Ted Kolderie is one of two recipients this year of the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs (MAAP) prestigious "Exemplary Award". Ted received the award at the 34th Annual MAAP Conference last week at the Verizon Center in Mankato.
Where exactly does chartering fit, in the strategy for public education? Across America that question is rising, as in a number of big cities the charter sector gets larger and as the local districts are losing enrollment. In this commentary in the StarTribune, Ted Kolderie looks at four current answers to the question—and suggests a fifth, more practical answer.
On May 18, two of our teacher-powered ambassadors sat down for tea with U.S. Secretary of Education, John King to discuss teacher leadership. One of those teachers, Jeff Austin, summarized their conversation in this post on the U.S. Department of Education blog.
Having good definitions of the terms "student achievement" and "school quality" is important in our nation's quest to improve public education. But the two terms are often defined too simply, too narrowly, too controversially. This working memo puts forth our own deeper and broader definitions of these two important terms.
In October of 2015, Education Evolving (EE) produced a three-session series in partnership with the Achievement Gap Committee, each session examining a different dimension of the challenge to close the gap in achievement across different categories of students. This report is a selective summary of the main points and questions highlighted in this series.
Public education now has two sectors: a district sector and a chartered sector. Chartering—and this two-sector arrangement in general—needs to be thought of as a strategy for change, not just a set of schools. Given flexibility, the chartered sector can and does generate the needed innovation, the necessary improvements in learning.
The Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs invited Ted Kolderie to discuss how innovation is key to systemic change in public education and how schools must resist 'the pressure for sameness'. Kolderie called upon the 'alternative' sector to share its accomplishments in innovation—thus validating the sector and making clear that what is happening there is essential for change and improvement in the mainline district sector. This is his speech.
These eight Discussion Starters are designed for teacher teams who are working through creating or improving a teacher-powered school. Offering lessons learned and tips from the innovators of existing teacher-powered schools, these starters are interactive resources featuring sets of discussion questions for teacher teams to take up as a group.
