Entries by Editorial Staff

National Education Standards – A Confidence Game?

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/03/national_education_standards_a.html Published on April 1, 1857, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was Herman Melville’s last novel and one in which he coined a new term for American hucksters. Melville’s satirical tale has some relevance for better understanding the drive for national education standards, testing, and curricula, as well as the major players behind this movement. Here’s the Wikipedia plot summary of Melville’s book: The novel’s title refers to its central character, an ambiguous figure who sneaks aboard a Mississippi steamboat on April Fool’s Day. This stranger attempts to test the confidence of the passengers, whose varied reactions constitute the bulk of the text.  In this work Melville is at his best illustrating the human masquerade. Each person including the reader is […]

Back Bay Resident Honored by Mass Women’s Political Caucus

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http://backbay.patch.com/articles/back-bay-resident-honored-by-mass-women-s-political-caucus Back Bay resident John Hailer, President and CEO of Natixis Global Asset Management, will be honored by the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus for his work supporting women in the corporate world. Hailer will receive the award on March 16 at the Annual Good Guys Awards Luncheon from 12 – 2 p.m. at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. luncheon on March 16. “We’re very happy to present this award to such a deserving  candidate,” said Women’s Political Caucus Executive Director Priti Rao. “One of the primary  missions of MWPC is to maximize the number of women in key leadership  roles, and John has championed this through his commitment to supporting  and promoting women in the corporate world and through his charitable  […]

Legacy of the ‘Know-Nothings’

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http://www.wickedlocal.com/weston/news/opinions/x770709648/Gass-Legacy-of-the-Know-Nothings#axzz2NcNYjWOG “The Irish are perhaps the only people in our history with the distinction of  having a political party, the Know-Nothings, formed against them,” wrote John F.  Kennedy in his 1958 book, “A Nation of Immigrants.” Today, few people realize  that the Massachusetts Constitution has two Know-Nothing-style amendments, which  still thrust their mid-nineteenth century bigotry into our world. Massachusetts in the 1850s was a bustling, disjointed, and rapidly growing  state. The Yankee Commonwealth and its cities were undergoing seismic industrial  and social transformations. New and powerful railroads, factories, telegraph  lines, and banks ruled the day. The mass immigration of tens-of-thousands of  souls fleeing the Irish Potato Famine fueled this mighty engine, which would  drive the Commonwealth’s historic economic growth. Despite […]

Learning from Massachusetts’ health-care experiment

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http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/03/learning_from_massachusetts_he.html Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has taken considerable heat during the Republican primaries for the health care legislation that passed while he was in office. Sadly, election-year politics have overshadowed the real lessons of Massachusetts’ experiment. The core question then-Gov. Romney was trying to answer was this: Should Massachusetts continue to pay hospitals more than $1 billion a year to care for the poor, or should it create a way for individuals to purchase their own insurance? Romney’s original proposal was simple: Stop subsidizing expensive hospital care and instead require all Massachusetts residents to carry at least catastrophic insurance. Anything beyond that would be a matter of individual choice. The idea was to prevent taxpayers from having to pick […]

Consider what worked with Romneycare

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http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/commentary/jim-stergios-and-joshua-archambault-consider-what-worked-with-romneycare/article_cde520a3-9336-54dc-8e3c-da202ecd9f8c.html Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has taken considerable heat during the Republican primaries for the health-care legislation that passed while he was in office. Sadly, election-year politics have overshadowed the real lessons of Massachusetts’ experiment. The core question then-Gov. Romney was trying to answer was this: Should Massachusetts continue to pay hospitals more than $1 billion a year to care for the poor, or should it create a way for individuals to purchase their own insurance? Romney’s original proposal was simple: Stop subsidizing expensive hospital care and instead require all Massachusetts residents to carry at least catastrophic insurance. Anything beyond that would be a matter of individual choice. The idea was to prevent taxpayers from having to pick up […]

Dems back off IPAB repeal – Bush officials, centrist leaders try to reclaim religious liberty – Exchange rule provides path for agents, brokers – GOP wonders about ACA subsidies

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http://www.politico.com/politicopulse/0312/politicopulse699.html DEMS FLEE IPAB BILL – Well, that didn’t take long. Just 72 hours after Republican leaders hinted they would pair repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board with medical malpractice reform, it’s no longer looking like IPAB repeal will be such a bipartisan affair. The IPAB bill has broad Democratic support; the med-mal bill … not so much. The joint legislative package is still a cinch to pass the GOP-controlled House, but on Monday, Democrats started to cry foul. “Typical right-wing overreach,” Rep. Barney Frank, one of the 20 Democrats to co-sponsor Rep. Phil Roe’s IPAB repeal bill, described it to POLITICO. It should be noted, however, that both bills have wide support among provider groups. Even so, the […]

Mass. Women’s Political Caucus to honor Brookline’s Jim Stergios as a ‘Good Guy’

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http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/news/x1907506888/Mass-Womens-Political-Caucus-to-honor-Brooklines-Jim-Stergios-as-a-Good-Guy#axzz2O6UfvORR The Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus has announced that Brookline  resident Jim Stergios, executive director of Pioneer Institute,  will be honored at the 11th annual Good Guys Awards for his efforts to increase  the civic engagement of women, and for recognizing the importance of quality  education in improving the lives of women and their families by creating greater  opportunities for the next generation. At Pioneer Institute, Stergios has worked to amplify the voices of women in  policy decisions through in-depth research, policy proposals and support of  innovative Pioneer Institute programs. One of the major areas through which he  has done this is education reform. In his “Rock the Schoolhouse” blog, he  regularly analyzes the state’s education system and offers alternative […]

Think tank’s book says Romney not to blame for Obama health law

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http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/865-politicselections/215781-book-romney-not-responsible-for-obama-health-law Says Democrats altered the Massachusetts law signed by Romney, which has been  called the inspiration for Obama’s national reform law. It’s unfair to call Mitt Romney the architect of President Obama’s healthcare  law because of how thoroughly the Republican presidential candidate’s reforms  were altered under his Democratic successor, a new book argues. The Great Experiment, a free-market analysis of the 2006 Massachusetts  healthcare law, makes the case for giving states more freedom to develop and  test their own healthcare solutions. One of the book’s co-authors, on Capitol Hill Tuesday to tout the book,  faulted Massachusetts insurance exchange regulators and Democratic Gov. Deval  Patrick for fundamentally changing the goals of Romney’s reforms, for example by  requiring that everyone have high-value, […]

Jobless rates rise in most towns, but remain lower than early 2011

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http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/newsnow/x503114713/Jobless-rates-rise-in-most-towns-but-are-better-than-a-year-ago?zc_p=1 Unemployment rates held steady or rose in  almost every town and city in the state in January, according to the  Executive Office of Labor and Workforce  Development. Local jobless rates often rise in January, when holiday retail jobs dry up  and sectors such as leisure and hospitality slow down for winter, said Rena  Kottcamp, research director for the state Division  of Unemployment Assistance. “This is a very highly seasonal time of the year,” she said. That means seasonal factors could be to blame for at least part of January’s  increase. Local unemployment rates also ticked  upward from November to December last year, which the labor office also  blamed largely on seasonal ebbs and flows. Only two towns – Gosnold […]

George Will: Laws sometimes serve up lawlessness

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http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2017712347_will12.html Two policies of the Obama administration illustrate an axiom: As government expands, its lawfulness contracts. Consider the administration’s desire to continue funding UNESCO and to develop a national curriculum for primary and secondary education. In 1994, Congress stipulated that no U.S. funds shall go to “any affiliated organization” of the U.N. “which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.” Last October, UNESCO (the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) voted to confer membership on Palestine. Although there are waiver provisions in most laws restricting executive discretion in foreign relations, the 107 national delegations that voted to extend membership to Palestine were told there is no […]

Frank talk on transportation funding

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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/print-edition/2012/03/09/frank-talk-on-transportation-funding.html?page=all While the MBTA’s budget struggles have captured the region’s headlines, there is also an increasing awareness of a statewide transportation funding problem. Unfortunately, the public process around the issue seems headed in a familiar direction — float a whole bunch of ideas, piece together a stop-gap measure, and kick the can down the road. What’s missing is a willingness to talk frankly with the public. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes frustration from the political class at the public’s unwillingness to embrace new revenues from an increased gas tax or other sources. But what do they expect from a public that has watched the Big Dig debacle unfold over more than a decade? The first step in talking with the […]

Those pesky things called laws

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-disregard-for-those-pesky-things-called-laws/2012/03/08/gIQAHIA61R_story.html Two policies of the Obama administration illustrate an axiom: As government expands, its lawfulness contracts. Consider the administration’s desire to continue funding UNESCO and to develop a national curriculum for primary and secondary education. In 1994, Congress stipulated that no U.S. funds shall go to “any affiliated organization” of the United Nations that  “grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.” Last October, UNESCO (the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)voted to confer membership on Palestine. Although there are waiver provisions in most laws restricting executive discretion in foreign relations, the 107 national delegations that voted to extend membership to Palestine were told there is no […]

Common Core Standards Will Be Expensive for the States

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http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=21689 Federal leadership on education reform has yielded disappointing results throughout the last several presidential administrations.  The 1994 “Goals 2000: Educate America Act” failed to achieve its objectives, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has become the subject of much criticism and its Annual Yearly Progress standard has been found unworkable, says the nonprofit AccountabilityWorks. In response, many states came together to develop the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) — a uniform instructional system that would be adopted nationwide.  The federal government involved itself by coercing adoption of the CCSSI by threatening to withhold Title I funds and making adoption a condition for receiving NCLB waivers.  As a result, 45 states are now partners in CCSSI. Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas […]

Mass. groups land Walton Foundation money

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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2012/03/07/mass-groups-land-walton-foundation.html Arkansas-based Walton Family Foundation on Wednesday will announce nearly $3 million in grants in Massachusetts related to education reform, the money going to eight organizations – a combination of charter schools, public policy organizations, and education-related nonprofits, according to a press release from the foundation. The grants in Massachusetts are part of $159 million in grants the Walton Family Foundation is distributing nationwide. Grants were made to organizations and programs that empower parents, particularly in low-income communities, to choose among quality, publicly funded schools for their children, the press release said. The Walton Family Foundation, the philanthropic organization started by WalMart founder Sam Walton and his wife Helen, supports parental choice and competition within education, according to the press […]

Want to withdraw from Obama Ed?

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/5/want-to-withdraw-from-obama-ed/ Well before the March 10, 2010, release of the national Common Core (CC)  standards for K-12 math and English, the Obama administration was pressuring  states to commit to them if they wanted to compete for a share of $4.35 billion  in Race to the Top funds  set aside from the federal stimulus. All the while, the Washington-based CC collaborators – the National  Governors Association’s Best Practices Center, the Council  of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve  Inc. (a remnant of the failed national standards push of the 1990s) – were  issuing regular assurances these curriculum  standards would be totally “voluntary” and state-led. Now, amid mounting evidence of the Common Core’s serious legal, fiscal and  qualitative flaws, some brave leaders […]

Handwaving away opposition to the national standards

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/03/handwaving_away_opposition_to.html Periodically, over at the Fordham blog, Checker Finn does his best imitation of the cop waving traffic through at the scene of the car crash we like to call Common Core. In a post last week (“The war against the Common Core”), he morphs into good ol’ Sergeant Finn, crabbing at any observers, “Nothing to see here, folks.  Move along, move along.”  The mishaps around Common Core national standards are simple driver misjudgment, he explains.  Steering mistakes.  Nobody’s breaking the law.  And don’t worry, because even though there have been lots of accidents, the road ahead is not dangerous. This is classic Checker handwaving, passing off politics as policy.  Let’s look at the four arguments he makes. 1. Don’t […]

Four Models of Catholic Schooling in Massachusetts

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Author(s): Cara Stillings Candal, Ed.D. — Publication date: 2012-03-15 Category: Education Abstract: Thought leaders in education, especially in Massachusetts, rarely acknowledge the precedent that Catholic education sets and the model that it has long provided in offering high quality educational options to students of all backgrounds. Education policy conversations that include Catholic schools would recognize that they are successful with diverse populations of students because they offer a diversity of schooling options, all of which emphasize academic excellence. Generally speaking, Catholic school options in Massachusetts can be described in terms of four models, which are loosely differentiated by their governance structures and, to a lesser extent, the philosophical approach that they take to education. Those models are: 1) parish schools, […]

National Standards: Costly in Dollars and Liberty Lost

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http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/02/national-standards-costly-in-dollars-and-liberty-lost/ Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s comments last week, in which he equated state lawmakers who question the Common Core national standards push with conspiracy theorists, are another indication that the Common Core Initiative is not the states-based movement the Administration claims it to be. Indeed, national standards have become the cornerstone of the Department of Education’s efforts to increase federal control over the content taught in local schools. As the Pioneer Institute has recently reported, national standards adoption will cost states nearly $16 billion—an amount far exceeding any grant money doled out to states (partly in return for adoption of these standards). Pioneer also notes that the U.S. Department of Education is running afoul of three laws prohibiting the federal […]

It’s Official – Daniel Grabauskas Now Highest Paid City Employee

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http://www.hawaiireporter.com/its-official-daniel-grabauskas-now-highest-paid-city-employee/123 It’s official – Daniel Grabauskas is now the highest paid city employee. The former chairman and senior strategic adviser of the Bronner Center for Transportation Management and former general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was confirmed today by the city’s Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation executive board as its chief executive officer and executive director. Grabauskas’ three-year contract, which begins in mid-April, offers an annual salary of $245,000, along with other perks that include a $36,000 yearly housing allowance and an $6,000 transportation allowance. The total compensation package of $861,000 could rise to as high as $966,000 because it includes a $35,000 annual performance bonus. The HART board said in a statement its members contacted 150 people since November […]

NEW STUDY EXPLORES POLICY CHALLENGES POSED BY VIRTUAL SCHOOLS

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NEW STUDY EXPLORES POLICY CHALLENGES POSED BY VIRTUAL SCHOOLS Existing regulatory protocol is insufficient for full-time online education BOSTON, MA – Massachusetts is well behind the curve when it comes to full-time online learning, but pending state legislation could change that, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute, Regulating Virtual Schools: A New Policy Challenge. Regulating Virtual Schools “Applying the usual practices on attendance, enrollment and funding to full-time online schools is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” said Pioneer Director of the Center for School Reform Jamie Gass. “Virtual schools need their own regulatory protocol.” Thirty states and the District of Columbia currently have virtual schools, in which students work from home and […]

South Carolina Resisting the National Standards Push

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http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/28/south-carolina-resisting-the-national-standards-push/ South Carolina legislators have introduced a measure to pull the Palmetto State out of the Common Core national standards. Senator Mike Fair, who introduced the measure, voiced his concerns about the state’s involvement in the national standards push in the Greeneville News: The Legislature never had a chance to review Common Core because the feds timed their deadlines for adopting them to fall when the Legislature wasn’t in session. So, to qualify for a shot at Race to the Top money in 2010, the (previous) state superintendent and the (previous) governor had to agree to adopt Common Core—standards that had not even been published yet.… By the way, SC wasn’t awarded Race to the Top money, so we sold our […]

Mandatory Volunteerism

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/02/mandatory_volunteerism.html The last decade has seen an explosion in the number of middle and high schools mandating volunteerism.  I am not a fan of forcing volunteerism, and “mandatory volunteerism” offends those who treasure meaningful language.  But within a set of courses and activities aimed at rounding out children so that they will become effective participants in civil society, such requirements may make sense.  That is especially so if students can choose the volunteer program and not be restricted to school-approved activities.  Choosing what you are passionate about is critical to being a good citizen. Clearly, such mandates are not things we impose on adults.  Which is why it is so disconcerting to see the federal department of education treat state […]

Are School “Turnarounds” Just Spin?

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/02/do_school_turnarounds_work.html The waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act will, as noted yesterday, have a number of effects, with three big ones being: It moves the goalposts for accountability back years (at least 2017, more likely 2024) and weakens the accountability goal (from proficiency for all students to making progress on the achievement gap) It gets rid of all of the law’s school choice and parental options, which were to kick in after a number of years of continued school failure It centralizes innovation and change strategies in Malden (the world HQ of the state department of education) The first effect listed above is a simple punt on accountability.  But the last two bullets mark a move away […]

The Core Conundrum

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-core-cunundrum/31719 Yesterday (February 23) Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called criticisms of the Common Core State Standards, “a conspiracy theory in search of a conspiracy.” He is referring to the idea that the supposedly “voluntary” K-12 curricular standards now adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia are, in fact, a national standard in everything but name. Why should the Secretary care whether the Common Core is characterized one way or the other? Isn’t the result the same either way? No. The reason it matters is that the federal government does not have authorization under federal law to impose a curriculum on the nation’s schools. The states individually and local school districts have the power to decide what public […]

Common Core State Standards Estimated Cost is $16 Billion for States

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http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2012/02/common-core-state-standards-estimated-cost-is-16-billion-for-states/ BOSTON/WASHINGTON, D.C./SAN FRANCISCO – Aligning state and local educational systems to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and math will cost the 45 states plus the District of Columbia that have adopted them nearly $16 billion over seven years according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute, the American Principles Project, and the Pacific Research Institute of California. This does not include additional spending for reforms to help students meet the new standards. “Very few of the states that adopted Common Core vetted the costs and benefits beforehand,” said Theodor Rebarber, lead contributor to the analysis, National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards. “While test-development costs will be covered by […]

Obama imposing national school curriculum

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http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/obama-imposing-national-school-curriculum/print/ A new report compiled by several former Education Department insiders for the Pioneer Institute warns that the Obama administration is imposing a national school curriculum, even though the law doesn’t allow it, by making trades with districts seeking waivers from other program requirements. “In three short years, the present administration has placed the nation on the road to a national curriculum,” said the authors of the reported called “The Road to a National Curriculum: The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and Conditional Waivers.” “By leveraging funds through its Race to the Top fund and the Race to the Top Assessment Programs, the [Education] Department has accelerated the implementation of common standards in English […]

Moving the goalposts on NCLB

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/02/moving_the_goalposts.html Massachusetts and nine other states made news last week by seeking and receiving waivers from major provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).  The law was never a favorite of mine but I think the way it was upended and why says a lot about the centralizing worldview of federal and state policymakers. First thing is to separate process and substance.  The process on the waivers is wrongheaded—and likely illegal.  Stay tuned for more on that. On the substance, US Department of Ed Secretary Arne Duncan outlined the key requirements he wanted Massachusetts to fulfill, on standards (what Sec. Duncan calls college- and career-readiness standards), instruction and leadership, and accountability. On standards, Massachusetts met the feds’ […]