- supply-chain management while keeping costs down are now borrowing from the high-powered business model of the corporate world. Not bad advice for us in the education sector.
- Another one bites the dust: Red Star School, a low-cost private school serving migrant students in Beijing, was torn down last week. It is one of thirty in the capital city to meet a similar fate in recent weeks. Unconscionable. But is there a twist? The school is technically illegal: It serves students of rural parents who have migrated out of their allowed zones into the big city in search of a better life. (China still operates an internal passport system, a hangover from the Mao years.) Bulldozing schools in the name of population control offers a revealing and revolting window into education in contemporary China.
- What a guy. Fresno supe Larry Powell resigned from his cushy $200,000-plus/year position this summer, only to be hired back by the district for $31,000 a year—with no benefits. Powell wasn’t hoodwinked here; he made the grand gesture to save the district some money (and save some of his pet projects in the process).
- How does the high school class of 2010 feel about the quality of their secondary education a year after graduation? Eh… According to a recent College Board survey, 47 percent of respondents said they wished they’d worked harder in high school—and 40 percent wish they’d taken more math courses. Listen up guidance counselors.
- Bemoan excessive testing, fine. But testing done right? Well, that has the ability to transform a teacher’s effectiveness—or so says one New York teacher who credits a well- crafted test with objectively pointing out the flaws in her teaching, allowing her to grow past them.
- Never mind Race to the Top part deux, last week ED released version 2.0 of its Ed Data Express—a one-stop shop for tracking publicly available federal education data. New in this version, a map and trend line feature. Sometimes it’s fun to get a little nerdy.
- Cleveland will be shuttering two charters this year due to low test scores—proof that Ohio’s “death penalty” for poorly performing charters is working.
