Archive
element:when
The Weight 2
On a sunset walk after a spectacular day on Poverty Bay with blue sky and fresh snow on the Olympics, I thought of three personal stories that illustrate the weight of leadership. 1. The afternoon I was appointed superintendent, I had coffee at the mall and watched hundreds of…
Skill, Funding & Teacher Gap Point to Online Learning
Read this great online learning report from AEE, federal policy warrior for high school success. Gov. Bob Wise makes the case that we can’t solve the skills gap, the funding gap, or the teacher gap without fulling incorporating online learning. (more on this to come)…
Brookings Makes Thoughtful Recommendations on Choice
Brookings released a thoughtful report encouraging expanding K-12 choice including the following recommendations choice be exercised through systems in which parents have more options than at present (with the expansion of virtual education programs being a promising means to that end); admission into particular schools within choice systems be…
New Frame for ESEA: Half Right, Big Risk
Message refined, Secretary Duncan is doing the morning show circuit socializing a proposal for the reauthorization of federal education policy. He’s attempting to assemble the first bipartisan coalition of the Obama administration to address a major piece of legislation. It won’t be easy and it probably won’t happen this year…
The School Choice Debate in India
HYDERABAD. After three weeks with Gray Matters Capital, I realized that I landed in India at a very dynamic time of education reform—a very different version than is occurring in the US—perhaps not really reform, but a rapid evolution of a multi-provider system of education with 500 million eager customers.
Advice to a New Foundation
Launching a new foundation is about the most interesting work in the world. It’s a distinct privilege and a challenge. The most basic question is the extent to which you want to meet current needs or improve future conditions—charity or impact investing. They are both important but suggest very…
Competition, Civil Rights, and Change Theory
Civil rights advocates are split on the competitive nature of $10 billion in grant programs from the US Department of Education. Some, like Education Equality Project, view it as an opportunity for states and districts with competent leadership to make important performance-promoting and gap-closing advances. Others, like the…
What I'm hearing
Here’s a quick overview of where I think the Department of Education is headed and a couple of the themes you’ll hear about tomorrow. Goals/Focus 1.Best in the world in college completion 2. Top of TIMSS by end of decade 3. Big STEM push…
New School Ecosystems
There are interesting parallels between charter schools in the US and affordable private school in India. Both focus on the urban poor, promote choice, and often develop within an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Whether it’s New Orleans or Hyderabad, there are a dozen accelerants that promote access and quality: 1. Incubation…
Affordable Private School in India
There’s an emerging ecosystem of low cost (some would say ‘affordable’) private schools in India. The definition is fuzzy but generally less than 600 rupees with many targeting 200 rupees for primary and 300 rupees in 10th grade. In urban areas it’s common for more than 60% of students to…