School reform vs. school jobs? No.

Tucked away in a military spending bill in the House of Representatives is a false choice: saving jobs vs. education reform. The proposal, by Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, came to light yesterday thanks to the considerable candlepower of Alyson Klein, half of the dynamic duo that covers federal education […]

Education in the post-NCLB era

Education reform has taken a subtle but sharp turn in recent years, notes Kevin Carey of Education Sector in a thoughtful, lengthy blog post: “When I began working on education policy full-time in the early 2000’s, the center of gravity in education reform sat with the coalition of civil rights advocates, business leaders, and reform-minded governors of […]

The Secretary and the Chairman: A conversation with Arne Duncan and George Miller

Attendees at the NewSchools Summit 2010 were treated to a special conversation between Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Representative George Miller, and NewSchools CEO Ted Mitchell.  The lively conversation covered the topical Investing In Innovation Fund (application deadline is this afternoon!), Race to the Top funding, special education, financing college, teacher training, and much more. […]

Scaling Impact: Answering the Administration’s Call

Susan Colby of The Bridgespan Group took audience members on a brief history tour of the education reform movement while highlighting the significant media attention and success stories from the charter school movement. At each turn, Colby focused on the growth of the entrepreneurial sector in the past decade, drawing attention to their influence on […]

Guest post: What Race to the Top Says About Education Entrepreneurs

This guest post comes from Ariela Rozman, chief executive officer of The New Teacher Project, an entrepreneurial organization that is changing the conversation about teacher effectiveness across the country. Discussion of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competition often resembles coverage of a major political campaign. Most of the focus is on the horse […]

I see i3 …

With 29 days until the application deadline, we got a first look this week at what the giant pile of applications might look like. April 1 was the deadline for applicants for the Investing in Innovation (i3) fund to turn in e-mails indicating their intent to apply for grants under the $650 million fund. Take […]

Guest post: Keep pushing for federal dollars

Our latest guest post comes from Teach For America‘s Kevin Huffman, who is also a columnist at the Washington Post, in response to Mike Petrilli’s recent post warning entrepreneurs away from pursuing fickle federal government funding. Mike Petrilli surfaced an interesting question in his blog entry here: should the education reform sector seek more federal […]

Guest Post: Beware interest-group-itis

Our latest guest blog post comes from Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, who has logged time in both the public sector (at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement) and the private sector (as a VP at K12, an online learning company). The entrepreneurial sector in education is right […]

Just a Little Light Summer Reading

The Department of Education has put out a call for readers to judge entries in the Investing in Innovation Fund competition. (Applications for the fund aren’t out yet, but this call is a sure sign they’re coming soon.) This is crucial stuff: as with all jury trials, this depends on having smart, well-informed folks on […]