Archive
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Schools that foster innovation
In my first month as superintendent, Tacoma superintendent Rudy Crew told me to send my leadership team to Harvard to visit Tony Wagner. They came back and said, “there’s this guy who sounds like you, but we understand him.” For 15 years Tony has been a mentor and…
Parent engagement as innovation?
Advance Innovative Education, a Baton Rouge based human capital group, hosted an innovation panel discussion today as part of their alternative principal certification program. I came prepared to dive into adaptive content and the principal candidates wanted to talk about parents. Nearly all of the candidates work in…
Freecomonics in Education
Free stuff on the web is changing everything. The new ways we communicate with each other and the resources available are amazing. Can you imagine life without Google Maps? However, it often makes MBAs (like me) scratch their head wondering, “who pays for this?” Following the release…
Brooks Suggests Education Course of Action
David Brooks is, at least for me, the great explainer of our times. Fareed Zakaria helps me understand the world. Brooks helps me understand America. For someone particularly interested in education and its role in our society and economy, I’m trying to figure out whether…
Choice for equity
Education is political—especially in America. We argue about ends (standards), means (pedagogy), how students show what they know (assessment), scope (e.g., food, sex ed, services), funding, employment, governance, and accountability. Some use a Horace Mann ‘education for democracy’ argument to justify a vision of a ‘Common…
Dropouts: Attitudes and Antidotes
I have to admit that I didn’t fully appreciate the dropout crisis while a serving as a public school superintendent. While budgeting for my third year, I recall asking why there were fewer students in each class from 9 to 12—the drop off seemed to be higher than…
Innovating or incrementing?
The NYTimes asks Can governments till the fields of innovation? The story profiles John Kao who recently launched The Institute for Large Scale Innovation (ILSI) founded to address three key questions: · How can innovation be fostered most effectively at a societal level (country,…
New Leaders for New Schools
Secretary Duncan recently visited high performing North Star charter school in Newark New Jersey. He’d like to see states and districts close the lowest performing schools and replace them with more schools like North Star. The first big challenge is getting state and district officials to…
Charter school news & views
1. Enrollment hit the Wisconsin virtual charter cap with 1,000 kids on the waiting list. It’s crazy to limit options for kids. This is clearly a case of protecting the status quo rather than doing the right thing for kids. The cap has got to go!…
Duncan needs a big lever to close 5000 bad schools
Edu-curmudgeon Diane Ravitch wants to kill NCLB and go back to local control. Most folks working in education would agree with her EdWeek commentary—just throw out measurement and accountability, at least the federal mandates. Dr. Ravitch and I agree that the reauthorization of the Elementary…