Ed Policy

Education policy consists of news, commentary and stories that follow legislation and government action in the educational sphere.

Ed Policy

Answers For & Lessons From Critics of Competency-Based Learning

I'm trying to square two things that happened last week. The Nellie Mae Foundation issued a great report called Making Mastery Work: A Close Up View of Competency Education (MMW), a visit to 11 cool schools. The other event was a Facebook dialog with unschoolers that think competency-based schemes are more testing in a fancy package.

Ed Policy

Addressing the Placement Gateway With Diagnostics & Instruction

For many young people, placement exams are a hidden gateway in the system. Students often assume that with a high school diploma they can walk on to a community college campus and start working on a degree but they flunk the placement exam and end up in non-credit developmental education courses. That spells the beginning of the end of college for many young people. But that placement trap is beginning to close as states make the exams and preparation available in high school.

Ed Policy

Student-Centered Learning Need Not Cost Districts More

A new study of the financial implications for public schools embracing student-centered learning (SCL) models reveals that districts don’t need to spend more on these schools if they fund all schools fairly, and then allow schools to make choices about how they use their resources.

Ed Policy

Toward the Good School Promise: an Election Recap

While there are millions of happy democrats this week, a critic sees a landscape “littered with rubble and ruin and wreckage on all sides” in an open letter to the President. Elections leave aggrieved poles, but I live in a much more optimistic place. In particular, I’m optimistic about five things.

Ed Policy

Racing to the Top in Delaware

The Rodel Foundation hosted the fifth Vision 2015 Conference. The First State scored first in the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant competition largely because of the vision, organizing, and grantmaking of the Rodel Foundation and its Executive Director Paul Herdman.

Ed Policy

Creative Cities: Oakland

Social justice advocates have been working in Oakland for 20 years. Recently, they've been joined by reformers, talent developers, school networks, and investors seeking an affordable Bay Area hub.