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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…
Big Levers
There are plenty of theories about how to improve education. Most focus on what appear to be big levers—a point of entry and system intervention that appears to provide some improvement leverage. These theories usually involve ‘if-then’ statements: ‘if we improve this, then other good stuff will happen.’ Leading theories…
Picking the right college is about to get easier
It’s only the beginning of the school year but for high school juniors the college preparation and selection clock is ticking. For those planning to attend college, the last two years of high school are a busy timeline with a series of complicated milestones: tests, essay, online searches,…
Charter heroes at Charter School Growth Fund
Charter heroes Mike Feinberg, Chris Barbic, and Ref Rodriguez participated on a Kevin Hall moderated kick off panel at a Charter School Growth Fund meeting in Denver. On the subject of growth: MF: Growth is a function of people quality not powerpoint quality CB:…
Improving college completion
There are some obvious strategies for improving college completion starting with improved preparation and a stronger college advising and support programs. Less obvious but perhaps most powerful would be improving completion incentives for colleges. They currently have perverse incentives to churn-and-burn underclassman. The lower division is…
Rock-Solid Hunches
I received a mailer from a research firm suggesting that innovation must be based on “rock-solid evidence.” They were obviously offering to conduct this research and were quoting Jim Shelton in a recent webcast where he was discussing i3 grant criteria. Jim was speaking specifically about grant requirements…
The role of the private sector in edu
The WSJ reported that “The US government doled out $502 million for a dozen wind and solar energy projects.” The big winner was Iberdrola, a Spanish wind giant. Coming in second was Horizon, a subsidiary of a Portuguese firm. Third place went to a UK owned firm.
How to fix failing schools
The National Journal question this morning was, “What are the best methods for school improvement?” We’ve learned a good deal about improving elementary schools in the last decade. A focused leader, data driven instruction, and improved time on task can quickly boost lagging reading and math scores. Secondary…
$3.5B for school improvement will benefit charters/services
This EdWeek blog is a good summary of the USED guidance $3.5B Title 1 school improvement fund. Each state will receive an allotment and will distribute it to districts that agree to enact one or more of the four prescribed strategies: · Turnaround: replacing at least…