Federal ARRA stimulus funding has been keeping schools around the country on life support for the past year. Despite significant layoffs around the country it headed off catastrophe in many states. That era is coming to an end later this year or early next year. It was heartening to see…
One of the annoying parts of running a blog are the spam comments from people who want to surreptitiously sneak a back-link to their site on your blog. Askimet handles most of this automatically (thank you – thank you – thank you) but every day one or two servings of…
While we hash out what ARRA Stimulus funds mean for education there are larger issues at play in how we allocate public spending on children. The New York Times has a good piece today that links to several good resources on this topic. In a nutshell – 2.2% of GDP…
literacy n. The condition or quality of being literate, especially the ability to read and write. Surpise! It turns out that the generation in school today is writing more and reading more. Several recent reports provide evidence to support this startling claim. The internet – a time pig that has…
Growing up in New England I was taught that it was rude to discuss politics, religion, or money with casual acquaintances. Later, when I entered the business world, I was never one to socialize much with co-workers beyond lunch or meals on the road. It isn’t that I have a…
My last post on the difficulty of educational reform got me thinking about that other massive system we are trying to reform – healthcare. One way to understand the healthcare system is to compare it to education – where we have had universal single payer access for over 100 years.…
The Superintendent’s panel at EdNet this week featured a discussion about education reform that was like a cold bucket of water to the face. The Supers were teaching us about inertia, the tendency of objects to maintain their current state. As Newton himself put it: The vis insita, or innate…
PCI Education got a new President & CEO last week. This is a big change across many aspects of my life but I believe it is the right move for the company and for me. The official announcement is here. About PCI Education PCI is focused on the Special Education…
EdNet turned 20 this year. EdNet 2008 is happening right now in Boston. A huge congratulations goes out to the whole EdNet team for forging one of the required stops for the Educati. Nelson Heller, Vicki Bigham, Anne Wujcik and the rest of the team continue to put on an…
Information is expanding exponentially. Applying database concepts to your information diet can mean the difference between overload and sanity, chaos and productivity. Database fluency is mandatory in a digital world. Students and teachers should be practicing and refining this skill so that today’s learners can make the most of the…