As AP and the New York Times reported, New York Mayor Bloomberg is intent on throwing everything and the kitchen sink at education. Charters, AP-specific programs, testing and accountability, and now merit pay. I know Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier don’t think much of Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein’s reforms, but from afar we would give our left and right hands for the kind of can-do attitude and willingness to stake out big, structural changes.
The lack of a new generation of education leaders on Beacon Hill is having its impact. Note the departure now of Mike Duffy of City on a Hill to, yup, New York City.
The merit pay plan in New York is reminiscent in part of the mention given to merit pay by Governor Patrick, inasmuch as it balances individual student and student performance incentives with schoolwide progress.
Couple of potential problems, quoting from the NYT:
In each eligible school, the U.F.T. chapter will have a vote on whether to participate. And U.F.T. members join principals in determining how the bonuses will be distributed.
So NY could find itself bumping up against the kind of pushback seen in Boston, when the BTU tried to agree and disagree with the creation of more pilots. Stay tuned.
In the Sunday Globe, Jim Peyser had a terrific (and hopeful) piece on the transformation of the New Orleans public school system. You think New Orleans is so different from many of our Middle Cities? Think again — and review Pioneer’s Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment. Failing schools, deep and troubling crime trends, and no economic opportunity. All that’s missing is Katrina. Then we can say how shocked we are at the “appearance” of a permanent underclass.
Money quote from Peyser:
The public schools in New Orleans were under water long before the levees broke.
What has happened since the disaster, however, is redefining urban public education. Instead of simply rebuilding the old district, based on the old institutions, policy leaders in New Orleans and Baton Rouge decided to start from scratch, fashioning a public education system based on new ideas and promising models of reform from around the country. From the wreckage, New Orleans is emerging as a bold experiment in what a city school system can be.
ABC News did an equally good piece on the MATCH school’s focus not only on getting inner city kids into college but also preparing them to succeed.
Now comes a very useful tool for parents in Boston who are looking for school options called… drum roll, please…. Boston School Options! Link here. It has listings and information on public charter schools, METCO options, parochial and private schools, exam schools, and more. You want options, parents? You got ‘em. Just not enough of them for everybody.
The Greater Boston Housing Report Card released last week concludes that 40R and 40S “have established an impressive track record in a very short period of time.” Given the numerous reasons that communities cite for opposing development, it is great that the state has provided a reason in the form of the 40R/40S financial incentive to allow dense housing development in town centers, along transit lines, and in other areas that make sense. Whether the approach is really working is critical information for policymakers. Despite the slowdown in the market, greater Boston remains one of the most expensive areas in the country to buy a house, and our current pattern of large lot McMansionization is consuming too much land to be sustainable.
The Report Card states that 15 municipalities have approved 40R districts, with a potential buildout of almost 6,000 units. As none of the units have been built yet, some questions remain. The goal of the program was to create a surplus of land zoned for dense housing so builders could respond to market demand as it arises. If the 6,000 potential units are only part of this ‘surplus’, the number is small, as buildout will happen over many years. If on the other hand, the 6,000 potential units are actual projects, the new construction would have an impact on the market and patterns of land development.
But if most communities approved 40R districts only as a mechanism to permit discrete projects, then is the program producing a surplus of land zoned for dense housing? How many of the projects were already on the table as proposed 40Bs? And finally, why are none of the approved 40Rs for single family housing? Is it because they are mostly converted 40Bs, which tend to be multi-family? Or because financial incentives are not enough to get towns to allow construction of homes that might bring kids from families with lower incomes than most other families in the town?
1) I never thought I would be pining for Jack Buck and Tim McCarver, but can we ban TBS from ever having anything to do with the major league playoffs again? And take your 9 foot lead line with you.
2) I am fully prepared to spend the rest of my life never seeing or hearing about Cal Ripken again. This means you, Chevrolet and TBS. Oh, and let me throw in Brett Favre as well. This means you, Chris Berman, Wrangler, and Peter King.
3) Is it wrong to be reveling in the joint NY agony of Mets and Yankees fans?
4) Plus the apocalyptic nature of the Yankees meltdown in the nasty, bug-infested Cleveland night, with wonderchild Joba utterly losing it…well, that’s icing on the cake.
5) Should the Angels be insulted that Tito brought Gagne in to close out the game? He’s the Sox equivalent of the Chuck Nevitt, the human victory cigar.
6) Back on TBS, did anyone else catch their announcers’ flip-flop on pitchers in Game 3 of Sox-Angels? During the first two innings, Schilling was the hapless nibbler while Weaver was the ace. By the middle of the seventh, Weaver was forgotten and Schilling was the wily veteran.
7) Ok, I’ll stay on TBS — you waste an entire half an inning letting Reggie Miller run his mouth, during a Boston telecast?
But you can’t seem to sell enough ads to save us from seeing another (and another, and another) FrankTV promo?
I’m kidding here obviously, but my broader point is this — how many committee meetings and members do you need to determine your education policy and priorities?
November 13, 2007, at the Boston Harbor Hotel, Dr. Peter Diamandis will excite the imagination when he delivers this year’s Lovett C. Peters Lecture in Public Policy. Space travel, cars that get 100 miles to the gallon of gas, returning to the moon. These are ideas that can bring out the daydreamer in anyone. The thing is, Dr. Diamandis is helping make them reality.
Watch and hear what he has to say, then decide for yourself whether it is worth a contribution to Pioneer to be there November 13, 2007. Who knows what previously-thought-to-be-impossible endeavor he may come up with?
The Sunday Globeran a great story on the dawn of a new industry - the space rocket business. No, it is not some George Jetson (”with Jane, his wife”) cartoon. Burt Rutan, Jeff Greason, and Dave Masten are all hanging out in the Mojave desert designing, engineering and building rockets. As the Globe noted,
Fifty years after the Soviets launched the satellite Sputnik into space, Mojave has found itself at the center of a private space race that boosters say is as important - and risky - as the nationalistic race between the Soviets and the United States.This time, a group of ambitious entrepreneurs is leading the competition to launch regular Janes and Joes into space.
So why the Mojave? How did the Mojave Air and Space Port get to be “the Silicon Valley” of the rocket industry?
“The same things bring people to Mojave that brought Orville and Wilbur to Kitty Hawk,” Witt said. “Freedom from encroachment, industrial espionage, the press, and a steady breeze.”
A key piece of this puzzle was Peter Diamandis, who created the X Prize. The X Prize put up $10 million for anybody who could create the first privately funded manned spacecraft. Rutan won the competition, and as the Globe put it:
It was a milestone in spaceflight. Virgin Galactic has already started booking flights aboard a Rutan-built craft for $200,000 a trip. The company hopes to begin launching in 2009.
Dr. Diamandis is the lecturer at the futuristic, black-tie Lovett C. Peters Lecture this year. Become a Pioneer contributor and you can be there, too. Greek futurists - my god, what is the country coming to!
Globe West recently highlighted the issue that day-of-the-week restrictions on watering lawns may actually lead to increased watering. The restriction can serve as a reminder to water on a regular basis. The article notes that the state may consider stricter restrictions. Perhaps the state and municipalities should also consider using pricing as a policy tool to achieve conservation. I would direct them to Pioneer’s recent paper on the topic by Professors Rob Stavins and Sheila Olmstead at this link.
However, Chief Anthony Scott of Holyoke is balking at the state aid, saying “After the three or four years, the city and taxpayers need to find the money to keep those individuals employed…[i]t’s not fiscally responsible.”
The Chief points out the problem with state initiatives for local programs. Can you rely on continued funding? Its akin to someone ‘buying you a house’ by making the downpayment, then handing you a mortgage. State government pays for the initial cost of hiring the officers (and takes the credit), then muncipalities are at the mercy of the state to continue providing the money in future years.
My post today is really a question. It has to do with Boston English High, one of the oldest and most venerable secondary schools in the country, erstwhile rival to Boston Latin and the focus two weeks ago (sorry, I’m behind the times) of a Boston Globe feature.
It seems that English High is on the brink of closure due to consistent underperformance. The school, and its principal, Jose Duarte, have been granted a one-year reprieve to turn it around. To help him, Mr. Duarte has been given a moratorium on union work rules, allowing him “greater leeway over faculty appointments.”
As Mr. Duarte and his teachers strive to turn English High around, I wish them only the best. But my question is this: If the state believes that suspending union work rules and granting a principal the leeway to appoint his faculty are necessary to save a school, wouldn’t such practices help avoid the whole mess in the first place?
But you can’t seem to sell enough ads to save us from seeing another (and another, and another) FrankTV promo?