RedefinED editor Adam Emerson’s blog entry on Tuesday about the importance of teacher ownership reminded me of an experience that has informed my approach to improving education for the last three decades. In 1983, I moved back to St. Petersburg, Fla., to help start an International Baccalaureate (IB) program at[Read More…]
Education and Public Policy
What school choice contributes to systemic improvements in education: A spotlight on Florida
I’ve spent the previous two days discussing accomplishments in Jeb Bush’s tenure as Florida’s governor while highlighting that, despite Bush’s forceful leadership and insistence that high-poverty, minority children would succeed, the state has failed to implement all the systemic improvements the governor envisioned. But one significant change that did occur during[Read More…]
Reject the failing schools model of choice. It does nothing but divide.
For several months, the political leadership of Pennsylvania has shown increasing bipartisan support for school choice, particularly for scholarships that provide private learning options for low-income students. That trend continued Tuesday when Democratic Senator Anthony Williams and Republican Jeffrey Piccola released the details of a plan that would give public[Read More…]
Systemic change calls for empowering educators
In a recent Washingtonpost.com guest column, Michael Martin, a research analyst at the Arizona School Boards Association, asked why large reading gains in Florida from 1998 to 2002, years corresponding with Gov. Jeb Bush’s first term, began to taper off after 2002. My answer is that while Bush was able[Read More…]
Friends and foes of Jeb Bush overlook the real reason for Florida’s gains
Initiatives such as eliminating social promotion, grading schools and bringing more professional development into high-poverty schools reinforced Bush’s commitment to increasing the achievement of low-performing students, but it was the governor’s drive and forceful personality that convinced schools and school districts to reorder their priorities.
Quality Counts and the new economic reality on agenda for roundtable talk
Edweek.org will be live-streaming an all-day roundtable discussion of education in a new economic reality, surrounding the publication’s release of its latest Quality Counts report.
Rhee: Elevate teaching, empower parents, spend wisely
Rhee unveiled the proposal today, breaking down what StudentsFirst referred to as “a call to action and a roadmap for state and local lawmakers …” Anticipating the polarization her proposals are sure to bring, she prefaced that the agenda “has assembled policies that will improve public education without regard to their point of origin on the political spectrum.”
No Child Left Behind demands we employ every option for poor children
In his Washington Post commentary today on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is still offering a narrow definition of flexibility and an unnecessarily limited set of options to reduce the achievement gap. Duncan lauded the bipartisan support in Congress for “providing more flexibility[Read More…]