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Our Stand on Standards

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Seems our report and the release of the common core standards draft have set off a lot of interest in Massachusetts’ view, and especially in Pioneer’s take on the national standards effort. See Jay Greene’s blog for a long string of comments. Here is a bit of a longish overview of some of the issues we see in this from the Massachusetts and the national perspective. First, the Mass perspective: 1. Standards are the lifeblood of student achievement in public schools; and that includes even those site-based managed schools that are based on parental choice. You all know the stories of charters and voucher programs that don’t deliver the kind of transformational improvement we all want. In MA, our charters […]

And now VA takes a pass on national standards

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Bob Stuart of the News Virginian reports that now Virginia won’t jump onboard a push for national K-12 standards if it means dumping the state’s standardized test, the governor and other state officials said. … Some of the proposed English and math benchmarks already are partially embedded in Virginia’s standardized test, known as the Standards of Learning, or SOL, educators said. While Gov. Robert F. McDonnell supports the idea of international benchmarks, he said he does not want to substitute the core English and math standards for the SOL’s. “The commonwealth’s policies have demonstrated a significant commitment to accountability, benchmarks and positive education reform,’’ McDonnell said in a statement. “While we support the development of internationally benchmarked targets, we do […]

Wow, That's A Promotion

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MIT’s Professor Peter Diamond, a well-regarded authority on employee benefits, spent some quality time last year on the Commonwealth’s Special Commission on Pension Reform. I went to every meeting and attempted to chronicle that effort. One of the lowlights of those meetings was PERAC Executive Director Joseph Connarton’s crude mocking of the Professor at one point. It was all part of the odd dynamic in that room — the central conflict was between Connarton (who is appointed by a board that has several gubernatorial appointees) and Commission Chair Alicia Munnell and Professor Diamond (both appointed by the Governor). Well, it seems that Diamond is going to be ok. Obama is going to appoint him to the Federal Reserve.

Hole punched in national standards effort

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As Sam Dillon of the New York Times noted our opposition to the national standards effort because it would weaken the Massachusetts standards. And now the opposition builds. Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota punched a hole in the life raft that the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association are drifting along on, together with all their fellow travelers, by refusing to join the national standards effort because it would entail weakening the state’s math standards: “The math portion of the draft K-12 education standards unveiled today would water down Minnesota’s rigorous standards that require students to take algebra by eighth grade. In a hypercompetitive world, Minnesota should not adopt less rigorous standards than we currently have […]

Closing time for some libraries

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There is a reasonable accommodation that has to be made as regards the libraries in Boston. Here are a few facts that no one debates: More and more information, and more and more books, are being viewed online; There are specific areas and groups who have less access to online resources; The libraries are currently understaffed, and that will be more so if no changes are made; The library hours will need to be cut down if no changes are made. The mayor deserves praise for raising this issue and noting that we have to change with the times. Does that mean shuttering all the libraries. Heck no. We need libraries as physical spaces where children and moms, people who […]