Denver Builds on Low-Income Charter Success Stories: Will Jeffco Follow Suit?
I’m not that old, so the thought of having a big red “Easy” button is rather appealing. According to my grown-up education policy friends, developing a high-quality education model and scaling it up to reach a huge number of kids is a far more challenging and time-consuming task. How do we take pockets of success […]
Vergara Big Win for California Kids, But Should We Worry about Courts’ Role?
Yesterday it was belated high fives all around for a defensive legal victory here in Colorado, as a Denver judge dismissed a union-backed lawsuit to enshrine harmful tenure protections. For anyone in the K-12 education world who may have been sleeping under a rock for a few days, you may not have heard that good […]
High Fives All Around: Colorado Union’s Pro-Tenure Lawsuit Shot Down
I had planned to post this good news with you on Monday. But then sickness intervened. Not me, mind you. But the website itself was maliciously attacked, perhaps by someone who doesn’t like what this little kid has to say. Well, better late than never. And more to come soon. You hang around these big […]
Jeffco Board Member Offers Tax Hike as Charter Funding “Compromise”
Another Jeffco school board meeting, another set of fun or crazy things to talk about. These meetings have become a regular kind of twisted entertainment for my family, I think. As best as I can tell, three big items went down last night. The Denver Post and some other major media focused on the finalized […]
Amy Oliver Show: Orsch Private School Tests Education Ideas
Jackie Burt talks about educational lessons learned from students as founder of the private lab school Orsch in Gunnison, Colo.
New ACE Study Opens Mind on Comparing Public, Private Schools
Time flies when you’re young and enjoying early summertime fun. Why, it was only last week I told you all about the bad smell left by a new book attacking private schools with weak and questionable data. Thanks, Patrick Wolf and Education Next. However, in writing that post, I may have made a mistake. It’s […]
Look at Private School Regulation Sells Choice through Scholarship Tax Credits
I have my reasons for doing so. But today’s entry will be easy on both of us (unless perhaps you’re a legislator or other policymaker). The Friedman Foundation has done it again, releasing last week a thorough and thoughtful study of state regulatory impacts on private schools — before and after choice is enacted. So […]
Odds & Ends: Big Easy Goes All-Charter; Upgrading School Report Cards
It’s Friday, and it’s my blog. So if I want to cover two topics in a single post, well… I hope you like it. This story from Wednesday’s Washington Post was too significant to pass up. Lyndsey Layton reports that the last five traditional public schools in New Orleans close down this week, making the […]
Past Jeffco Superintendent Hires Shine Light on McMinimee Process
I was sitting on grandpa’s lap Tuesday night when mom let out an exasperated sigh. Unusually, it had nothing to do with me failing to clean up after dinner or leaving my Legos on the living room floor. No, as a good active and concerned mom would do, she was watching the Tweets coming out […]
New “Research” Pitting Public vs. Private Schools Leaves Bad Smell
In the world of education policy, there’s limited research with shaky conclusions. There’s highly questionable research with sketchier conclusions. Then there’s the findings in the new book The Public School Advantage by Christopher and Sarah Lubienski. The authors not only seek to make the case that traditional public schools outperform private schools, but attempt to […]
A Year without Lobato Means Another School Finance Case Looms in Colorado
Life here in Colorado just isn’t the same without a pending school finance lawsuit. For about eight years, the Lobato case lingered in the background — sometimes drearily, sometimes dramatically — as students and teachers, principals and parents, school boards and state lawmakers went about the work associated with their various roles in the K-12 […]
Jeffco Superintendent Choice Elicits Comments to Denver Post
Education Policy Center staff provided input for a Denver Post story about the Jefferson County school board’s looming decision regarding the finalist for the superintendent position, reported today by John Aguilar: Ben DeGrow, education policy analyst with the Independence Institute, said McMinimee has deep roots in Jefferson County. He grew up in Arvada and Littleton […]
