Archive
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Recovery in sight? Not for schools
With leading papers all reporting on recovery, can we assume the crisis is over? Stock portfolios may be on the mend, but folks that rely on property tax—states, counties, cities, and schools—will feel the impact of reset values and defaults for years to come.
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…
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…
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…
Updated Grant Opportunities
I made the ultimate board member mistake of leaving off two exciting organizations off my great grant opportunities list. So here’s my updated list leading off with two groups that I support as a board member. (The list also includes friends, clients, and portfolio companies)…
Stealth Education Reform Beats the Health Debacle
Watching the Sunday morning arguments about health reform, I was struck by how fortunate we are that Obama’s team snuck education reform into the stimulus bill. While most of the $100 billion for education just partially backfills cuts, it forced states to acknowledge the Department of Education’s priorities…
5 big questions in American education
I led a Q&A session this morning in NOLA around the big questions in American education. Here’s a summary: 1. Are national standards a good idea? They are the best way to end the race-to-the-bottom and speed development of next gen content and assessment. However, we run…
The college access formula
A local Rotary group adopted a high need school and asked me “What’s the formula for getting kids into college?” There are three complementary strategies that grant makers and reformers utilize in an attempt to improve college attendance and completion: 1. Academic preparation: students need to…
10 friends, clients, and portfolio companies that would make good philanthropic investments
1. Advance Innovative Education : alternative teacher and leader certification in Louisiana. Leader development is like NLNS but with entrepreneurship component with LSU B school. 2. Advance Path Academics : great drop-out prevention network. Districts could use small grants to promote adoption. AdvancePath retrofits…