Georgia Lawmakers Considering Scholarship Expansion

March 15, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

As Greg noted earlier, school choice is back this year, with major proposals under consideration in many states. Potentially lost amidst the sturm und drang of places like Wisconsin and Indiana, some important pieces of legislation have been introduced and have been advancing through the legislative process.  Georgia lawmakers for instance are considering SB 87, a proposal to expand the highly successful special needs law, to include a number of new and worthy student populations.

The law expands eligibility of the Georgia program to include children with disabilities who do not have an IEP (Section 504) children, the children of military families, and foster care children. One can make a compelling case for each of these student populations to have the ability to exercise parental choice in education.

The case for parental choice for foster care children is extremely compelling. Goldwater Institute Senior Fellow Dan Lips made the case for this program by noting that foster care children frequently move between foster care homes. Changing addresses takes them across school district boundaries, obliging them to transfer between schools. Repeated bouncing between schools fatally disrupts the ability of students to learn.

A scholarship program for foster children creates the possibility creating a school as an island of stability for foster care children. Arizona lawmakers passed such a program in 2006, and then Governor Janet Napolitano signed it into law.

The Department of Defense runs a highly regarded system of schools for military students. Sadly, the demand for spaces routinely exceeds the number of available seats. Georgia lawmakers may see fit to expand the schooling options for our parents in uniform, and I certainly will salute them for doing so.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires schools to provide to students with disabilities appropriate educational services designed to meet the individual needs of such students. The ability to choose who provides education services to a child must be a part of generating a truly individualized education, and one that has already been extremely successful for children with disabilities.

Stay tuned to this station for further developments…

Leave a Comment » | vouchers | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!!

March 12, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Salman Khan on using video to improving education, and taking Khan Academy to the next level. Well worth watching.

5 Comments | online learning | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Wisconsin Republicans Bypass Missing Democrats

March 9, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

The race is on to make a Hitler meltdown video for Wisconsin public sector unions– funniest one gets a highly coveted JPGB No-Prize!

In the meantime, here is a good one of the housing bubble.

 

1 Comment | politics | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Iowahawk Demolishes Krugman

March 5, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

When you have a Nobel Prize in economics, shouldn’t you refrain from making wild assertions easily dismissed with a casual amount of data analysis?

4 Comments | teacher union | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Transition to the Foundation for Excellence in Education

March 4, 2011

 (Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

I will be making a transition from full-time staff to a Senior Fellow with the Goldwater Institute after today, and joining the staff of the Foundation for Excellence in Education on Monday.  I am thrilled about joining Team Jeb, and plan to help GI find a great replacement to carry on our vital work. I will continue to be based in Arizona.

I am especially proud of the work that we did with our allies to improve the transparency in Arizona schools.  A large bipartisan majority of the Arizona legislature took action to replace an obviously inflated version of a national norm referenced exam.  Two years later, a large majority decided to replace fuzzy labels for public school achievement like “performing plus” and “excelling” with letter grades A-F based on the Florida formula.

Much work remains to be done, but I honestly think that we are on the right track for some significant improvement in Arizona public schools.

Arizona’s parental choice coalition has been busy as well. In the past few years, our coalition has taken action to improve the transparency, financial accountability and size of the scholarship tax credit program.  We lost our special needs voucher program in the Arizona Supreme Court, but have worked this session to replace the program with what we hope will be the nation’s first system of public contributions to Education Savings Accounts.

Since 1994, school choice programs in Arizona have mostly taken the edge off of an enormous amount of public school enrollment growth. The enrollment growth has stopped, and may prove absent for some time. Interesting and challenging days lie ahead for parental choice in Arizona.

Major elements of the Florida model are advancing this year. Here in my neighborhood out west, lawmakers have introduced reforms based upon the Florida experience in Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The PISA exam reveals just how vast our K-12 problems have become but progress is not only necessary but possible.

I want to thank Darcy, the Goldwater Institute board of directors, staff, donors and allies for what has been one hellacious run. The best is yet to come for GI.  While it is sad for me to leave today, it is very exciting for me to join Team Jeb.

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Have I Lost My Counter Culture Street Cred?

March 2, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

The Teacher Beat Blog over at Ed Week has written on the Bill Gates endorsement of the Rock Star Pay for Rock Star Teachers concept. Teacher Beat notes that the Goldwater Institute published a study promoting this concept a couple of years ago, noting:

But the endorsement by Gates, reinforced by his NGA presentation, will presumably push the class-size proposal into mainstream thought, given the level of support shown him by his primary audience.

Wait, I thought I was mainstream. Does this make me a crossover?

Or someone who sold out?

Maudlin existential crisis alert!

I need to let Mr. Gates know about Carpe Diem. I still think this idea has merit, but practioners have already advanced beyond this concept.

Leave a Comment » | class size myth, instructional reform | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Battleground Wisconsin

February 21, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on the battle over collective bargaining:

Leave a Comment » | teacher union | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Cook!!! Where’s my HASSENPFEFFER?!?!?!?!

February 18, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Having received a proper upbringing for anyone born in 1967, as a child I awoke every Saturday morning, poured myself a bowl or three of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs cereal, and watched a few hours of Bugs Bunny cartoons.  This Paul Egan story is eerily reminiscent of a certain character:

Leave a Comment » | teacher union | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning

February 11, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Michael Horn has been busy: a study on blended learning from Innosight on blended learning. The study features my favorite school, Carpe Diem of Yuma:

Seize the potential

 

The Carpe Diem Collegiate High School (Carpe Diem) in Yuma, Ariz., is one of the schools that we profiled that exemplified these traits. It provides a glimpse into just one way blended-learning models can reinvent themselves to be both more productive and personalized for the betterment of the students, who, in the case of Carpe Diem, perform at high levels. With 60 percent of its students on free or reduced-price lunch and 48 percent minorities, in 2010 Carpe Diem ranked first in its county in student performance in math and reading and ranked among the top 10 percent of Arizona charter schools.

Driving productivity
Carpe Diem began as a traditional, state charter school serving 280 students in grades 6 to 12. But when it lost its building lease eight years ago, Carpe Diem had to slash its budget and question every assumption about what a “school” should look like. It turned to blended learning.

A large room filled with 280 cubicles with computers—similar in layout to a call center—sits in the middle of Carpe Diem’s current building. Students rotate every 55 minutes between self-paced online learning in this large learning center and face-to-face instruction in traditional classrooms. When students are learning online in

the learning center, paraprofessionals offer instant direction and help as students encounter difficulties. In the traditional classroom, a teacher re-teaches, enhances, and applies the material introduced online. Students attend class four days a week, although the days are longer (7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Only students who need extra assistance come to the school on Friday.
 

 

Carpe Diem hires only six full-time certified teachers: one each for math, language arts, science, physical education, social studies, and electives. Each teacher assumes responsibility for all of the students in the school for his or her subject expertise; for example, the math teacher alone provides all face-to-face math instruction that the 273 students receive throughout the week, no matter the course. With only six certified teachers plus the support staff of assistant coaches, guidance counselors, aides, and administrators, the savings are substantial, which allows Carpe Diem to pay its teachers at or above district salaries with a better benefit plan than that of other schools in the area.
In addition, Carpe Diem’s new building, opened in 2006, only includes five traditional classrooms, which is fewer than half as many as a traditional school requires for a similar enrollment level. The building cost $2.7 million to build, whereas a nearby school building currently in the planning stages will cost roughly $12 million and accommodate only 200 more students than Carpe Diem—over 2.5 times more expensive per student.

 

 

Anyone want to guess the academic outcomes of that $12m building are likely to compare to Carpe Diem?
 

 

1 Comment | online learning | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Disruption Goes to College

February 10, 2011

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Clayton Christensen and company have a new report out on higher education and virtual learning for the Center for American Progress. Hat tip: Dave Saba’s Virtual Learning Blog.

1 Comment | online learning | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »