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.
For close to two decades, Eric Premack has been working in California education policy. He formed and now runs the Charter School Development Center in Sacramento. In November 2013, E|E invited Premack to Minnesota to talk about education policy, chartering in California and the state’s decision to stop trying to control and regulate its school districts so tightly. Here are notes on Premack’s visit from E|E's Ted Kolderie.
"The Futures of School Reform" is a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, coordinated by Jal Mehta. In October 2013, E|E invited Mehta to Minnesota to talk about the five alternative futures. Here are notes on the project from E|E's Ted Kolderie, and on what he thought was most significant for the education policy discussion in Minnesota.
Detailed notes on the Finnish schools and education system, from Ted Kolderie's visit to Finland August 20-24, 2012. Ted was part of an American delegation assembled by the National Public Education Support Fund. The meetings were arranged locally by Pasi Sahlberg from CIMO.
Pasi Sahlberg had a day of conversations with Minnesotans on July 19, 2012 about the schools in Finland. An official in the Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki, Sahlberg is probably the person most involved with explaining to countries around the world about the education system that Finland developed beginning about 1970.
There's growing interest in improving the "management of human capital" in K-12: teacher recruitment, retention, compensation, accountability, etc. Usually this suggests 'better administration.' Yet, these decisions might be better made by teachers running a professional partnership. This interview with teacher Carrie Bakken addresses how a partnership handles running a public school.
Notes from remarks by Paul Grogan, head in 20008 of the Boston Foundation, on the challenges of inner-city public education, and how foundations can leverage change. Early, Grogan worked for two mayors of Boston. He ran the national office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation in New York.
Notes from December 2007 conversations with L. Scott Miller about minority achievement in K12 and at the university levels. Scott argues that some of the greatest disparities in performance come "within-class," and that greater focus placed on African American and Hispanic students among middle and professional classes.
Students of Minnesota chartered schools say they may have dropped out had they not attended new and different schools. While all of the students appreciated improved relationships with teachers and peers, their different schools, in different ways, enhanced the students’ abilities to learn. Notes from a student panel.
A teacher from Milwaukee describes for the Teacher Union Reform Network the arrangement in Milwaukee—a variation on Wisconsin's chartering law—that gives a partnership of professional teachers full authority and responsibility for the school while protecting both the teachers and the union on the economic front.
