Taking a Look at This Year’s Colorado School Grades
December is an exciting month for me. For starters, I’ve got some cool presents coming my way next week. In the meantime, I’ve got plenty of fun education stuff to keep me busy. Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of highlighting some standouts among CDE’s annual award winners. This week, I have the honor […]
NCTQ Slaps Down Colorado on Teacher Preparation: Will We Ever Learn?
There’s nothing to be proud about narrowly avoiding failure. It makes me nervous just to think about how Colorado still teeters on the edge when it comes to the quality of our teacher preparation. We know how important the role of the classroom instructor is for helping students learn, so the latest release of the […]
Important Scribbles: What Drawings May Say About Lives at Home
Unfortunately for you, faithful readers, I’m operating on a bit of a time crunch today. Because of that, we will forgo our usual lofty education discussion in favor of something a little different: Drawing. I can’t say I’m sad about the diversion; drawing happens to be one of my favorite pastimes. Besides, I’m sure you […]
CRPE’s Latest Report Reminds Me That We Still Need More Choice
Last week, I gave you quick rundown (okay, it wasn’t that quick) of two big charter reports. But a little guy can only write so much in one sitting, and there was still one more big report on public school choice from the Center for Reinventing Public Education to cover. We’ll do that today. The […]
Report Madness! A Breakdown of This Week’s Charter School Reading
As a junior education policy explorer, I’ve noticed a couple of things. First, education stuff is complicated. Second, complicated education stuff leads to a whole bunch of reports and studies. Lastly, those reports and studies tend to come in spurts—a fact that often results in a whole lot of reading for yours truly. Let it […]
The Death of Snow Days
I really love snow days. Every time a storm rolls into town, I wake up, rush to the window, and rip the curtains open, hoping to see those tiny, beautiful flakes of hope drift past my wide little eyes. And while my dad usually grumbles to his coffee about the morning commute as he surveys […]
Teacher Training, Licensure, Evaluation, Pay: Fix ‘Em All (and Do It Right)
It’s been more than a week now since I thankfully resisted the urge to “blow up” education schools. In the meantime, my remarks about teacher preparation have been vindicated — both the tone of urgency and the “moderate” but serious approach to addressing the issue. Let’s start with the urgency. The National Council on Teacher […]
Customized Success: New Study Hints at the Power of Personalized Learning
Earlier this month, I wrote about some new brain science (sorry for the technical terminology) highlighting the potential benefits of personalized learning for children with ADHD. And as if that wasn’t interesting enough, I soon discovered another juicy piece of new research on personalized learning in charter schools. Before I could really chow down on […]
For More Educational Freedom, I’ll Give Up (Figurative) Ed School Explosions
Explosions are cool effects to watch in the world of make-believe. But blowing things up in real life is generally a bad idea with lots of potentially bad consequences. Somebody could get hurt. So it’s probably not surprising that I got a reaction from Rick Hess’s latest blog piece, “A Better Path than ‘Blowing Up’ Schools of Education.”
Apathy, Confusion, and Survey Data: What the Numbers Really Tell Us
I was going to write about an interesting article I read on ADHD, school choice, and blended learning today, but then I was distracted by a very interesting blog post on Americans’ understanding of education policy—or lack thereof. The irony of being distracted from writing about and ADHD article is not lost on me, but […]
COSFP’s School Funding, Instruction Story Not So Spooky with All the Facts
Yesterday I shared a really interesting survey-based analysis by Dr. Martin West that strongly suggests the average American has a good handle on how well their local schools perform, but a lot less accurate picture of how well their local schools are funded. On average, voters underestimate how much is spent per pupil by their […]
Americans Understand Their Schools, Just Not School Finance
All things considered, I think my school is pretty good. It’s got monkey bars, snack time, culturally enriching field trips, and shiny blue fish stickers. Oh, and my dad went there. If you’re thinking that those things aren’t very convincing measures of overall school quality, you’re right. Yet for a long time, factors like these […]
