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Myths About National Standards: Myth #1

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Being half Greek and long a admirer of Classical Antiquity, I do have a soft spot in my heart for mythology. When it comes to public policy, myths have far less utility, as perhaps the myths about the fate of modern-day Greece shows all too clearly. When it comes to American education, the myths that are bandied about most frequently these days are related to the “Common Core” national standards. Proponents make a number of important claims about them: They’re internationally benchmarked. They’re aligned with workplace needs and also college readiness. They don’t dictate state curricula; and they’re voluntary. Each of these assertions by proponents of the Common Core is highly questionable and in some cases outright false. Friends in […]

“A Conversation with Sal Khan” (Nov. 16, 2011)

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[vimeo height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://vimeo.com/32422784[/vimeo] Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, speaks with Jim Stergios, Executive Director of Pioneer Institute. Khan was the honoree at Pioneer’s 14th annual Lovett C. Peters Lecture in Public Policy. The lecture’s mission is to “encourage individuals of vision, to inform and enrich intellectual debate surrounding the great public issues of our day, and to honor individuals whose ideas or accomplishments have left a mark on our world.”

What a Deal: State $. No Oversight?

/0 Comments/in , /by Steve Poftak

Imagine getting money from the state on a no-bid basis. Even better, a state law names you as the sole entity eligible to get the cash. If you are lucky enough to be BDC Capital, you don’t have to imagine. As recently as 2008, the program it runs, the Capital Access Program, got $5 million in the life sciences bill. BDC Capital (known as the Massachusetts Business Development Corporation) receives money from the state and other sources and supposedly uses it to support small businesses. And someone is looking out for them, an attempt to open the program to other providers in the last Economic Development bill was dropped in conference. I say ‘supposedly’ above, because no one cares to […]

Pressley’s Victory and Connolly’s Regrets

/0 Comments/in , /by Steve Poftak

The more you look at Ayanna Pressley’s first-place finish in Tuesday’s at-large race, the more impressive it looks. As I noted previously, she was able to hold onto a lot of votes from the 2009 at-large election that had much higher turnout (she held onto 90 percent of her ’09 votes with only 57 percent of the total turnout). Now, the exact same people didn’t necessarily vote for her in each election, but I think it’s a useful proxy for a candidate’s popularity and GOTV effort. In fact, in a number of cases across the city (79 of 254 precincts), Pressley exceeded her vote totals from ’09. And it was relatively spread out across the city from a demographic standpoint, […]

Does Mass. Exclude Low-Achievers from National Education Tests?

/0 Comments/in , , , /by Jim Stergios

Last week, in reporting the national test results on how our public schools are doing, I noted that while It is wonderful that Massachusetts has maintained its lead nationally, … [o]ur students are no longer improving at the rate they were and in fact their performance has largely flatlined. On the scaled scores for the Commonwealth, the loss of momentum is very clear with no change on the 4th and 8th grade math scores, and a slight increase on the 4th and 8th grade reading scores (which amount to scores that are statistically unchanged). Let me share an additional reasons to be concerned and it starts with a solid piece from Nirvi Shah of EdWeek entitled “How Many Students With […]