- Are Duncan’s waivers necessary or illegal? Are they both? Martha Derthick and Andy Rotherham offer their takes on the issue in the latest Education Next. And given that eleven states have just filed their early-round waiver applications, these are important questions.
- Nerds in the ranks, breathe a sigh of relief for your younger compatriots—those still walking the halls of America’s secondary schools. The influx of blended learning and tech-enabled education has made the need for lockers a thing of the past in some schools. Maybe, soon, no more pencil-pushers will need to spend third period crammed inside one.
- You’ve got to give it to Californians for thinking outside the legislative box. Last week, a group in Los Angeles conjured up a forty-year-old law to sue the district for not implementing rigorous teacher evaluations. This week, a statewide group frustrated with the legislature’s failure to loosen restrictions on online learning is grabbing up signatories to a new Student Bill of Rights that would greatly expand access to digital education.
- Education is evolving—digital education is blossoming and the power of the teacher unions is weakening. It’s simply the natural order of things, argues Larry Sand in the latest City Journal (drawing off Terry Moe’s arguments in Special Interest).
- Looks like ESEA reauthorization is now stalled until 2012. Too bad Mike’s 7 for ’11 won’t all come to pass…
- Here’s a great use for Race to the Top funds: Florida has partnered with the Charter School Growth Fund to offer scale-up grants to its proven charters and CMOs. Not a bad idea, indeed.
