Monthly Archives: October 2013

Sign Up for Free Online Course to Learn More about Blended Learning

What would it be like to be the youngest person (by far) in a class? Would the situation be better if the class were a virtual one? Well, count me in, or at least count some of my Education Policy Center friends in for this free opportunity from the Clayton Christensen Institute: There’s plenty of buzz around blended learning [link added] and its transformational potential. But what does it really mean? You can now get the inside track on this growing movement by participating in our upcoming Blended Learning MOOC—a massive open online course—taught by our own Michael B. Horn, Brian Greenberg of Silicon Schools Fund, and Robert Schwartz of the New Teacher Center. The course begins October 15, so be sure to register as soon as possible. The class will explore the different types of blended-learning models as well as key issues that impact students, teachers, and schools. Specifically, the instructors will examine these issues through the lens of three high-performing schools that each implements a different model of blended learning. A few of the key topics will include:

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Where Do School Board Candidates Stand on Collecting Union Political Dues?

We are now well into the silly season of school board campaigning, but the union leaders displaced from Douglas County sure are taking matters seriously. More than a year ago, the American Federation of Teachers lost its monopoly bargaining power when the collective bargaining agreement expired. But as the Colorado Observer reports, their union rivals at the Colorado Education Association sure have their eyes on the prize. An email from the CEA’s vice president tried to drum up support at a recent rally protesting against the pro-reform school board.

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Louisiana Choice Reduces Segregation: Why Is Justice Department Attacking It?

Tomorrow my Education Policy Center friends are hosting a Brown Bag lunch with special guest speaker Clint Bolick. He’s a big time pro-school choice attorney who right now is helping low-income families in Louisiana whose educational civil rights are under attack by the U.S. Department of Justice. Why the attack? The Feds say the program that empowers them to choose a more suitable school somehow violates federal desegregation orders. Huh? That’s all ancient history to a little kid like me, but the idea they say is that these students’ choices are keeping kids of different races apart. The problem with that claim? New research published in Education Next shows the Louisiana Scholarship Program actually has the opposite effect:

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Indiana and Arizona Boost My Spirits with Good School Choice News

These are the days when little Eddie is too busy soaking in the last rays of warm weather before the fall chill. So you have to forgive me if a post like today’s is a quick hit. I just wanted to make sure you saw two recent pieces of good news from two states that Colorado ought to idolize when it comes to school choice. First, it looks like the Hoosier State has the fastest-growing voucher program in the country, as student and parental demand for better educational options soars: The number of Indiana students applying to receive vouchers allowing them to use state money to pay for private schools has more than doubled for a second consecutive year. The Indiana Department of Education reports it received 20,047 applications for vouchers for the 2013-14 school year….

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Repeat: Federal Education Data Freeze Is No Reason for You (or Wonks) to Panic

I have some ideas of what to blog about. In fact, you can probably count on more fresh and insightful commentary tomorrow. But with the initial shock of the partial government shutdown, this young and sometimes naive edublogger is trying to keep composure and not panic. But I think the situation might even be worse for policy wonks like my friends in the Education Policy Center. Try heading over to the federal government’s National Center for Education Statistics to download the latest spending and enrollment data, or to run research queries on state NAEP scores, and this is what you encounter:

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