In January 2001 as the dot com boom burst online education site wwwrrr.com went out of business overnight, literally. Coverage tended to focus on the employees – who ultimately filed a class action lawsuit for back pay and 401k contributions. Lost in that ugly coverage was the blunt reality for teachers and…
Is the instructional materials market in the tank? I’ve spoken with people at a dozen companies who are all seeing the same thing – since November 1st a moderately down market has dropped like a stone. A senior executive at one of the big 4 publishers flatly stated that this…
Education spending patterns have been abnormal for several years. Publishing used to follow very predictable patterns – no more. Between the Great Recession and ARRA Stimulus funds we have been living in an era of seesaw budgets for three years. Since education spending lags the general economy by up to…
When textbooks go fully digital what will schools buy? Will they buy individual lessons, units of 2-3 weeks length, or full curriculum that span a year the way they do today? This is the $5 billion question facing our industry. Mike Shatzkin has an excellent post on this topic over…
The economy has already had a huge impact on education budgets. But if you think it is bad now wait until the ARRA stimulus goes away. This chart tells the whole story. Bright Green – Over 30% Olive Green – 20-30% Dark Green – Under 20% White – Surplus Nine…
One of the fundamental shifts No Child Left Behind (NCLB) caused in Special Education was accountability for teaching reading, math, science, and social studies. Traditionally many Special Ed classrooms focused on life skills – the functional skills students with intellectual disabilities need to live as independently as they can. Academics…
Doug Stein of Memespark responded in comments to my last post and as usual his insights add a lot to the conversation and make the connection to education publishing more relevant and real. For that reason I’ve bumped this comment to its own post. —- By Doug Stein The trickiest…
Guest blogger Michele King provides a practitioner’s perspective to Randy Wilhelm’s post Web Content is a Source for Differentiated Instruction. Michele is an administrator at a large urban school district and a former 1st Grade bilingual teacher. By Michele King As the Instructional Support Coordinator for a large urban district,…
Why can’t teachers buy lessons like people buy songs off of iTunes? Are publishers at risk of irrelevance if they don’t proactively solve this problem for their customers? I have noticed that my music habits have changed dramatically over the past 5-6 years. With the advent of iTunes I was…
How will the economic downturn affect education budgets? How are executives at publishing houses and education technology firms planning for the recession? Education Week noted a couple of weeks ago: “…states across the country are confronting deteriorating budget conditions that have tied the hands of legislators and governors hoping to…