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 This blog is no longer being updated.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 Climate & Safety
Opinion
Comprehensive Emergency Planning for Public Schools (II): The Evolving Challenge of In Loco Parentis
Any discussion of emergency planning should start with the unique legal responsibility of public schools to assure student safety and the explosive growth of complexity in carrying out the task.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Comprehensive Emergency Planning for Public Schools (I): Introduction
Public k-12 schools are very different from any other facility secured by government or private contractors, and the government's responsibility to k-12 students is very different from that of the owner of any other secured facility to the people within.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week
Approaches that integrate human factors with school districts' emergency plans will get far more bang for the back. Firms that offer this insight will gain competitive advantage in the sale of related technology and services. This RFP and conference provide an opportunity for providers to help a leading price-sensitive buyer think about this bigger picture.
Education
Opinion
The Northwest Education Cluster: A Continuing Saga
Since my first report to edbizbuzz readers on the NW Education Cluster, we have been busy - with some success. But we still have quite a journey to go as we work towards building a collection of organizations, both public and private, that strive to foster change and progress within the northwest education environment. Our last meeting offers a case study.
Education
Opinion
Kudos to the Education Industry Association
EIA's Code was an important step towards demonstrating how its members' interests in SES aligned with the public interest. But issues of efficacy have replaced those of marketing. It's time for the Code to show that SES providers' interests in evaluation coincide with the publics' with standards of evidence, methodology, frequency and disclosure.
Education
Opinion
The Letter From: Information Systems, Accountability and Adaptive Management
As someone who reads the newspaper, I am more than disappointed that the use of student information systems for accountability has focused narrowly on teachers. I know it is simplistic, impolitic, unnecessary and counterproductive.
Education
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (2)
Who says there’s no federal government support for k-12 program development? K-12Leads readers know such RFPs are out there, but you have to be looking and ready to pounce when they arise.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP of the Week (1)
The State Board of Education shall develop a list of recommended conflict resolution and mediation materials, models and curricula that are developed from evidence-based practices and positive behavior intervention supports to address responsible decision making... and nonviolent methods for resolving conflict.
Education
Opinion
Friday Guest Column: Not Left v. Right, But "Clued in" v. "Clueless"
Businessmen and women were our best allies against the narrowing of the curriculum and opposing a destructive "testing culture."
Education
Opinion
The Letter From: On Teacher Accountability
There’s nothing inherently evil in student information systems or the data they create. They don’t fire teachers – people do. The disruptions they create stem from the basic question of all management – who will decide? At current course and speed its clear that administrators will. It’s no surprise they tend to hold teachers solely accountable.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Improvement RFP(s) of the Week
Education agencies of all sizes are accelerating a trend to outsource a key human resource function.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Why Legally Recognized Professionalism is Necessary to Reasonable Teacher Accountability
Individual teacher accountability is coming. The only question facing teachers is whether they are going to live under the very unfavorable system that is bound to evolve at the current course and speed of k-12 education policy and practice, or work to develop a realistic option for something different. That option is the accountability regime of legally recognized professions.
Education
Opinion
One K-12 Investment Banker's Prognosis: Five Reasons to Prepare for Generation Z!
The combination of more children, more working parents, public spending pressures created by more retirees, and a thinner wage-earning tax base to support public education spending is likely to add up to more consumerism in the education marketplace in the years to come.
Education
Opinion
Teaching Should Be a Legally-Recognized Profession, But It's Not
As a matter of law, professional work involves three key attributes: personal liability, autonomy and self-regulation. By these criteria, teaching is no profession, but should be. A true teaching profession would help the school improvement industry a great deal and accelerate k-12s advancing state of the art. But its up to teachers.