This is my apprentice Darth de Blasio. He will deal with your beneficial retention policy….
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Jay’s important post on choice programs developing a stronger constituency than many other types of education reform has an obvious recent example in Mayor de Blasio’s New York City. New York City has a earned promotion policy for improving literacy instruction. The program demonstrated strongly positive results, including not one but two positive evaluations from the RAND Corporation using advanced statistical analysis. Sadly when this worthy retention policy ran up against Darth de Blasio the result was:
The unfortunate reality is that the earned promotion policy, while demonstrably effective, has a limited constituency to defend it. A large population could benefit from the continuation of the policy but lacks organization. One of the most basic laws of politics is that organized interests defeat disorganized interests 99 times out of a hundred trials, or thereabouts.
What happened when de Blasio went after charter schools? Oh yeah…
So how did the assault on charter schools turn out for the Darth Randi’s apprentice?
Does this mean we should avoid all top down policies like the plague and focus only on promoting choice? Not in my book, but it is worth noting that policies enjoying little support outside a small group of supporters can be easily reversed. Developing a base of support is essential to policy longevity. I don’t think that choice is the only K-12 policy reform that has the potential to develop broad support, but it is an equation that few other policies have solved.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Outstanding post! If I want to hold my head up around here I’m going to have to up my game, not just sit back and watch as you up yours.
I believe we have only begun to scratch the surface of the illustrative power of the animated gif technology…
Your reply doesn’t reference any lines from Ep1 – so disappointing!
At last we will illustrate basic political realities to reformers, at last we will bathe in the illumination of their light bulbs turning on.
Well done, Matt! I shall be watching your future career with great interest.
When the Reading Scores are published in the New York Times,he’ll pay the price.
If you can only teach 40 percent of kids to read by the end of grade 3 you should lose your job.
Choice is there to get public scrolls to shake it up and improve.Sleeping giants aren’t accountable,they need to have fear in their hearts,then we’ll get some improvement.
Maharashtra SSC Results 2014
Centralized and Decentralized Reform Longevity in NYC | Jay P. Greene’s Blog