“That’s Not How We Do Things”: Cui Bono Redux
To a certain kind of mind, the status quo has no risks and no costs. The “way we do things” is seen as, if not the best of all possible worlds, then at least a sort of unexaminable state of nature. To this mind, only new ways of thinking and doing have downsides and they […]
Let’s Not Poke Our Own Eyes Out
Lamar Alexander, the new head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has set off the long-delayed reauthorization process for ESEA. Testing is taking center stage in the debate. There is no shortage of critics (and no real defenders) of the quality of current tests and how they are used for accountability. There […]
Cui Bono: Conflicts of Interest Are in the Eyes of the Beholder
Everything that schools do, they buy, one way or another. Whether it’s professional development, curricula and tests, or pencils, hamburger, and software, the choice is the same: either spend money on salaries and materials to make it yourself, or pay someone else to spend their money on salaries and materials and then buy it from […]
Joel Klein’s New York State of Mind
Joel Klein, a great New York City schools chancellor, looks better all the time, as his successors flip-flop and temporize. He’s back, at least in the form of a good new book. Anyone interested in improving public school systems and learning about the Orwellian nature of contemporary political discourse should read Klein’s Lessons of Hope: […]
Clash of Cultures: Blue Collar, White Collar, and School Reform
The vitriol that characterizes much of the dialog on school reform is most roiling when the conversation turns, as it invariably does, to teachers unions on one hand, and “corporate reformers” on the other. At that point the light goes down, the heat goes up, and the arguments become essentially ad hominem. Why is this? […]
The Procurement Tightrope Shouldn’t Tie Districts in Knots
Clearly it wasn’t only the failed $1.3 billion deal to put iPads in the hands of all students and teachers that forced the resignation of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent John Deasy. What’s clear, though, is that the recent FBI seizure in L.A. of iPad-related documents and new procurement rules that will increase […]
Education 2015: The City’s the Thing
I’m a sucker for a good Year in Review. When else do we push ourselves to assess impact and think about what’s coming next? Here’s what we at CRPE are pondering as we contemplate the past and enter 2015. In the past several years, CRPE has made its mark in a number of areas. We […]
Renewed District-Charter Collaboration in Minneapolis
Minneapolis was one of only eight cities to sign a District-Charter Collaboration Compact in 2010. In their agreement, Minneapolis Public Schools MPS, six charter schools, seven community organizations, and two former mayors all signed on to support the development of a leadership incubator, accelerate student achievement, and promote the growth of high-performing charter schools. By […]
Bringing Data to the School Enrollment Game
The recent New York Times article on New York City’s high school admissions process describes how the incorporation of game theory into an algorithm for matching students with schools has substantially increased the rates at which students are matched to schools of their choosing. As a New York City parent whose children have twice gone […]
inBloom and the Failure of Innovation 1.0
Michael Horn’s recent piece on the failure of inBloom captures why it was the very opposite of a disruptive innovation from a markets perspective, as well the fatal blind spots and judgment errors present from its inception. Another useful way to frame this—disruption theory aside—is as a contrast between two fundamentally different grammars of innovation. […]
