Archive
element:where
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…
Harlem miracle and thoughts on authorization
Now old new, last week’s release of Hoxby‘s report demonstrating the superiority of New Yorks’s charter schools is a BFO for those of us that spend time in NYC schools. Following up on my recent post on the best school operators, it’s worth highlighting two ladies running networks of extraordinarily good…
What will be the ‘shipping container’ of Edu2.0?
Forty years ago the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted a standard size container and it revolutionized shipping—investment in common infrastructure went up and the cost of goods shipped went down. Wal-Mart and globalization happened. We need a digital content standard to launch the second…
Preparation is the new equity issue
The terminal indicator of the American achievement gap is the graduation gap and its cousin the college gap. African American and Hispanic students are twice as likely to drop out of high school than white students and less than half as likely to earn a college degree.
Progress with Partnership for 21st Century Skills?
The National Journal asked whether after a decade and lots of supporters the Partnership for 21st Century Skills had succeeded. As a number of C21 critics have pointed out, good schools have long taught critical thinking and enough content to think about. What’s missing from this thread is the…
Paul O'Neill, Stanley Kaplan, and USED staff
1. Paul O’Neill may be the best charter school attorney in the US, certainly the best east of the Mississippi, by virtue of handling a high volume of charter contracts for more than decade. Paul’s Charter School Law Deskbook is the definitive book on the subject. He…
The adolescent politics of virtual education
In 1995, I was sure that the explosion of the web would result in a good deal of online learning competition—and fast. I may have been right about the first but not the second. It took a dozen years for online learning to get big and competitive, but…
How will the new world order be created?
I’m finding an increasing number of people that draw similar pictures of the future on the back of napkins over lunch. The piece parts usually include: · A social learning platform with apps for content, classroom, schedule and learning management · A vetted and organized body…
Virtual alignment of high school & college
We’re seeing the beginning of aligned high school and college assets online. Apex led the way with online AP courses—the most popular college credit strategy—and most online providers including K12 followed suit. Milken’s impressive education portfolio includes KC Distance Learning (Keystone,…
Great edu web developer wanted
We need an edu-passionate web developer for two new sites: 1. Urban charter school network: innovative blended secondary school network focused in the Northeast opening Sept 2010, hiring leaders now. Need simple phase 1 site up in Sept for hiring, phase 2 site in Jan for enrollement including 3…