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Confused by Menino's Inaugural
/3 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byHe hits the right note early on in the speech: The right bill for our children increases the charter cap, but also provides turnaround capacity for districts in three places: One, the authority to create in-district charter schools. Two, the flexibility to assign the best teachers where they are needed most. And three, the ability to bypass lengthy arbitration at persistently under-performing schools. It’s this combination — the entire mix — that makes good on the promise of education reform in the first place: to help ignite a transformation within districts and bring innovation to scale. But then goes on to say: If real reform wins, we can look to a day with one system of education in Boston. When […]
You think we have problems
/3 Comments/in Blog, News /byItaly is nice. I am in Italy. So things are good, right? Well, not for the kids here. Look, I am no flogger of things Italian. I spent the first six years of my adult life here, and the people are great, the food is good, and above all they adore children. All things that rank high in my book of the necessities of life. Well, my pals and I all have school aged kids now, and as boring parents will do, after we tease them, turn them upside down and get them to try wine and too many sweets, we sit around discussing them. Eventually, we center our talk on the schools we entrust them to. Two of my […]
It's not nice to call the President a liar
/3 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byThe Lowell Sun reported a week or so back that Teachers Union President Paul Georges decried what he called “lies” from the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank, that linked charter-school funding to the state’s ability to qualify for Race to the Top funds. “We do not need a bill to qualify for the money,” Georges said. “Massachusetts is in the top tier of two or three states.” I am sure Mr. Georges is a nice man and is not a liar. That said, I would suggest better reading materials than MTA talking points. Fact is, with states across the country making hard reforms, Massachusetts cannot simply live in the past and expect its crown of laurels to remain in […]
But Did He Go To Handshakes?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe Governor has used his site visits to make a point in the past, most recently dropping in on the Excel Charter in East Boston during the ed reform debate, raising the ire of Speaker DeLeo whose district is very short distance away. So I read with interest today about his eating tour of Quincy — grabbing a slice at Napoli’s, eating some lunch at Nick’s. Maybe a message to gubernatorial candidate Tim Cahill, who hails from Quincy and has been holding a number of events there?
Psst, it's no secret, but that doesn't make it easy
/1 Comment/in Blog, News /byShared by Whitney Tilson of Democrats for Education Reform is a short, but hard, list of what it takes to have a successful inner city school, from David Whitman’s Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism): 1. Tell students exactly how to behave and tolerate no disorder 2. Require a rigorous, college-prep curriculum. 3. Align curriculum with state standards and specify performance outcomes. 4. Assess students regularly and use the results to target struggling students. 5. Keep students busy in class with a clear plan and a variety of assignments. 6. Build a collective culture of achievement and college-going. 7. Reject the culture of the streets. 8. Be vigilant about maintaining school culture. 9. Extend the school […]