Category Archives: Just For Fun

I guess that United Federation of Teachers political director Paul Egan is too old to get sent to his room without dinner. Because if I tried his attitude with my mom, that would be the least of my problems:

It’s been more than a week since my last update about the cost-saving, cutting-edge innovation going on in Colorado’s Falcon School District 49. Last Thursday, after the Ed News Colorado feature was republished on the Education Week site, one of the Fordham Institute’s Flypaper bloggers reacted favorably by noting Falcon’s innovation could serve as a model for Ohio schools. The secret (figuratively speaking) about the Colorado Springs school district’s innovation proposal is out. So it’s hardly surprising my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow would follow up his op-ed in the Colorado Springs Gazette with a Saturday morning appearance on the hometown Jeff Crank Show. AM 740 KVOR has re-posted the full audio from the two-hour program. The 10-minute interview about Falcon 49 starts about a third of the way into the show, right after the host plays some clips about global warming. At first, Ben thought his on-air performance was what made me so excited to listen to his interview. I hated to bust Ben’s bubble, but the real reason for my excitement was the fact that host Jeff Crank sounded like the Cookie Monster (you’ve got to listen to know what I mean). On this mushy and yucky […]

February is a big month for awards. There’s the Oscars for movies and the Grammys for popular music. Before both of them comes the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the winner of the most-watched sporting event: the Super Bowl. So I thought today would be a great opportunity to highlight a couple of freshly-announced education-related awards. First and foremost, the group Stand for Children Colorado yesterday announced well-deserved recognition, along with giving out $1,000 each, to 10 superhero teachers across the state: At Stand for Children, we’ve seen the impact a great teacher can make. And after reading nearly 100 nominations for outstanding teachers across the state, we know you have, too. Please join us in celebrating the ten teachers listed below who have won $1,000 to recognize and reward their commitment. The list includes teachers from Evans to Grand Junction and all along the Front Range, teachers who represent the elementary and middle and high school levels, as well as six neighborhood schools, three charters and an alternative school. Congratulations to each and every one of them! Read the entries to see what their nominations had to say about them. Now for something mostly different. Matt Ladner this morning has […]

Aren’t there any child labor laws in effect here? This National School Choice Week phenomenon is great, but the good folks of the Education Policy Center have me blogging overtime. I talked about going on strike, but they just laughed and patted me on the head. How condescending!* Anyway, rather than write any more, I wanted to highlight another one of the great series of Reason TV School Choice Week video interviews. In this edition, Andrew Coulson from Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom talks about the impact of school choice on social conflict and the promise of tuition tax credits:

Today is one of those terrific days when I’ve discovered a great new education blog. I’m talking about Education Debate at Online Schools, authored by the mysterious Matthew. He got my attention by linking to a post I wrote and calling me “the sharpest 5 year old in the entire education debate.” Let me tell you. No matter what you’ve heard, in some cases flattery indeed will get you somewhere. Anyway, last week Matthew wrote a great post bringing attention to a financial transparency development in Kansas’ Wichita School District. Local officials posted the district’s checkbook online, a mildly positive step that Matthew rightly addressed with a critical eye: On the financial disclosure: B for effort, D for execution. On the PR supporting it: A+ for selling a mediocre, indecipherable product to those who never bothered to pop the hood. Ouch. I wouldn’t want that to be my report card.

Kids are out of school. Christmas is 5 days away. Nobody is writing about education now. It seems like just about everybody has packed it up to go on vacation until 2011. But you get one more post from me before the holidays steal the last bit of your attention away. And it could be a highly practical payoff if you’re willing to invest a very brief moment of time. Last-minute shopper looking for a gift or stocking stuffer for that education reformer in your life? Try one of these new books: Stretching the School Dollar: How Schools and Districts Can Save Money While Serving Students Best by Rick Hess Educational Economics: Where Do School Funds Go? by Marguerite Roza Saving Schools: From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning by Paul Peterson The Neighbor’s Kid: A Cross-Country Journey in Search of What Education Means to Americans by Philip Brand …And the one I’m really waiting for (though you probably will have to drop a picture of the book in the stocking, as the actual published copy isn’t due out until January: (H/T Mike Petrilli, Flypaper) The Bee Eater: Michelle Rhee Takes On the Nation’s Worst School District. For this I might […]

What are the best and worst developments in K-12 education for 2010? You can chime in and make your selections on a poll sponsored by Education Next — based on a list released by Stanford University’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. Ten items are available for you to rate either as one of the two best or two worst developments. Included as possible choices are items I’ve written about over the course of 2010, including:

It’s not often I get to tell you about a kid cuter than little ol’ me. But credit goes to Lynn Bartels at the Denver Post for noting the real star of this great video — a video which explains how the Colorado Education Association automatically collects funds from members “to help influence elections” and how they can get the money back if they ask: You go, little girl! Tell Ms. Johnson about the Every Member Option refund. If she doesn’t like 99.9% of those dollars going to fund one political party or if she just doesn’t want her money spent on Colorado political campaigns, Ms. Johnson (and any other teacher in Colorado who belongs to the CEA) can: Read up on all the details on Colorado teachers union political refunds, and find out whether her local union has a separate EMO refund, too Go directly to the CEA’s Every Member Option online refund request page and take just a couple short minutes to ask for the $39 back But don’t delay. After December 15, it’s too late. Yes, I’m still thankful Colorado teachers at least can request political refunds. But can’t it be done more politely by, you know, […]

Last year I told you that all I wanted for Christmas was to be nominated for an Edublog Award. Ok, so it wasn’t really ALL I wanted for Christmas, but that’s beside the point. Well, the 2010 Edublog Awards competition is up and running, and I am proud to say that someone DID nominate me! Thank you so much to Lori at Lori’s LOLz for putting my name in the virtual hat as a contender for “Best Individual Blog”: Ben DeGrow, along with 5-year old Eddie keep their eyes on the goings on in education in Colorado. Every day I look forward to reading their thoughts on the latest news and information that they share along with their ‘Edifying’ podcasts. All I can say right now is that both Ben and I are blushing. Seriously, though, I’m very grateful to Lori and very honored for the consideration. Here are my nominations (know that there are more categories than these): Best individual blog: Colorado Charters Best group blog: Jay P. Greene Best new blog: Rick Hess Straight Up If I had time to explain why each of the nominations was made, I’d do so. But I invite you to check them […]

Thanksgiving is football season, so I thought it would be a perfect time to highlight the intersection of education reform and… baseball. Yes, that’s right. Writing on the Education Next blog, Harvard professor Paul Peterson brought my attention to a great new consensus report from the Brookings Institution on the role of value-added in teacher evaluations. Value-added? You know what I’m talking about. Measuring how much students gain and improve academically in a teacher’s classroom. Specifically, the Brookings report takes on four major areas: Value-added can be valuable without supporting every possible use of the information — including releasing it to the public Since the interests of students and teachers don’t align, their consequences from value-added should be different, too Value-added measurements turn out to be as reliable as high-stakes performance measures used in non-education fields Teacher evaluation systems that use value-added prove to be more reliable than systems that do not use it