EdPolicy
RTI = personalized learning
The National Center on RTI defines the new buzzword as follows: Response to intervention integrates assessment and intervention within a multi-level prevention system to maximize student achievement and to reduce behavior problems. With RTI, schools identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide evidence-based…
A proposal for a performance-based edu system
The fastest way to advance the concept of performance-based student progress and promote innovative school models would be to create several versions of a national performance-based online curriculum. Here’s a quick outline of one way this could work: ED and DOD (and partners) create a competition for a national merit…
Scrap credits/time as measures of progress
It’s time to scrap credit accumulation and seat time as the measures of student progress. Seat time requirements are the enemy of performance-based education. We’ve been spouting the mantra ‘vary time not learning’ for a generation but have seldom broken the mold. It’s great to see ED and CCSSO (and…
Investment follows incentives (edu doesn't have them)
The National Journal guest hosts asked “what are the essential components of an effective innovation, research, development, and dissemination infrastructure in education?” The question begged for a bureaucratic answer and blog responses went all over the place, but I think most folks missed the boat on this one.
Embarrassing profitability
A six year old company with revenue of $120m and more than 10% in operating income (more than 15% EBITDA) has carefully invested capital and efficiently managed growth. They provide innovative services and produce outstanding customer results. The company is worth 15 times what the owners invested. They have…
TIF or Promise?
Alyson at EdWeek contrasts the love-but-no-$ for Promise Neighborhoods and the whopping $517m for the Teacher Incentive Fund, which allocates grants to districts to create or bolster performance-pay programs. I’m on the board of MLA Partner Schools in Los Angeles which has developed a great turnaround strategy for…
Urban showdown coming in RttT states
While bloggers were disappointed by a series of blob-friendly compromises, I’m mostly bullish on final RttT language primarily for an important clause that will result in real improvement in the nation’s worst schools. Flypaper said, “It appears high inspiration was tempered by the various and messy forces of…
Leaders & Laggards: a call to action
The Leaders and Laggards report is an important scorecard showing why, how, and where America is losing the education race. We pride ourselves on innovation but this report suggests there isn’t much of that in education. A bipartisan group of think tanks scored states on school management, finance,…
i3 grant opportunities for SES providers
The Invest in Innovation (i3) grant program offers an opportunity for supplemental educational service (SES) providers to support the grant application of a partner school district. The $650 million grant program has three categories; the smallest category–Development Grants–will have awards of up to $5 million that only require a research…
Ouchi is almost right and late to the party
Bill Ouchi, back in EdWeek, is still pitching decentralization a decade after a bunch of us showed that it was a thin theory. In nearby districts, John Stanford and I both did the 100 flowers approach with pretty thin accountability. We assumed that people knew what to do and would…