Accountability in public education derives from a combination of government regulations and consumer choice. Historically, because we’ve had so little consumer choice in public education, regulations have been the dominant component of accountability. But now that school choice is becoming more ubiquitous, consumer choice is assuming a more prominent role.[Read More…]
Tag: Andy Rotherham
Florida roundup: Crist on vouchers, second to Hong Kong, school funding for poverty & more
More Crist on vouchers: Charlie Crist on “Hardball” last night: MSNBC host Chris Matthews warned Crist that there was a “blue plate special aspect” now that he’s changed parties, and that he’d have to buy into Democratic mainstream arguments: opposing vouchers, supporting the public school teachers union. “I’m fine with[Read More…]
Arne Duncan: We’ve reached a critical phase in education reform
The next few years are critical for education reform, with the implementation of higher standards likely to put tremendous pressure on political leaders to abandon course, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday. “The idea of implementing higher standards, the adoption in 46 states of higher standards, is clearly a[Read More…]
Andy Rotherham occupies educational inequality
This column from Andy Rotherham appearing today on Time.com is so well worth reading that it’s hard to edit it down to a few excerpts. It’s the most prescient and fair-minded argument on where to direct our “Occupy” anger in the cause for social and economic justice, ending with a[Read More…]
A think tank stumbles into some familiar arguments
There is a reason Richard Lee Colvin was selected earlier this year to lead Education Sector. He was an accomplished national education reporter who left the Los Angeles Times in 2003 to lead the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Columbia University’s Teachers College, where he guided other[Read More…]
Insurgents, or engineers
Andy Rotherham today gives us a look at a few examples where progressive-minded teachers are acting as change-agents within their unions. And, surely, the news is promising. But these “insurgents,” as Rotherham calls them, are still mostly acting as engineers tinkering with the machinery that drives a top-down model of public[Read More…]
Rotherham on choice and empowerment
Andy Rotherham spent his weekly real estate on Time.com describing his method of choosing a school for his children. Of particular note to redefinED are his comments on choice, equity and empowerment: … the amount of choice is still limited by administrators (who alone get to decide, for instance, whether[Read More…]
The political marketplace of charter schools
In his weekly “School of Thought” column on Time.com, Andy Rotherham considers the political backlash currently afflicting charter schools and walks away with two lessons that help explain the difficulty in having a nuanced and complex conversation about their role in public education today: First, with 5,000 charters ranging from very[Read More…]