Amy Oliver Show: Should We Let Courts Fix Tenure?
Prof. Joshua Dunn breaks down the fallout from a court ruling against teacher tenure in California, and handicaps a Colorado school funding lawsuit that could roll out soon.
Would Letting Kids Sleep In More Help Academic Results? Please Say Yes
You know one thing I’m thankful for? My Education Policy Center friends never order a wake-up call to get me out of bed early so they can help me write this blog. Little prodigies like me need all the sleep we can (though I try not to concede that argument when my mom tells me […]
Friedman Survey Finds Big Shift on Standardized Testing, Not to Mention….
For someone who has what some would consider an unhealthy fascination with education surveys, it has been awhile since I really delved into one of them. Back then, the big concern was about PDK/Gallup’s wording of a key question about school choice — adding the ominous phrase “at public expense.” This latest survey of a […]
Holyoke’s Pursuit of Innovation Status Raises Real Questions to Answer
Among the big people around me, there’s a fair amount of cheering and groaning and Monday morning quarterbacking. Apparently, that’s what the day after a primary election does to you. I’ll leave the politics to them, and spend just a few moments on an interesting story that slipped in last week. Chalkbeat Colorado’s Kate Schimel […]
Looks Like There Are Ways to Get More Great School Leaders on Board
One of the main building blocks of a successful school clearly and undoubtedly is quality leadership. Just as clearly and undoubtedly, most school districts in Colorado and nationwide need more great principals to do more great things for kids. The problem is particularly pronounced in some of the largest urban school districts with the highest […]
Amy Oliver Show: Preparing Teachers Better
The National Council on Teacher Quality’s Arthur McKee highlights a new report that shows far too many teacher education programs are falling short.
Florida Doubles Number of States with Cutting-Edge Choice through ESAs
“And then there were two.” Usually that phrase suggests narrowing down the field, like moving to the championship round of your favorite sport with only the two finalists left to vie for the title. Or maybe like tomorrow in Colorado, it means narrowing down the field of major party candidates to one each. But today’s […]
Accelerating Quality Colorado Charter Growth a Wise Idea, Not Just for Wonks
Are you more likely to think of policy wonks as “wild and crazy” OR as “wise”? I know, it’s a difficult call. The Fordham Institute’s Michael Petrilli apparently has enough optimism to lean toward the latter. His new Flypaper post, “The wise wonks’ hierarchy of charter school quality” distills the insights of the blog’s recent […]
Amy Oliver Show: Bad Verdicts for Tenure
Luke Ragland from Colorado Succeeds discusses new court rulings from Colorado and California that represent victories for giving students access to effective teachers.
Study Gives Another Jeffco Anti-Charter Myth a Serious Blow
Tomorrow the Jeffco school board is set to cast a final vote on the 2014-15 budget. At the forefront of the discussion is the 3-2 majority’s proposal to share an extra $3.7 million of local property tax funds with public charter schools. Even though that would cut the gap in half, some still seem to […]
CER Completes Trifecta of Helpful Scholarship Tax Credit Studies
For those wild and crazy policy wonks out there, it’s been quite a past few weeks for reports that speak directly to the adoption of school choice through K-12 scholarship tax credits. And since I’m all pumped up these days trying to help more Colorado Kids Win, that’s about as fun as summer can be. […]
Title I Funds Closer to Following Colorado Kids after State Board Vote
Last week the Colorado State Board of Education took a relatively quiet action that may have profound results in years to come. The Board voted 6-1 to take steps toward redirecting a particular pot of federal Title I funds based not primarily on where students live, but rather on where they attend school. Title I […]
