Entries by Jim Stergios

Pioneer = conservative, liberal or libertarian?

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As you probably know, Boston.com has kindly invited me to blog on their website regarding how to move our state and country forward on education. It’s called Rock the Schoolhouse, and I’m pleased to have the opportunity. As you might expect, several commenters ask about Pioneer, and often they ask if this is a conservative, a liberal, libertarian organization or some fudge among the three. Such was the query today from “Abrahamson”. I had posted a blog noting that elected officials who don’t support school choice are often the products of school choice or private schools. Abrahamson queried me on two points: (1) The conservatives always preach that the government is not supposed to guarantee equality, that those who work […]

School choice for the POTUS

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Politico reports today that the “pool” followed POTUS and FLOTUS to the Sidwell Friends private school. “We are told that POTUS and FLOTUS were both in the motorcade and are at the school. Your pooler assumes the visit is some sort of end-of-the-school-year event. But we have not been told what they are here for. Just that they are attending one of Sasha’s school activities.” Take a moment to look at Sidwell’s site. I am glad the President can afford the $30,000 tuition. Simple question – and it is the same one David Gergen asked Deval Patrick before he was elected Governor in 2006: This question: when you were young, you won a scholarship to go off to the Milton […]

National standards talking points

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Across the country, the NGA and the CCSSO will be using these talking points over and over again. They will say that the proposed national standards are: 1) Aligned with college and career expectations; 2) Internationally benchmarked against high performing nations; 3) Reflective of vital cross-disciplinary skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, logical reasoning, communication, and team work; 4) Fewer in scope and deeper in meaning; and 5) Clearly written and user-friendly to educators. In Massachusetts, be prepared for them to focus on #4. Fewer they are right. Deeper they will claim.

Feel that boot on the neck yet?

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As the National Governor Association and the Council of Chiefs (CCSSO) roll out the state-led, oops, sorry, national standards, they are distributing a sort of loyalty oath to a number of players in the industry. Remember that this is primarily about money, and the K-12 industry spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year in this country. Much of that is textbooks, and the reason the feds were livid with Texas is that it was a large buyer of textbooks and was uninterested in a centralized, national curriculum. So it decided not to participate. CA is not in yet either. Those are two mighty big prizes. But the NGA and CCSSO can have a big impact, especially with the Gates […]

They're national, not state standards

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Today, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released a set of state-led education standards, the Common Core State Standards, at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, GA. The English-language arts and mathematics standards for grades K-12 were developed in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including content experts, states, teachers, school administrators and parents. The standards establish clear and consistent goals for learning that will prepare America’s children for success in college and work. That’s the first para in today’s NGA and the CCSSO’s press release. Notice the “state-led” language. For the longest time the Common Core standards have been marketed as “state standards.” This the CCSSI, […]

Special Friday (late pm) redirect

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Greg Sargent of the WaPo‘s Plum Line notes that the White House is floating out there that Bill Clinton was sent to speak to Joe Sestak (who defeated Arlen Specter in the D primary for US Senate) about “other options.” Floating Bill Clinton’s name on Friday morning while saying that they might be saying something else later in a Friday pm… Friday pm on Memorial Day weekend… strikes me as synonymous with: Guys, there is a bad story we are trying to redirect. Senior White House advisers asked former President Bill Clinton to talk to Joe Sestak about whether he was serious about running for Senate, and to feel out whether he’d be open to other alternatives, according to sources […]

It's official: VA declines to participate in RttT

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Olympia Meola of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Virginia is quitting the Race to the Top. Why? It does not want to jettison its “Standards of Learning.” In a pointed letter to federal education officials relaying why Virginia will not reapply for the Obama administration’s grant program, Gov. Bob McDonnell said the Obama administration’s strong push for states to adopt common standards as a key part of the Race to the Top competitive program “is overly prescriptive and disregards individual state initiatives and progress.” States, like Virginia, that were not awarded grants in the $4 billion program’s first round could try again by June 1. Virginia sought $350 million the first time. The budget for its second bid is now […]

38 days in, we need a laugh

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While I am glad that BP has not taken up some home remedies, such as corks and pillows, their response and the government’s to what is an unmitigated disaster are anything but funny. We’ve crossed into millions of gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf and the wholesale destruction of species, estuaries and a way of life. We don’t have any sense as to the full damage caused. If you are the laugh rather than cry type, check out the Australian comedy team Clarke and Dawes as they give their take on an oil spill resulting from the front falling off an oil tanker down under. Some folks actually took this to be a real interview with a real politician.

Nothing to fear but lower student achievement…

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Did anyone actually think that during a campaign season the MCAS debate would come back in full force? It’s odd, given the strong public support for the test, but it is happening. And in the tradition of the Good Ol’ American Way, money is driving the debate. The feds are promoting national math and English/reading standards for K-12 schools by offering $320 million, perhaps split among two groups, for the development of the standards and the assessments. A Globe editorial entitled Nothing to Fear in Experiment to Improve Testing opines today that Massachusetts has, academically, nothing to lose if it abandons the MCAS because There is a greater likelihood that the exam that measures student achievement in Massachusetts will go […]

Stop floating – start swimming

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Monica Brady-Meyerov has an interesting report on WBUR. Seems the state is thinking about pulling up stakes on its Race to the Top application. The submission deadline of June 1 is coming up fast. It’s Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester who floats the bad news. “We are full speed ahead working toward a submission,” Chester said, “but we are doing a calculus as to whether or not the competition is stacked against Massachusetts or whether or not it’s a level playing field.” Competition stacked? Not a level playing field? Not sure what that means, but there are two things the Ed Commish seems to want movement on: Chester says it’s “maddening” that in the first round of the grant competition the […]

Advice to BU grads as they go into the world

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It’s commencement time in Boston, which means a stream of events with caps bobbing and gowns and parents waving. Yesterday was a beautiful day for the Boston University commencement with Attorney General Eric Holder. After the center-ring event, a number of schools have their own convocation events. Here are remarks I made at the convocation for the University Professors Program at Boston University. UNI is a really unique place to get a degree, something like the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago in its interdisciplinary approach and unabashed elitism in restrictions on access. (God knows why they let me in.) A few segments worth highlighting: I wish you lots of success, wealth and well-being. Often these occasions […]

When will we go cashless on the Turnpike?

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From Bob Poole is an update on all the toll roads migrating to cashless payments: The conversion of toll roads to all-electronic/no-cash tolling seems to be accelerating. I’m drawing on several recent articles from Tollroadsnews.com for this update. Already operating on a cashless basis are the E-470 in Denver and the West Park in Houston (which has been cashless from its opening day). The next big system to go completely cashless will be the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) in Dallas. It’s already converted two of its five toll facilities—the George Bush Turnpike and the Sam Rayburn Tollway. Its busiest toll road, the Dallas North Toll Road, will be converted during the fourth quarter this year, while its two smallest […]

Innovation Smithovation

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We often hear about how charter schools are so innovative. And now we increasingly hear, especially with this week’s release of a Boston Foundation report touting the number of additional hours charter school teachers put into their work, that time in school is what matters. I agree that charter teachers work their butts off, and we all should be incredibly thankful for their commitment to breaking the determinist logic so many had for so long that “those kids can’t do it.” More time does matter. And innovation does matter. But time on task only matters if what is going during the additional time brings real benefits. And I am more and more convinced that the quality of charter school teaching […]

Crying won't help you

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Crying won’t help you, praying won’t do you no good When the levee breaks, mama, you got to go That’s how I feel about the piece Amy Lischko and I had in the Globe today on the health care reform of 2006 and how it’s failed to do much of anything to respond to small business needs. Key paras: First, the Connector focused all its energy on providing nearly free products to the indigent. In contrast, the Connector’s board seemed almost uninterested in market-rate products for small business employees… The Connector took three years to make information about provider networks and participating primary care providers for small businesses available on its website. It took over two years to launch a […]

Big kudos and 2 questions about the Aquapocalypse

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Fred Laskey and his immediate staff did an incredible job in addressing the water main break in Weston. Full stop. Hosannahs all around. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, my questions: (1) Why did so many towns with deep budget woes feel that they had to give out water? (2) Is boiling water really so hard? (My kids enjoyed it…) (3) Was the water we had available for a few days really so undrinkable? Was it considered drinkable in the 1990s? Have regulations changed and therefore perceptions about safety? Or was the water even by 1990s standards undrinkable? (4) And will Fred’s freshly minted halo get him over the hump with my friends in the watershed associations […]

Congratulations to Paul Toner

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The Cambridge Day News reported over the weekend that Paul Toner was elected new president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, taking over for Anne Wass. In a statement, Toner pledged that “MTA will lead the fight for positive change in order to improve our schools and support our students. “Where there are issues to be addressed, such as significant achievement gaps between our student populations, we will not shy away from these challenges,” he continued. “Teachers and their unions are not the problem; we have the solutions.” We hope to work with Paul and the MTA.

Addressing Staff Complaints

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Stefan (to his Hungarian friends István) Poftak has not said a word. No, not a word. But, alas, I know those furtive side glances and the all-too-confident smirk all too well. He has nailed down three consecutive blog entries and is feeling quite good about himself. But I have been working, comrade, I have been working! Read here.

It's a beautiful day out

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Keep looking up folks. The sky is still blue this morning. And keep looking up if for no other reason than that looking down is getting pretty scary. Cue the Greek national anthem. Hope you like it, because you’ll have to get used to it.

National scholarship on education

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NCLB had its day and advanced some useful trends at the state and local level. But it has foundered on a couple of major shoals, including the downward pressure it applied on the quality of state assessment systems and its inability to advance school options for students in chronically failing schools. With the limbo that NCLB has been in, a number of scholars have looked at the national landscape on education policy, including Diane Ravitch (The Death and Life of the Great American School System — buy it at Amazon for $16 rather than $26 at Borders!) and Paul Peterson (Saving Schools — buy it at Amazon for $17 rather than $27 at Borders!). Both give broad historical reads on […]

A novel way to present your resume

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Jon Kingsdale, former executive director of the Commonwealth Connector, has a piece in tomorrow’s (it’s 11:05 pm Sunday) Globe, which is worthy of the Obama teleprompter. The basic point he wants to make is that “Americans are confused” about the federal law, and that MA’s health reform experience has been a rousing success. Uh, no. It’s neither been a flat-out success nor a failure. It’s a mixed bag, and some of the threads at the bottom of the bag are getting bare. Pioneer’s never come out for or against the MA reform. We first believe in state experimentation, and second that empirical data can sometimes surprise you. Given the mandates, credible coverage requirements, the uncompensated care pool, and the fact […]

And now VT takes a pass on Race to the Top

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So now we are at VA, MN, CA and TX all taking a pass on RttT. So is Indiana. Oh, gosh, golly, darn it, so is Kansas. An AP report had the following news (from the Globe) on VT: “When we look at it realistically with limited resources we have to make sure we put our energies and our efforts into places that we know we can be successful in and that fit what the direction of Vermont education is moving in,” Vilaseca [ed note: Commissioner of Education in VT] said. “Vermont has a highly successful educational system, when you look at our NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) results when you look at how our students do across the […]

Globe down 23%! Is it the price hike?

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Jon Chesto says it is in a WickedLocal report. I wonder, though. After all, if you look at the numbers in a USA Today report, you’d see that a comparable newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, is suffering the same kind of drubbing. The San Francisco Chronicle’s weekday circulation fell 23% to 241,330 The Washington Post’s average weekday circulation dropped 13.1%, 478,482. USA Today, which has the second largest circulation, declined 13.6% to 1.83 million. The New York Times’ weekday circulation dropped 8.5% to 951,063. Anybody see the Herald numbers?

2 reasons why the Connector can't meet small biz insurance needs

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Two thoughts on why the Massachusetts Connector has done such a horrible job meeting the demands of small business for affordable health insurance choices: (1) Some say that it is all Governor Patrick’s doing. Certainly, elections matter, and the Governor has paid no attention to the issue until recently, and in a really ham-handed way (price controls! yup, that’s a great idea…). But it’s more complicated than that. The fact is that the Connector was created in a very topdown manner that is not helping to meet the needs of a dynamic set of customers. A Boston Globe report on August 4, 2006, three months before the 2006 election, noted the following: The four Medicaid plans that will be offered […]

Award-winning film on public schools – Kendall, 4/30 – 5/6

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Not to be missed for anyone who cares about public schools is The Cartel is an eye-opening documentary about the disastrous New Jersey public school system that is failing the children, parents, and communities it claims to serve. Director Bob Bowdon exposes the corruption and rampant waste of taxpayer money at the heart of the crisis. New Jersey spends more money per pupil than any state except New York, yet only 37 percent of its fourth-graders are proficient in reading. The Cartel presents all the horrendous facts, and culminates with a persuasive argument for school choice reform. The documentary has won numerous awards, including the Visionary Award and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2010 Washington, D.C. Independent […]

Why's the Connector so slow in providing insurance choices to small biz?

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It is amazing to watch the Governor take credit for slapping price controls on insurance companies. Didn’t work for Nixon 40 years ago – and it is no smarter than a homeowner, when faced with a giant leak in the roof, who insists that a contractor keep slapping wallpaper up to hide the water damage. The Commonwealth Connector was supposed to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time — that is provide near-free products to the indigent and also to act as a marketplace where small business owners and employees could shop for lots of insurance options. The near-free products were marketed, with great success on the uptake but mixed results on improving access, improving quality […]

A constitutional threat

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The Globe’s editorial early in the month welcoming Sarah Palin and tea party activists was fine. But Globe commentators are flailing wildly at this point about who TP activists are. It’s boring, overwrought and hypocritical. Neal Gabler draws a parallel between the tea partiers and, uh, al-Qaeda leaders. Neal, take the chill pill. (No, not the blue one.) As my daughter puts it so eloquently, Neal is talking a pig pile o’ poopie. (Working on her writing for content: I know “a pile o’ pig poopie” is a more sensible articulation.) In Neal’s world, people who marched against the wars from 2001-2008, accusing the previous administration of blood for oil, fascism, racism, and “genocide” against Arabs are fine. They may […]

Not an American political convention

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Saturday post. Off topic but hopefully a fun video. Intro. The Telegraph maps out the broad lines: In a rare public debate among Mr Berlusconi’s Party of Freedom, lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini, a co-founder of the party in 2009, levelled a raft of criticisms at the style and substance of the prime minister’s leadership… Mr Berlusconi stepped up to the podium right after Mr Fini’s speech, criticising his ally for making political statements while holding a post that requires him to be impartial and for not participating in the campaign for regional elections last month to thundering applause. In another life, I lived in Italy, was into the politics, and showed up on TV to comment on American stuff. […]

MA & FL should get together to drive ed reform in US

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I often say two things in different ways: (1) MA is #1 on the Nation’s Report Card and in the top 6 “countries” internationally on math and science – yadayadayada. (2) The feds don’t know their &ss from their elbows on education. Not their fault but they are too far away to do anything useful. Name one great reform USDOE has put in place since its creation in the 70s… … still waiting… Yeah, okay, let’s table that. As much as I like what MA has done, there are other states that are hard-charging on reform and have something to teach us. Matt Ladner points out that 64% of FL’s poor 4th grade students (free and reduced lunch) score basic […]

IN says no thanks to RttT

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So I guess Arne Duncan’s “pretty please” letter to the Governors did not do the trick. After Kansas pulled out of the running for Race to the Top, now it is Indiana’s turn. This from the Indiana DOE: Indiana Department of Education: IDOE Halts Race to the Top Efforts, Focuses on Implementing Reform Plans FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 22, 2010 Media Contact: Kim Preston 317-232-6615, kpreston@doe.in.gov Yesterday, the Indiana State Teachers Association declined an invitation (letter attached) to meet and further discuss union support for vital components of the state’s Race to the Top (RttT) application that are the foundation for Indiana’s student-focused reform agenda. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett issued this statement in response: “I […]

Letter from Arne Duncan: Please re-apply…

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When translated from the language of the feds, the US Secretary of Education’s April 15th letter to the Governors pretty much can be summed up as “pretty please.” After the round 1 Race to the Top grant awards to DE and TN, the reaction from the states was a little, well, unimpressed. States grumbled about what “reform” meant for the USED, and states like Kansas pulled out of round 2. So Arne Duncan put pen to paper and asked the Guvs to, well, uhm, please re-apply. With a cherry on top. April 15, 2010 Dear Governors: Let me begin by thanking you for your leadership on education. Thanks to you, America has entered a new era of education reform and […]