EdPolicy
Parents Deserve Options
Wow, lots of hate for the parent trigger from the ‘we know better’ bloggers on National Journal. Here’s my take. What other service would survive for more than 5 years when more than half of the customers were dissatisfied? The only problem with the CA parent trigger is that…
The Final RttT Push (at least for Phase 1)
The mad scramble is on. Consultants and bureaucrats nationwide are putting the finishing touches on Race to the Top proposals this weekend. I’m sure a little last minute arm twisting is going on between state chiefs and district superintendents to get enough districts to opt-in to make state plans viable…
STEM Culture
The country’s first CTO, Aneesh Chopra, mentioned the President’s science and math initiative on his blog which includes a video of the president’s speech this week and showcases FIRST, the best STEM initiative in the US. At the 12 minute mark, President Obama recalls asking South Korea’s…
Blended Rumi
Coleman Barks, a poet in his own right, is the primary translator of Rumi’s 11th century Persian wisdom. In an interview with Bill Moyers, Barks said that he thought about this poem in relation to teaching, “it doesn’t really matter what the teacher talks about…what we remember were a few…
Edu-Policy Priorities for Congress
National Journal kicks off the new year by asking about congressional policy priorities. My brief on the run (after red eye) response follows. Congress should take advantage of the tremendous reform momentum that RttT has created by…
What's a Superintendent to Do?
This all gets interesting when you consider the merged capabilities of: School of One, a personalized playlist of tailored learning objects, adaptive content and virtual learning environments, virtual and blended school models, a smart back end that tracks learning (an LMS with visual student profile), competency bundles (like…
Naughts Not So Bad for Education
The papers have been full of editorials expounding on why the past decade was disastrous for America. There is much to forget and regret about the last decade but it wasn’t so bad for education. We should have made more progress than we did, but here’s 10 big advances that…
Best of 2009: 10 blogs you may have missed
Still think Investing in Innovation is important for the economy, 2/23; follow up on 3/3 quoting Reid Hoffman Thought a Brooks column on Fryer’s study of HCZ, 5/10, would be the most important of the year given definitive evidence of the power of good schools to…
Fix or Replace Federal Education Policy?
The Department of Education has an assignment that’s about five years late: reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, called No Child Left Behind by 43). It’s a difficult assignment that requires collaboration of the contentious—to have good chance of passing Summer 2010, it would require the unions…
10 US education reformers that will impact 2010
Arne Duncan is taking advantage of an unbelievably large budget and pushing a tough reform agenda targeting low-income kids and struggling schools. While he’ll have his hands full with reauthorization, he has assembled a top notch team. Joanne Weiss leads the mother of all grant program—Race to…