EdPolicy
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…
RTT, data and teachers
The National Journal question of the week was, “Are Race to the Top Criteria Fair?” Â More specifically, “states that prohibit linking student achievement data to teacher and principal evaluation will not be eligible to apply. Is this fair?” Â The short answer is yes! Thank goodness that Jon…
Charter news & views
1. Miami Dade plans to open four new public schools, two replacement high schools and 13 new charter schools this fall. Three of the charter schools will be multi-shift blended models operated by Mavericks in Education. 2. I’m seeing more interest in Hebrew…
More money for more innovation
This week I met with a private equity firm and talked to a new venture fund both interested in education. That makes a couple dozen of each that at least look at learning deals. Most of the VCs fall into the ‘hacking education’ category and only…
iSchool in the middle
I spent a day with the NYC iSchool co-principals thinking about a middle school design. Not surprisingly, we decided it should look at lot like iSchool: engaging integrated projects with individualized online learning. Other design elements we discussed included: · A month long ‘welcome to middle school’…
The NYC Small Schools Experiment
New York City has an extraordinary base of talented educators, education support groups, and community based organizations. Debbie Meier’s Central Park East was among the first breakout small schools (co-founder Julian Cohen now leads new school efforts for NYC DOE). Dick Beattie’s leadership and Irine Diamond’s funding lead…