number of people that draw similar pictures of the future on the back of napkins over lunch. The piece parts usually include: · A social learning platform with apps for content, classroom, schedule and learning management · A vetted and organized body…
Unleashing Knowledge and Innovation
There is little R&D in education—not enough public or private investment, limited research into the great challenges of our time, and limited innovation in a sector bound by local, state, and federal regulation. Larry Stupski wants to change this. His foundation is sponsoring a conference—Unleashing Knowledge and…
Virtual alignment of high school & college
We’re seeing the beginning of aligned high school and college assets online. Apex led the way with online AP courses—the most popular college credit strategy—and most online providers including K12 followed suit. Milken’s impressive education portfolio includes KC Distance Learning (Keystone,…
A long trek before a Race to the Top
Team Obama is winning on education and losing on health. One difference between the health care food fight and the coherent education agenda is a mostly unified eight year policy push by the new money foundations. The debacle we’re watching in health care is, in part,…
This week in America: the big scramble
1. As I travel the country, I see evidence of thousands of districts, charter networks, and non-profits scrambling to mobilize for stimulus money—the great ARRA premobilization. Everyone knows Duncan’s four priorities; everyone is trying to figure out how this is going to play out; everyone is trying to…
Markets in everything: Standards & Assessments
Borrowing a phrase from GMU economist/blogger Tyler Cowen, there are markets for (almost) everything. In the case of educational standards and assessments, it may be worth considering a competition of ideas for the most effective way to frame and measure learning goals. I had a discussion about these…
Great edu web developer wanted
We need an edu-passionate web developer for two new sites: 1. Urban charter school network: innovative blended secondary school network focused in the Northeast opening Sept 2010, hiring leaders now. Need simple phase 1 site up in Sept for hiring, phase 2 site in Jan for enrollement including 3…