The civil-rights fight today for one leader
Adam EmersonIt has always puzzled me why the Rev. H.K. Matthews hasn’t drawn more attention for his support for private school choice. His name may not carry the weight of King, Randolph, or Rustin, but it’s doubtful that the civil-rights movement would have quickened in Florida at the pace it did without the sacrifices Matthews made.
Making children "mere creatures of the state"
Adam EmersonThe Justice Department may be the last major American institution that values racial integration for the sake of integration. Its lawyers have worked to encase aging federal school-desegregation orders in cast iron while families—both white and black—have sought more flexibility, quality schools, and choices as to where their children will attend.
Give the public what it wants: Customization
Adam EmersonCount me among the fans of school choice who looked favorably upon this year’s results of the Phi Delta Kappa (PDK)/Gallup poll.
Next Generation Science Standards Revisited
Chester E. Finn, Jr., Kathleen Porter-MageeCan you spell “C” as in “chemistry”?
Three pollsters walked into a school…
Michael BrickmanTriangulating a trifecta of survey results
By the Company It Keeps: Neerav Kingsland
Andy Smarick interviews Neerav Kingsland, CEO of New Schools for New Orleans
By the Company It Keeps: Derrell Bradford
Andy Smarick interviews Derrell Bradford, executive director of Better Education for Kids
Milwaukee: Saved by Act 10...For Now
Robert M. Costrell, Larry MaloneyOne of three technical reports on retirement costs and school-district budgets.
12 key takeaways from the national charter schools conference
Michelle Lerner...And only a few shameless Fordham plugs
Big takeaways from CREDO’s 2013 charter study
Four years after the first report’s release, CREDO is out with an update
Some early-summer reads, part 2
The second half of Andy's compilation of must-read recent publications
By The Company It Keeps: Mashea Ashton
Andy Smarick interviews Mashea Ashton, CEO of the Newark Charter School Fund
By the Company It Keeps: Robin Lake
Andy Smarick's latest interview is with Robin Lake, director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE)
Paying the Pension Price in Philadelphia
Robert M. Costrell, Larry MaloneyOne of three technical reports on retirement costs and school-district budgets.
The Big Squeeze: Retirement Costs and School-District Budgets
Dara Zeehandelaar Shaw, Ph.D., Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.When it comes to pension reform in the education realm, it’s hard to stay positive. Here, we’re saddled with a bona fide fiscal calamity (up to a trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities by some counts), and no consensus about how to rectify the situation. No matter how one slices and dices this problem, somebody ends up paying in ways they won’t like and perhaps shouldn’t have to bear. All we can say is that some options are less bad than others.
Keep charter achievement in perspective
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Observe what a low achievement bar these kinds of comparisons generally set
There’s a better way to unlock parent power than the parent trigger
Michael J. PetrilliIn favor of good old-fashioned school choice
The moderate extremism of relinquishment
Neerav KingslandNeerav Kingsland of New Schools for New Orleans outlines the basics of Relinquishment
Replication, rural, resistance, reauthorization, and revamping
Andy Smarick's picks of the week
Chris Barbic, Nelson Smith, Landry Clarke & Gene Gene the Dancing Machine
Smith's new brief tells the story of the still-young Achievement School District in Tennessee
Proud to be a private public school parent
Michael J. PetrilliThere's public, and then there's “public.”
Redefining the School District in Tennessee
Nelson SmithAs the challenges of education governance loom ever larger and the dysfunction and incapacity of the traditional K-12 system reveal themselves as major roadblocks to urgently-needed reforms across that system, many have asked, “What’s the alternative?”
Budget, KC, Dallas, anthropologists, and the zen of Bill Murray
Sage advice and news tidbits from Andy Smarick
Agitating, standards, charters, teachers, and widgets
Andy's picks, from Kansas City to CALDER
The good news from Pakistan
Chester E. Finn, Jr.A new book from Sir Michael Barber, noted British education reformer, describes an effort to improve education in rural Pakistan
Quixote, jobs, innovation, and Catholic schools
A collection of news and announcements