by Collin Hitt An intriguing new study comes from a team of researchers led by Jonah Rockoff. It looks at middle schools in New York City, and compares them to elementary schools with a K through 8 grade span. Students in the middle schools do worse than their peers who stay in the same school...
by Collin Hitt Illinois lost a very-high-stakes federal grant competition. The “Race To The Top” program has gathered headlines across the country for the better part of a year. It wrapped up earlier this week, with 12 states and the District of Columbia splitting $4B in stimulus largesse to fund public education. Ostensibly, the grant...
by Collin Hitt Chicago Public Schools has announced that it is moving forward with a new plan to extend the school day at select elementary schools by using online learning technology. The Trib carried the story: In an effort to extend what is one of the nation’s shortest school days, Chicago Public Schools plans to add...
by Collin Hitt That, according to a new survey of thirty American cities by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. Overall, the study attempted to rank major cities based on their attractiveness for school reform – the charter school element was only one piece. Chicago got a C and was ranked 11th out of 26 states offered an...
by Collin Hitt A new national group has formed to advance online and technology-driven learning in public schools, the Digital Learning Council. I’ve been asked to serve on the council, an honor considering the accomplished careers of those who’ll also be joining the group – for starters, the council is co-chaired by former governors Bob Wise and Jeb Bush. It looks...
by Kristin Nisbet* The Pacific Research Institute and director Nick Tucker created a film adaption of a book titled “Not as Good as You Think” by Lance Izumi, Vicki Murray and Rachel Chaney. This film of the same name questions the assumption that having a well manicured lawn and owning a house in the suburbs is key to gaining access to...
The Problem In recent months, Illinois has been home to an intense debate over school reform. A school voucher bill co-authored by Sen. James Meeks has received a great deal of attention, and for good reason. It would give parents in Chicago’s worst and most overcrowded schools the option to send their children to a...
by Collin Hitt Special education in Washington D.C. public schools is mired with problems. So much so that legally savvy parents of special needs students often win big-dollar lawsuits to have their children placed in city private schools. Across the country, the role that private schools play in special education is small but significant. Parents,...
by Kristin Nisbet The Chicago Tribune reports that 13 high school students from the Chicago area are a part of the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) sponsored by World Vision. These students confer, do research, and pick a public policy issue they wish to address–this year they choose education. These forward thinking students pitched their ideas to Chicago...
by Collin Hitt Reason Magazine has a great feature on online learning by Katherine Mangu Ward. As is typical with her journalism, it provides clarity to a complex issue. She sums up the unease with technology felt by teachers and bureaucrats, which has real consequences for today’s students: Adults who weren’t weaned on broadband find...
by Collin Hitt Economic high times won’t be here soon, and even when they return state governments and school districts will still find themselves in fiscal straight jackets sewn with pension fund promises. Jay Greene thinks that this could lead lawmakers to substitute meaningful school reform for the old recipe of simply spending more money (which hasn’t...
by Collin Hitt That’s the title of a new Forbes piece by Clayton Christiansen and Michael Horn. School is out, and for most students enjoying their midsummer pleasures, class time is a distant memory. Changes are underway that make it likely to stay that way. Christiansen and Horn have written a book on the topic of “disruptive innovation” in...
by Kristin Nisbet Robby Stoave referred to the following quote from an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger recently in a post on reason.com. There are examples of other institutions in the U.S. where state support does not translate into official control. The most compelling are our public universities and our...
by Collin Hitt John Fund turns in an interesting, short piece on teacher pensions. He interviewed Bill Gates, who has sometimes been soft on education reform but is frustrated with the budget bombs created by teacher pension schemes. Joel Klein, however, turns in the money quote: “The education system is built on the three pillars of...