February a Month to Remember (or Forget) in National K-12 Standards Debate
Last spring I told you about a growing movement to oppose the Common Core standards and accompanying assessments, as well as the momentum toward a national curriculum. Well, a recent spate of evidence suggests that the Common Core cause has fallen on hard times, to say the least:
Two recent Pioneer Institute reports not only call […]
DeGrow Comments on Colorado’s Educator Effectiveness Policy Progress
A story today on American Family Radio News (One News Now) about Colorado’s latest step toward measuring teachers based on effectiveness featured comments from senior policy analyst Ben DeGrow. In an interview with reporter Bob Kellogg, DeGrow put the development in context and urged the state to move toward performance-based educator pay.
Denver Foundations Reward Local Schools that Beat the Odds
Tom Kaesemeyer, executive director of the Denver-based Fox Family Foundation, discusses the local cooperative initiative Foundations for Great Schools, which in January announced $500,000 in grant awards to more than a dozen Denver-area district and charter schools successfully serving large numbers of low-income students. Kaesemeyer highlights the genesis of the initiative, some of the key school success factors considered, and future plans to continue the program.
Back in the Air Again
The Antiplanner is headed to Vancouver BC this morning for a debate on whether smart growth and light rail should be applied in Vancouver suburbs south of the Fraser River. The other side of the question will be represented by Todd Litman. The debate will take place at 7:00 pm tonight at the Langley Municipal […]
“Education Justice League” Sums Up Research, Points to School Choice Future
A new Education Week column signed by “nine scholars and analysts” lays out clearly what the research says about school choice. In the highest-quality studies, educational voucher and tax credit programs usually show positive, and never negative, effects. The article also reminds readers that we haven’t begun to “exhaust the potential of school choice,” which could create a dynamic market of new possibilities.
Let’s Pay Teachers to Be Effective, Too
Colorado is one key step closer to distinguishing teachers who effectively help students learn from those who don’t. But we certainly haven’t overcome every obstacle to delivering top-notch instruction.The same effectiveness measures that will be used to evaluate and make tenure-related decisions ought to factor significantly into how principals and instructors are paid. This logical leap forward from rewarding educators based on years of service and academic credentials can be enhanced further by paying more for harder job and school assignments.
Contraception mandate: The Illiberality of ObamaCare
The non-compromise Obama floated does not reduce by one penny the amount of money he would force Catholics to spend on contraception. Worse, this mandate is just one manifestation of how the president’s health care law will grind up the freedom of every American. Continue reading
Toronto Transit Chief Fired
In an unusual move, Toronto’s transit commission fired its chief executive, Gary Webster, because he didn’t think it was cost-effective to build an expensive subway. (Usually, transit chiefs are fired for building an expensive rail line.) Actually, Webster thought that light rail was more cost-effective than subways. But Toronto Robert Ford wanted subways. He asked […]
Can We Put the Schools “in Charge”? Colorado’s Falcon 49 Shows a Different Way
A good thought-piece to read this week is John Katzman’s new Education Week article “Putting the Schools in Charge.” While I don’t agree with everything in the piece, the author has a laudable vision about sweeping systemic K-12 changes and makes some very sound assessments of the best ways to get there. And as I […]
Turnabout Is Fair Play?
Many people are chortling that the libertarian Heartland Institute, one of the leading skeptics of anthropogenic climate change, had documents about its campaigns stolen and published. This is only fair, they say, since Heartland didn’t complain when someone stole the emails of leading government-funded climatologists that showed that the scientists were manipulating the data to […]
Feds scrounge for funds to create ObamaCare ‘Exchanges’
“[T]he federal government doesn’t have the money to create ObamaCare Exchanges, and the administration has no hope of getting that funding through the Republican-controlled House. So if states don’t create Exchanges, they might not exist.” Continue reading
Digital Dilemma: Why Can’t All Districts Filter Internet Device Access from Home?
One of this blog’s themes that regular readers are familiar with is the power of digital technology to help transform the capability and productivity of public education. Combined with the right policies and innovative direction of resources, this technology has tremendous potential to effect positive change. Digital Learning Now’s Roadmap for Reform released last October […]
