Complementary Learning: Guest Post by Bobbie Henderson

Today, in Tulsa and throughout the nation, we hear lots of talk about education reform.  At Camp Fire, we believe we need a parallel discussion of “informal education” reform.  We’re talking about ensuring that all children have the same opportunities for enriching experiences beyond the classroom.
Three items in the Sunday, August 2, 2009 New York [...]

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The Enormous Cost of Education Gaps

Gaps in educational achievement between the U.S. and other countries, between black and Hispanic students and white students, between low-income students and middle and upper-income students, and between low-performing states and the rest essentially amount to a permanent national recession, according to a recent report by McKinsey & Company.  The economic cost of these gaps [...]

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President Obama Calls for New Community College Investments

The President recently released a proposal to expand federal funding for community colleges by 60 percent over the next 10 years:
And on July 14, Obama unveiled the American Graduation Initiative, a 10-year, $12 billion plan that mirrors much of the Brookings report in calling for a significant increase in investment in community colleges. [...]
Of [...]

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Workforce Wonkery Received

Matt Yglesias, of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, took in stride my comment that policy writers missed the point of that CEA report – it was about reforming workforce programs, not about the growth of healthcare and education jobs (which we already knew all about).
He writes:
But Micah Kordsmeier explains that the important part [...]

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US House Heeds Quote of the Day

Congressman George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, has proven himself an avid reader of our little blog! You see, in response to my highlighting of this morning’s Quote of the Day, about how the most important reform in post-secondary education is the advancement of early education, the good Chairman has [...]

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Education Reform Scholar Coming to Tulsa

Tony Wagner, co-director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and author of several books on 21st century teaching, skills, and education, will deliver a public lecture tomorrow at Holland Hall at 7:30 pm. The event will be held in the Branch Theatre of the Walter Arts Center, 5666 E. 81st [...]

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The Politics of Oklahoma Education

David Blatt at the Oklahoma Policy Institute details some odd alliances in the Oklahoma legislature over education reform:
But on SB 1111, a bill authored by Sen. Clark Jolley that moves various education reporting and accountability functions from the State Department of Education to the Office of Accountability based with the Regents for Higher Education, it [...]

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Dropout and Give Me Twenty!

The National Guard has a program called Youth Challenge, which enrolls high school drop outs of both sexes into a residential, military-like, “bootcamp-lite” setting, where discipline, self-esteem, and physical fitness are emphasized. The aim is to prepare youth to take and pass the GED exam in a setting removed from the tumult of their home [...]

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Dept. of Easily Spotted Trends

Pretty stark, eh?

Hat tip: Quck and the Ed.

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Decisions, Decisions, and School

One thing we’re concerned about at CAP is where our kids go after they leave our high quality early childhood program. Tulsa Public Schools is a “district of choice,” which means that parents can choose to send their children to schools other than the neighborhood school. We’d like to make sure those kids enter relatively [...]

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