Huh? You’d think that I have that backwards, with the freedom-loving, federalist heritage that Americans love so much. Try this chart published in the August 12th Economist showing central (for us federal) government spending as a percentage of overall public spending. Statists and dirigistes is what we are. Makes you want to head across the pond, raise a glass of champagne and celebrate France’s undying commitment to liberte’!
Countdown to World-Class Schools summarizes 12 actions the incoming governor can take to make our schools the best in the world. All achievable. All for under $50 million. It’s fascinating to watch the “moral” opposition to school choice (even public school choice) of officials who’ve benefited from private educations or now send their kids to private schools. Certainly, President Obama, Governor Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Murray and Ed Secretary Paul Reville all attended pretty special schools, and the President and the Governor exercise this option to school their own kids. Good for them. But don’t parents who have less money also deserve a similar option? (At right is a picture of Milton Academy, where the Governor went.) I say this not […]
For Aristotle, virtues required wisdom, the ability to find balance between extremes. So, famously, he noted that courage was neither cowardice nor charging ahead with a devil-may-care attitude. Regulations require that kind of balance even in a virtual age. Virtual learning is a huge untapped opportunity in Massachusetts. Some people consider its potential to individualize instruction and address some portion of the ever-present classroom problem of kids learning at different paces as game-changing. The conversation sometimes feels like the conversation on stem cell research–perhaps overblown, perhaps not. The fact is we are early in finding out. The issue of the pace at which kids learn is an important one. Many kids are bored because teachers have to adjust lessons to […]
Sometimes failure is not just in a handful of schools, but in the majority of a district’s schools. In those cases, a broader application of key principles of the 1993 Reform Act (empowering principals and teachers, clear measurement of student performance and accountability for performance, and competition for students) is needed. One way to do that is to pilot a fully decentralized network of schools that are given charter flexibility at the school level. Angus McBeath, the former superintendent of the Edmonton Public School System, took a school system 30 percent larger than Boston’s and gave district schools the same freedoms and accountability that charters have. The so-called “Edmonton model” empowers principals, teachers and parents by decentralizing budgets to the […]
Countdown to World-Class Schools summarizes 12 actions the incoming governor can take to make our schools the best in the world. All achievable. All for under $50 million. For decades, urban parents have heard state leaders announce big improvements in their schools. The reality is most urban district schools still lag in student achievement and show, at best, progress that is tragically slow for parents and their children. Not only have urban districts resisted implementation of the state’s 1993 Education Reform Act (MERA) by not aligning local curricula with the state frameworks, but they have not taken advantage of important tools in MERA: Decentralized management to empower principals and teachers to make meaningful decisions about how to achieve results, and […]
Countdown to World-Class Schools summarizes 12 actions the incoming governor can take to make our schools the best in the world. All achievable. All for under $50 million. I wrote this blog entry a couple of days ago, before yesterday’s disastrous vote by the Massachusetts Board of Education to adopt national standards that are (1) in many ways very different from and (2) weaker than our now dead-letter state standards for what is taught in our schools. The punch line is at the bottom. Since 1993, Springfield has received well over $2 billion, Worcester over $1.5 billion and Boston another $2 billion in state aid supplementing local education funding. The percentage of students passing the MCAS test varies greatly by […]
While our student gains in math and science over the past decade and a half are impressive, we need to address the lower percentage of students who are “advanced” in these critical subjects. Yesterday, I noted what we can do to improve the quality of our math and science teaching corps. Today, I want to focus on a number of steps we can take to strengthen STEM standards, instructional practices and assessments. Strengthen the K-12 Mathematics Standards. Well-structured academic standards logically progress from less difficult or complex topics to more difficult or complex topics, both within a grade and also from grade to grade. We could improve our already best-in-nation math and science standards by paying close attention to transitions […]
Massachusetts’ students have made impressive gains in math and science over the past decade and a half. Consider that in 1992 Massachusetts stood below national averages on the SAT. Fast forward to this past year, when the state ranked among the highest performing nations on the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). In fact, on the TIMSS, Massachusetts 4th graders ranked second and third worldwide in science and mathematics, respectively. Our 8th graders tied for first in science and ranked sixth in math. But the 2007 TIMSS identified areas of particular weakness. Over 40 percent of 4th graders in Singapore were advanced in mathematics, compared to only 22 percent in Massachusetts. A similar pattern holds for 4th grade […]
It may sound like a platitude, but that doesn’t make it any less true: No factor is more important than a student’s relationship with his or her teachers. Nothing can spark an interest or light a fire more deeply inside a student than a teacher. While that relationship is a personal one, a simply friendly rapport has pretty limited educational value. It has much more of a master-apprentice feel—and that means teachers must have subject mastery. Simple mastery of a subject does not a great teacher make, but it sure sets down a great foundation to work from. Here are three steps to ensuring that our teachers are fully prepared for the task: Strengthen new teacher quality through strong course […]
When you spend $9 billion a year on schools, accountability must go beyond student performance. We must also manage money without fraud or waste, maintain our buildings, and fully implement state policies. The Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA) was an independent district and school audit agency established by the Legislature in 2000 as part of the accountability system required by MERA. From 2002 to 2006, EQA evaluated more than 175 school districts, most of which were urban districts, which spent about half of total education dollars in the state. Opposition from teachers’ unions and urban superintendents led to EQA’s closure in spring 2008. A nascent accountability office designed to replace EQA delivered its first reports in 2009, and […]
This week, State House News broke a story on the “cozy relationship” between Health Care for All and the Patrick Administration. HCFA is an effective organization, but when an HCFA official writes to the state’s Insurance Commissioner: “If you expect to do anything ‘newsworthy’ [on insurance premium caps], can we be helpful with our blog or media at all?” well, then you have to take their positions with a brimming cup of salt. Surrogate relationships are very much a fact of life in a state where one party is dominant, like Massachusetts. Next up to bat in this age-old game, Education Commissioner Mitch Chester and Secretary Paul Reville. In anticipation of the important debate over whether to adopt weaker K-12 […]
In a recent blog, I noted how bloated the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has gotten, even as the state cuts local aid to schools. The DESE has grown diffuse, has protected its personnel and added highly compensated deputy and associate commissioner positions, and shared in none of the cuts made to actual programs (METCO, Special Education funding, etc.) and schools. It’s important to send as much money of our education budget to schools (and frankly to get superintendents to do the same). It is just as critical to ensure that the state office is supportive of reform and not simply a compliance office. The current state of play is this: We’ve created a web of nominal education […]
When Governor William Weld signed the Education Reform Act, no one thought that within a short few years more than 90 percent of Massachusetts’ students would be passing the MCAS. Nor did anyone then believe that our 4th- and 8th-grade students would soon rank among the top-scoring nations on the Trends in International mathematics and Science Study exams. Notwithstanding the state’s educational successes, critics of the MCAS—and of other elements of our accountability system such as a district and school audit system—remain. New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang castigates the MCAS for causing kids to drop out—wrongly, as can be seen in the percentage of dropouts [updated: in their senior year] who have already passed the MCAS and for reasons presented […]
The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens. That’s President Obama singling out Massachusetts as a model for the rest for the United States on March 9, 2009. He went on to say: The solution to low test scores is not lower standards – it’s tougher, clearer standards. Standards like those in Massachusetts, where 8th graders are now tying for first – first – in the world in science. The president was right in 2009, before his agenda on standards morphed into the usual “the feds know best” attitude. Academic standards and objective assessments for teachers and students are the major drivers of the overall improvement we’ve witnessed in Massachusetts’ district schools. They are also a major […]
The next two years are going to see the roughest state and local budgets in memory. While we have to balance the books, I am hoping that whoever is governor from 2011 will understand that there is a lot we can do even in a tight fiscal environment to pick up the pace in our schools. For 12 days, I’ll lay out actions that are possible even in a time of constrained budgets. One set of actions each day. Consider it something of a countdown, a Countdown to World-Class Schools, that will summarize what could–no, what should–be the agenda for the incoming governor. A Little Background Enactment and partial implementation of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) have improved […]
Below is a video of an event, History and Civic Education, that we held with Brown University Professor Gordon Wood, the amazing historian of the American Founding. The video starts with Charles White, the head of Project Civic Engagement in the School of Education at Boston University. My introductory remarks begin at 3:30. They are part good ol’ patriotic rant, I suppose, but they give you a sense about how Pioneer sees itself in our community today. At 9:15 Boston City Councilor Maureen Feeney, who so understands the importance of history instruction in our schools and the need for civic engagement informed by knowledge of our history and our institutions. And then at 18:17 begins Dr. Wood–and he is always […]
In just two days, we will celebrate the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I’ve been highlighting Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention. It’s not because he was a Republican, nor because he was perfect. We saw from 2000 to 2008 the unfriendly reception Republicans in Washington gave to the principles of our founders – and to even the more recent ideals restated by Reagan. Reagan had more than his share of faults, as do all actors on the American stage. What this last segment of that speech in 1980 points out is that the rare quality that Reagan had (and perhaps the only recent political figure I have seen who has it is a […]
Governor Patrick signed a $27.6 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, touting it as “balanced, responsible and on time.” Notwithstanding all the cries of pain from the state budgeters, it represents an increase over the 2010 budget, albeit of only 0.2 percent. Most families and most localities would take that deal. The state can’t handle it. The Guv has put off $300 million in debt payments, drained the near bone-dry rainy day fund further and set us up on a cliff now that the federal stimulus dollars are all spent. The mismatch of revenues and spending (often called in deep sonorous tones “The Structural Deficit” by budgetistas) remains. Lots of eyes are focused on implications for legal and illegal […]
In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. … [W]e are going to initiate action to get substantial relief for our taxpaying citizens and action to put people back to work. None of this will be based on any new form of monetary tinkering or fiscal sleight-of-hand. We will simply apply to government the common sense that we all use in our daily lives. Work and family are at the […]
In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. We must have the clarity of vision to see the difference between what is essential and what is merely desirable; and then the courage to bring our Government back under control. It is essential that we maintain both the forward momentum of economic growth and the strength of the safety net between those in our society who need help. We also believe […]
In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. First, we must overcome something the present Administration has cooked up: a new and altogether indigestible economic stew, one part inflation, one part high unemployment, one part recession, one part runaway taxes, one part deficit spending seasoned with an energy crisis. It’s an economic stew that has turned the national stomach. Ours are not problems of abstract economic theory. These are problems […]
In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. I often get tired of supposedly theoretical discussions about limited government—that sort of caricature libertarian who wants anarchy. Dudes, not helpful. Freedom is not simply freedom from government, nor is it simply freedom through government. Freedom in the American context is a balance of those two impulses, much like the balance of several institutional powers inside the frame of constitutional government. What […]
In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. Three-hundred-and-sixty years ago, in 1620, a group of families dared to cross a mighty ocean to build a future for themselves in a new world. When they arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, they formed what they called a “compact,” an agreement among themselves to build a community and abide by its laws. This single act – the voluntary binding together of free people […]
The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) will, this summer, have 99 charter schools serving over 25,000 students in 20 states and the nation’s capital. KIPP has just posted a study conducted by Mathematica (www.kipp.org/mathematica). The results are astounding, as both KIPP co-founder Mike Feinberg noted in a Houston Chronicle article: “This is great news for the people who have already had faith in us,” he said. “For the people who have been on the fence, I hope this makes them true believers.” And Nelson Smith, head of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, noted, “It helps demolish some of the myths that people hold about KIPP,” Smith said. “Some of the ways people have tried to excuse or explain […]
In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010: You know, the first Republican President once said, “While the people retain their virtue and their vigilance, no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.” If Mr. Lincoln could see what’s happened in these last three and a half years, he might hedge a little on that statement. But […]
In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and cull eight important themes for 2010: More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country, to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values. He went on to criticize his opponents for saying that the United States has had its day in the […]
In Tuesday’s The Angle video on Boston.com, Globe columnist Scot Lehigh and cartoonist Dan Wasserman slug it out over how to reform our schools. It’s great when people debate education with passion, because we need to keep business, community and neighborhood leaders focused on this issue. Is anything more worthy of debate than how to ensure that our next generation is better prepared than the past and current ones. But great debates need quiet facts. And that’s true as much for Wasserman and Lehigh as it is for Patrick, Baker, Cahill and Stein. So here is a friendly fact-check for the Lehigh-Wasserman smackdown. For example, what to make of Dan Wasserman’s suggestion that charters have pockets of excellence but for […]
Gore is right to call for the Coast Guard/FAA/BP handlers to “Stop Censoring News From The Gulf”: These reports are deeply disturbing: “When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request.” “A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.” This behavior is completely unacceptable. Access by reporters should be as […]
Here is a great outcome from the passage of the charter school cap lift in January: the Roxbury Prep charter middle school, which is a standout in raising student achievement is announcing that it is going to replicate! from the announcement passed on by Dana Lehman and Will Austin, currently co-directors at RP: We plan to serve up to 2,000 children by 2020, playing a significant role in reshaping public education in Boston… As of July 1, Dana will become Uncommon Schools’ Managing Director of the Boston network and begin the process of charter applications and planning for the opening the first new Roxbury Prep campus in 2011-2012… Roxbury Prep is formally partnering with Uncommon Schools, Inc. Uncommon Schools, Inc. […]
The Secretary and Commissioner of Education have repeatedly said that they would not adopt national standards if they were weaker than Massachusetts state academic standards. I long ago stopped believing, even as friends in the media and elected officials told me otherwise. Even as recently as May 20th, Secretary Reville noted to GateHouseNews Service: “There’s no plan whatsoever with how we’re going to proceed on this,” said Reville. “There’s simply an opportunity for us to play a national leadership role.” He said the state had “absolutely no plan to replace MCAS.” On June 2nd, Commissioner Chester put out a press release on the Department’s website declaring: Our curriculum experts have worked closely with the developers of the Common Core Standards […]