edbizbuzz
Public education’s core functions are teaching and learning, an endeavor in which private enterprise plays a growing role. Edbizbuzz was an opinion blog offering a perspective on this emerging school improvement industry. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
The Letter From: March 29, 2004 Asks if There is a School Improvement Industry
Congress intended NCLB to enlist the private sector to improve public schools, but officials administering the law lack a strategy to foster supply.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (2): Third Party Evaluation is Becoming a Distinct Market Segment
No Child Left Behind’s concept of scientifically-based research has had very little impact on the sale of school improvement products, services and programs. It has had a great influence on the sale of evaluation services.
States
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (1): Assessing Maryland's Tests Against Maryland's Standards
Someday, someone will come up with an automated “expert systems” approach to standards alignment.
Education
Opinion
5 From 1: State Education Policy Organizations
More often than not, school reform initiatives have started in state legislatures and worked their way across the nation. Problems are felt at the state-level first, and the pressure to act is strongest in state capitals. Federal policy generally reflects consensus among the states more than leadership from inside the Beltway.
Education
Opinion
Friday Guest Column: Searching for the End to Plagiarism
Our millennial students no longer communicate with pen and paper but on a keyboard. They no longer take notes, but merely copy/paste from online sources without reflecting, analyzing, synthesizing, or evaluating their information. If students genuinely understood their information, plagiarism would be eliminated.
Education
Opinion
The Letter From: The School Improvement Industry’s Demand Side for SYs 2009 and 2010
For any firm currently in operation, the best advice about a coming business year is that it will be only marginally different from the last and the next. That’s more or less true of school improvement. The more important questions are the direction of trends and the prospects for change. Here the answers must be negative and dim.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (2): The State of School District Procurement
Today, the nation is focused on the conservation of hydrocarbons to ameliorate the energy crisis. We might consider improving the efficiency of k-12's basic support functions like purchasing before throwing more money at that problem.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (1): Reading First Center Teaches Us About Conflicts of Interest
“Impaired objectivity”:... financial interests... in connection with products, property, or services that may be purchased... implementing any program administered by the Department; significant connections to teaching methodologies... or... identification with pedagogical... viewpoints that might... encourage the use of a specific curriculum.....
Education
Opinion
5 From 1: Federal Politics and Policy
My top five announcements from each monthly issue of School Improvement Industry Announcements – Policy and Politics. The criterion for selection is information and events that help edbizbuzz readers understand how what happens in Washington shapes our emerging market for school improvement products, services and programs.
Education
Opinion
The Letter From: March 1, 2004 on Funding NCLB
A sound analysis of NCLB finance is not a mission to Mars. There are two kinds of costs: 1) compliance with NCLB performance requirements, such as those related to AYP or highly qualified teachers; and 2) the consequences of failure, including supplemental services and public school choice.
Education
Opinion
5 From 1: Research and Evaluation
My top five press releases from June's School Improvement Industry Announcements – Research and Evaluation.
Education
Opinion
5 From 1: Providers
For all the talking and writing on public education policy and politics, unrecorded decisions to procure curriculum, professional development, information systems and the like have a more immediate impact, and more important influence, on teaching and learning. Some help in raising edbizbuzz readers consciousness.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (2): Do You Offer California a Strategy from Column A, B or C?
An estimated $58 million in funding has been allocated for new 2008-09 SIF grants to serve schools in PI Year 5+ and is available on a competitive basis....
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (1): Buld a Turnkey Online Platform for Indiana
The system described in this document is intended to serve as the backbone for technology services to schools from the DOE. The DOE will ultimately assume responsibility for deployment and ongoing support of the application....