GAO Releases Report on Student Mobility

In November 2010, the GAO released a report on student mobility entitled, “Many Challenges Arise in Educating Students who Change Schools Frequently.”  The report looks at the characteristics of highly mobile students, the characteristics of schools with a high rate of student mobility, challenges for schools, and the key federal programs used to serve this [...]

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Inequality in Child Well-Being

Last month, UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre released is 9th Report Card entitled The Children Left Behind: A league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries.  The report looks at the question, “how far behind are children being allowed to fall?” for 24 of the world’s richest countries.  In order to answer [...]

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The Economic Benefits of Halving High School Dropout Rates

On Wednesday, I attended the Tulsa Metro Chamber’s Education Forum titled “Tulsa Dropout Intervention.”  During the forum, John Wiscaver, Oklahoma Public Affairs Director for State Farm Insurance presented the results of a study on the economic effects of high school dropouts commissioned by State Farm and conducted by the Alliance for Excellent Education.  The results amazed [...]

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Career Ladders Matter … and they Exist

Another thing that caught my eye in that NY Times story was this tidbit: Alexandria Wallace grew up in a middle-class home topped by Spanish tile, with a swimming pool out back and a view of jagged reddish mountains. Her decline from work to welfare began in the spring of 2009. She was working three [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...] [...]

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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 [...]

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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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