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My top five press releases from July's School Improvement Industry Announcements – Federal Politics and Policy.

For a well-rounded understanding of current events in school improvement.

• Getting closer to a Department of Education Budget for FY 2009: FY 2009 Congressional Action (Jul 16).

• Republican candidate spells out his idea of federal role in public education: John McCain’s Plan for Strengthening America’s Schools (Jul 16).

• The New Union Leaders (I): Incoming NEA President (Dennis Van Roeke): ‘New Era Arising for Public Education’ (Jul 6)

• The New Union Leaders (II): New AFT President Randi Weingarten Asks Members to Rededicate Themselves to Reforming the Institutions Where They Work (Jul 14)

* Institutional interests in Title I: NASBE Comments on Proposed Title I Rules (Jun 23)

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My top five press releases from July's School Improvement Industry Announcements – Research and Evaluation Organizations

• Basic "must have" data from the Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences: Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2005-06 (Jun 26)

• Accelerated Middle Schools Intervention Report (Jul 8): Consumer information from the Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse - on a program not offered in the market?

• The budget is policy (Aron Wildavsky, The Politics of the Budgetary Process.) School funding maze frustrates effort to close student achievement gaps (Jun 18). Another of the Center on Reinventing Public Education's illustrations.

• Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002? State Test Score Trends Through 2006–07 (Jun 23). The Center on Education Policy tells us if NCLB I worked.

• The Fordham Foundation tells us how the "other half" has fared: High-Achieving Students in the Era of No Child Left Behind (Jun 18).

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My top five press releases from July's School Improvement Industry Announcements – Providers

• Now managing 97 schools, the latest chapter in Education Management Organization (EMO) Edison’s continuing search for a viable business model: EdisonLearning™ Acquires Provost Systems®, Inc. - Technology acquisition plus innovative school design transform education company (Jul 1). Another of the last EMO's standing, Victory - now in 19 schools - Announces New Schools Partner in New York State (Jun 5). And the new philanthropy thinks CMOs are a viable means of achieving charter school scale?

• Meanwhile, Comprehensive School Reform provider Expeditionary Learning, now in 450 schools, prepares for its next step: Deborah Bond-Upson has been chosen as the new president and CEO (Jul 1).

• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Mathletics Excels in Afterschool Research Study (Jun 18) While most new Supplementary Education Service providers decided to wait and see about evaluation requirements, the publishers started to do so. Question: Will the publishers now embrace the SBR idea as another source of competitive advantage?

• Tabula Digita says gaming raises test scores: DimensionM Educational Video Games Found to Have Significant Positive Effect on Student Math Achievement (Jun 13).

• Looks like a mixed market for those selling education properties: Haights Cross Communications Announces Sale of Oakstone Publishing, Suspends Sale of Certain Business Assets (Jul 1).

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My top five press releases from June's School Improvement Industry Announcements – State Education Policy Organizations

More often than not, school reform initiatives have started in state legislatures and worked their way across the nation. Problems are felt at the state-level first, and the pressure to act is strongest in state capitals. Federal policy generally reflects consensus among the states more than leadership from inside the Beltway.

Continue reading "5 From 1: State Education Policy Organizations" »

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My top five press releases from June's School Improvement Industry Announcements – Federal Politics and Policy

Many readers do not have the time to identify and read announcements documenting the relationship between federal education policymaking and the business of school improvement.

edbizbuzz can help.

Continue reading "5 From 1: Federal Politics and Policy" »

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My top five press releases from June's School Improvement Industry Announcements – Research and Evaluation

Every edbizbuzz reader is not an eduwonk. From correspondence, I know that many are working educators, administrators and school board members. Some are parents. Although the internet has given everyone ready access, none have the time to sift through the avalanche of reports and events produced by federal government agencies, policy analysis groups and program evaluation organizations every month. No doubt each item is of importance to someone in the field, but few are important to everyone.

Here's where edbizbuzz can help.

Continue reading "5 From 1: Research and Evaluation" »

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My top five press releases from this month’s School Improvement Industry Announcements – Providers

I have no doubt that edbizbuzz readers know more about Fordham, Ed Trust and the Center for Education Policy than they do about Scientific Learning, JES and Co. and Sopris West. But for all the talking and writing on public education policy and politics, unrecorded decisions to procure curriculum, professional development, information systems and the like have a more immediate impact, and more important influence, on teaching and learning.

One way to learn more about this part of public education is to read the announcements of the for and nonprofit organizations supplying products services and programs aimed at teaching ad learning. No doubt they are intended to place their issuers in a favorable light, but they still offer a ready starting point for consciousness-raising about the supply-side of school improvement.

Continue reading "5 From 1: Providers" »

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