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Public protests are not policy workshops
I’m not at the Save our Schools march today in D.C. but I am reading coverage (including the Twitter feed for #sosmarch). I think a number of observers such as John Merrow and Patrick Riccards are both right and wrong in arguing that the march organizers don’t have specifics to carry an argument. It is true […]
The incentives are critical, but they’re not responsible for critical choices
Today's David Brooks op-ed column ends with a mild zinger about overzealous test-prep being the choice of individual school officials rather than inevitable from high-stakes testing systems. That is precisely the argument I made in class yesterday with a handful of students, and it is absolutely in the capacity of school officials with authority to […]
“Give me the money or I shoot my foot!” and other political theories of education reform
So in the face of Congressional gridlock, the U.S. Department of Education is planning an end-run on Congressional reauthorization of ESEA, using statutory language giving the Secretary of Education waiver authority. Rick Hess is sure this blows up the constitution. It's very possible that a court could theoretically rule that waiving all sorts of requirements goes […]
What type and level of failure can we tolerate in evaluation systems?
Bruce Baker points out the flaws in the Brookings white paper on evaluation, "Passing Muster" but I think there needs to be a broader take on this. Baker properly sees the circular-reasoning aspects of the Brookings approach (everything but value-added measures is judged by value-added measures, which are judged by … how well they are internally […]
Florida SB 736: Overreach and overpromise
This week Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Senate Bill 736, which attempts to change a number of working conditions for teachers in Florida's public schools. The headline issues: For new teachers hired after June 30 this year, it prohibits any employment contract longer than one year. The bill also mandates that a derivative of student […]