In this special MLK Day episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Prof. Lerone Martin, Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor at Stanford University and Director of the MLK Research and Education Institute. Dr. Martin offers deep insights into the life and legacy of Dr. King.
In the premiere episode of Microschooling Journeys, Curious Mike joins his friend Spencer Blasdale, a former school leader and former CEO of SchoolWorks, on a road trip to KaiPod Microschool in Nashua, New Hampshire. With years of experience evaluating schools—public, private, and charter—Spencer brings a sharp, seasoned perspective to his first encounter with a microschool. At Kaipod, they observe a unique setup: 14 students guided by two dedicated adults in a personalized, community-driven learning environment. Spencer’s impressions spark key questions: How does this innovative model compare to traditional schools? Would he have considered it for his two daughters? Join us for this engaging exploration of microschooling! Stay tuned for future episodes that deepen the journey: Episode 2 features Meghan, a KaiPod guide; Episode 3 spotlights Nick, a 15-year-old student at KaiPod; and Episode 4 concludes with CEO Amar Kumar, sharing his vision for revolutionizing education through microschools.
A new year unfolds with so much promise. It offers us all a fresh start, a clean slate, a reset. It is a time for reviewing, reassessing and revising.
It is stunning that neither Governor Healey’s state transportation roadmap nor the report from the Massachusetts Transportation Funding Task Force includes any mention of improving efficiency and productivity at the MBTA. On the capital side, large investments are needed for the T to achieve a state of good repair, and capital funding has ramped up significantly. But the Authority’s operating budget, which is projected to have an $800 million deficit next year, is a very different story. MBTA General Manager Phil Eng deserves credit for eliminating slow zones and improving subway service, but the T is operating at an ever-increasing deficit. In FY 2018, the MBTA balanced its budget. Since FY 2020, however, annual fare revenues have fallen from around […]
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Dr. Kymyona Burk, Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd and former state literacy director for Mississippi. Dr. Burk shares insights from her remarkable career in K-12 education reform. She discusses her journey from classroom teacher to leading transformative literacy initiatives in Mississippi that resulted in groundbreaking improvements in early literacy and NAEP reading scores.
Frank J. Bailey, President of the Pioneer Public Interest Law Center, shares a video statement on the SJC ruling in Attorney General vs. Town of Milton. Last September, the Pioneer Public Interest Law Center, along with AIM, filed an amicus brief in the case, supporting the Attorney General’s argument that high housing costs in Massachusetts are putting the state’s economy at risk.
This issue of The House Call covers the implementation of Boston’s energy efficiency standards for large buildings. It also provides an update on the MBTA Communities Act after a busy fall Town Meeting season featuring rezoning votes, forced referenda, and – more recently – the SJC’s Milton case decision.
This week’s edition of Mapping Mass Migration will cover the migration of remote workers across the country, how trends are impacting Massachusetts, and an analysis of the demographics and occupations of fully remote workers in the Bay State.
Today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the MBTA Communities law (Section 3A) is constitutional and that AG Andrea Campbell may enforce the letter of the law by litigating against noncompliant municipalities, a major victory for the state’s economy and environment. Allowing more housing to be built in some of the most transit-accessible, amenity-rich parts of the state will help connect more people to job opportunities, limit the carbon footprint of new construction, address the state’s harrowing housing shortage, and help stem the tide of talented young workers leaving Massachusetts for more affordable locales. In September 2024, the Pioneer Public Interest Law Center filed an amicus brief in support of the AG’s case against Milton. Pioneer Institute has also […]
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of DFER and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Leo Damrosch, the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature Emeritus at Harvard University and author of “Tocqueville’s Discovery of America”. Prof. Damrosch delves into Alexis de Tocqueville’s historic nine-month journey through the United States in 1831–1832, which inspired his masterpiece, “Democracy in America”.
This week’s edition of Mapping Mass Migration will cover foreign migration into Massachusetts in 2023 and since 2010, including an examination of the most and least attractive destinations for immigrants by state, a demographic breakdown of immigrants arriving in Massachusetts, and an analysis of how these trends have changed over time.
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Dr. Jocelyn Chadwick interview distinguished British television journalist, author, and Classic FM presenter, John Suchet, OBE. Mr. Suchet explores the life and legacy of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, one of Russia’s greatest composers. He shares insights into Tchaikovsky’s upbringing, his late start in composing, and the emotional challenges that shaped his career and music.
This week on Homeschooling Journeys, Curious Mike interviews Tim Daly, CEO of Education Navigator and former CEO of TNTP. Mike is hunting for some Big Picture perspective. Intrigued by what he’s seen from ESAs, he chats with old friend Tim. The “old” Education Reform Alliance has died out somewhat; what can this new ESA sector learn?
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of DFER and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Dan Hamlin, an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Prof. Hamlin offers his insights on the state of K-12 education policy and reform. He shares how his academic experiences and research shaped his philosophy on education and informed his work with Harvard PEPG’s “Emerging School Models” conference.
Proposed changes to rulemaking and grantmaking will boost accountability and state policy innovation
Pioneer Institute is debuting The House Call, a monthly newsletter covering housing-related news and market trends in Massachusetts. The first issue explores reform options for Boston’s arcane development approvals process and major reform items from the state’s November 2024 economic development bill. Read our December issue today!
Boston, Mass. – A Pioneer Institute review of reforms enacted in metropolitan areas across the country finds that to achieve more affordable housing in the coming decades, Greater Boston should focus on policies such as making it easier to build small multi-family projects, retrofit commercial areas with new housing, and loosen parking and minimum lot size requirements.
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of DFER and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Dava Sobel, acclaimed author of The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science. Sobel delves into the life of Marie Curie, the “scientific Joan of Arc,” exploring her extraordinary journey from clandestine education in Tsarist-controlled Poland to becoming the first woman to win two Nobel Prizes in different scientific disciplines.
Pioneer has established the Roger Perry Internship Program to support college-age students who seek opportunities to enhance their educational experience with practical training in an energetic and creative public policy environment.
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of DFER and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Eric Rassbach, Vice President and Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Mr. Rassbach discusses the Loffman v. California Department of Education case, where Becket successfully secured a unanimous Ninth Circuit decision ensuring equal access to special education funding for religious school students.
Advocates seek to require that admission to vocational-technical high schools be done strictly via lottery, but this would only rearrange who gets excluded. Thanks to their strong performance, voc-tech schools in Massachusetts have roughly 8,000 students on waiting lists. There are good reasons why mandated admissions lotteries are not the answer to the problem. First, Massachusetts voc-tech high school enrollment in the aggregate already generally reflects the demographics of sending districts. There are equally good reasons why the current admission criteria include categories such as discipline, grades, attendance, guidance counselor recommendations and personal interviews. First, the high-tech equipment voc-tech students use can be dangerous, and precautions must be taken to ensure that students can operate it responsibly. Second, a voc-tech […]
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of DFER and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Carl Rollyson, CUNY professor, and acclaimed biographer of William Faulkner. Prof. Rollyson offers an in-depth exploration of Faulkner’s life, work, and enduring legacy.
Net loss accelerated in recent years; main reasons include high taxes, housing and healthcare
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of DFER and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview New Hampshire Governor Christopher Sununu. Gov. Sununu discusses his upbringing in a well-known political family and how the influence of his father, a former governor and White House chief of staff, and his brother, a former U.S. senator, has shaped his public service.
Project labor agreements (PLAs) essentially prevent non-union firms from participating in construction projects. They generally do so by including the following language: Union recognition and employment The Contractor recognizes the union as the sole and exclusive bargaining representative of all craft employees working within the scope of this agreement. All applicants for various classifications covered under the agreement required by the contractor shall be referred to the contractor by the local union. PLAs are back in the news because pending state economic development and climate legislation each call for their use. Their inclusion in the economic development bill is incongruous with and counterproductive to the purpose of the bill which is to make Massachusetts more competitive, affordable and equitable. PLAs fail on all counts. 1. PLAs […]
Yesterday was a bad day for public school students in Massachusetts because the last pillar of the most effective state education reform in modern American history fell. Since 2008, the Commonwealth has been witness to the systematic dismantling of the 1993 Education Reform Act. With every step – the elimination of school district accountability, weakening of academic standards, severely limiting the growth of the nation’s best charter public schools and now eliminating the MCAS graduation requirement – the performance of Massachusetts students has fallen further from the time when Massachusetts eighth graders tied for best in the world in science and achievement gaps were narrowing. Today, few states are seeing their National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores decline as […]
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of DFER and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview Dr. Helen Baxendale, the chief of staff and vice president of strategy at Great Hearts Academies. Dr. Baxendale discusses how her global educational experiences inform her perspective on K-12 policy and Great Hearts’ mission to integrate the humanities, math, and science for intellectual and character development.
This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy of DFER and Dr. Jocelyn Chadwick interview Jeffrey Meyers, acclaimed literary biographer, about his comprehensive exploration of Edgar Allan Poe’s life and work.
This week on Homeschooling Journeys, we meet Tiffany Hoben from West Virginia. Curious Mike chatted with her twice: once in June 2024, and again in October 2024. This October episode shows the nature of homeschooling: plans change. That cuts both good and bad. One cool opportunity disappeared; but at roughly the same time, a new need emerged, as well as the perfect educator to solve that problem. Tiffany, like other homeschoolers using Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), has a variety of experiences: she gets to personalize her son’s education, but in doing so, experiences friction that comes both from DIY and from the red tape of actually making purchases (software challenges and bureaucratic hoops). Her $4,900 “Hope Scholarship” is used for her son’s biology curriculum, rock climbing, an AI-aided writing class, and above all, a specialized phonics tutor. She is optimistic about the future of ESAs for homeschoolers in West Virginia.
Recommends Sustainable Policy Responses to Pandemic Learning Loss