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 This blog is no longer being updated.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
Franchising for Charter School Scale
Mike Petrilli asked me to comment on “Brand-Name Charters” an essay by business writer Julie Bennett in the Summer 2008 issue of Education Next.
Education
Opinion
Friday Guest Column: Mission Smarts on Value Added Models and the Fear of Data
The first National Conference on Value Added Modeling implied a consensus that value-added models (VAM) have great advantages over typical “status” methods (meet or exceed a standard), but that scholars were less comfortable using VAM in pay-for-performance because of the difficulty in isolating teacher effects on learning.
Education
Opinion
Education as Politics More than Policy: The Ayers Affair
I don't agree with much of Prof. Ayers' politics, any of the Weathermen's violent activities, or many of his views on education policy, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to protest actions and tactics that can only drag political discourse into the mud.
Education
Opinion
The Letter From: A Detailed Statutory Analysis of "based on" in Reading First (I)
Basic grammar offers the plain meaning of Section 1202(c)(7)(A): [A]… local educational agency shall use the funds…. selecting… a program… or procuring materials…, that are based on research that applies applies rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to reading etc etc.
School & District Management
Opinion
Help D-Ed Reckoning and Edbizbuzz De/Re-Construct NCLB's SBRR Provisions
If you think the education evaluator's debate over value-added models is arcane, this argument between lawyers is about the meaning on of two words - "based on" as in "based on scientifically based reading research."
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (2)
This is a program offered by DC’s State Superintendent ‘s Office as the city’s higher education agency, rather than the Chancellor of the DC Schools as operator of public k-12 schools.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (1)
As an old Cold Warrior, I have to say it would be foolish for any school improvement provider not to participate in the process. In principle, pushing proponents onto this committees has conflict of interest implications. In practice, unilateral disarmament is not likely to create a level playing field.
Education
Opinion
Friday Guest Column: Is Education Research on the Leading Edge of School Improvement?
The jury is still out - the question posed in the title has yet to be adequately answered. It is now a cliché that data, scientific evidence and research-based knowledge can and should shape policy and practice in education. But it is clear that education still has a long way to go before data and evidence are used systematically and effectively in school improvement.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Comprehensive Emergency Planning for Public Schools (IV): Operational Requirements
Once the situations threatening student safety have been identified and prioritized, it’s time to determine the broad categories of activities necessary to meet a school district’s in loco parentis obligations
Education
Opinion
Reading First Interim Report Doesn’t Pass the “So What? Test”
Edbizbuzz readers know that I support the version of Reading First written into No Child Left Behind, but object to how Margaret Spellings and other Administration oversaw implementation at the White House and Department – especially those provisions related to the meaning of Scientifically-Based Reading Research. It would be very easy for me to write that this provides evidence of the Administration’s folly. I can safely say that the study provides no support for Reading First as a federal funding program, but it doesn’t tell us anything about the efficacy of any one of the privately-developed educational programs purchased by schools with Reading First funds.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Comprehensive Emergency Planning for Public Schools (III): A Threat Matrix
The first point of emergency planning is that success will be measured in a real emergency, by the extent to which people play the parts laid out in the plan. Buy-in is especially important when "civilians" play a crucial role. Public education may be unique in the extent to which "the line" is manned by people whose day job is not emergency response.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week
When private services are offered on public school grounds under a process by which the district selects vendors, parents have good reason to believe the services are of the highest quality. Under this RFP’s scheme it’s entirely possible that a higher quality provider will lose out to one of lower quality.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Conflating Teacher Incompetence and Redundancy: Management Mistake and/or Ploy?
Conflating redundancy and incompetence seems to be a management strategy to regain control over deployment lost in 30 years of collective bargaining and redress management's own decades old failure to remove what may well be a large backlog of incompetent staff.
Education
Opinion
The Letter From: Why Can't We All Just Get Along?
The question of value-added evaluation of teachers is not whether, but how fast it will come to dominate. So, it may be ironic that what interested me about the recent eduwonkette/Carey/Skoolboy debate on the subject was the question of when.