Obama's Blueprint for Education Reform

Those folks overy at the US Depart of Education ought to get a life. They released their long-awaited proposal for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act on Saturday night of all times. How many geeks out there like us (who need to get a life) picked it up right away? From all of the traffic on our twitter feed, too many.
Our first quick scan of the blueprint on this Saturday night found no big surprises. Sec Duncan and staff had telegraphed their plans last fall and in their FY11 budget proposal. Our only real comment at this point is to urge all involved to take a good hard look at the best available, research-based evidence for the range of proposals and counter-proposals. We say "best available" because the knowledge base for some of the ideas is rather shallow. The debates in the coming months should always begin and end with the question "what's the evidence?"
Onwards with the debate!

And the winnas are ....

The intense speculation over the past several weeks about which states would be finalists for the Race to the Top program has been numbing. Now the results are out (see below) and I am sure there is a lot joy and saddness in state capitals around the country. Not to be trite but we think that given the unprecedented action and attention that RttT has already generated makes education the big winner in the domestic policy sweepstakes. Now let the most important work begin in transforming education for the next generation of learning.

Press announcement from the US Department of Education at 11:45 am 3/4
At noon today the Department will issue a press release on ED.gov to announce that 16 finalists will be invited to Washington in the coming weeks to present their proposals to the panel that reviewed their applications in depth during the initial stage, and to engage in Q&A discussions with the reviewers. Winners for Phase 1 will be chosen from among the finalists and announced in April.
The Phase 1 finalists are:

• Colorado
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Massachusetts
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Tennessee

One year later

ARRA one year later --- It was a year ago this past week that Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with a stunning $100 B for education. While much of the funding has yet to reach its intended beneficiaries, we think the impact at the state and federal level has been profound. To be sure, the anticipated cliff effect of when the funds stop flowing has enlivened debate, but we still think this is a once in a lifetime development of major proportions. Tell the Knowledge-able Sourcerer what you think.

Assessing interim assessments

The Center for Policy Research in Education released this revealing study suggesting that use does not follow the rhetoric when it comes to interim assessments as a tool for informing instructional change. What do you readers who are assessment experts think about this? Tell the Knowledge-able Sourcerer.

R&D for 3-D Learning

R&D for 3-D Learning --- The other day when we read this clever Maureen Dowd piece about the rise of 3-D movies we instantly thought about two things: is there some kind of equivalent innovation in education to immerse students in learning?; and are there any education innovators out there who are probing far-out and far-beyond ideas to really transform instruction? hey, how about developing an R&D pipeline to develop 3-D learning? Chat about it with the Knowledge-able Sourcerer.

Tiger and Toyota

We had a fascinating chat with Tim Waters the visionary leader of McREL the other day about sudden fall of Toyota this past week. It reminded Tim of the similarly stunning decline of Tiger Woods. It also conjured other collapses of leaders and innovators like Enron, Lehman Bros, Bernie Maldof, Gilbert Arenas, and, yes, the Roman Empire. In this era of innovation in education and the emergence of new kinds of leaders/entrepreneurs, are there lessons to be learned from the erstwhile stalwarts in other industries? hmmmm. Seems like there is ample for fodder here for a good discussion here.

Yes sir!! The Prez's FY 2011 Budget Request

Knowledge Alliance Applauds the President’s FY 11 Budget Proposal
Supports Vital Education Programs for Innovation, R&D, and School Improvement

Knowledge Alliance supports the general direction of the research-based education reform strategies contained in the President’s FY 2011 budget request to Congress today. We believe that the request effectively builds upon the innovation and improvement initiatives in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and paves the way for sustaining and scaling research-based innovations for school improvement in the years ahead.
We encourage Congress to support the President’s request for increased investments in such key initiatives as: the Race to the Top fund, the School Turnaround fund; Investing in Innovation program; the comprehensive literacy program and other research-based programs that help states and districts respond to the rapidly increasing needs of low performing schools. Indeed the need has never been greater or more urgent to deliver researched-based innovations to schools with the greatest needs to improve.

To support and supplement these innovative efforts, we also urge Congress to expand the scope of the federally supported knowledge infrastructure which includes such critical programs as the Regional Education Labs, Comprehensive Assistance Centers and the National Research and Development Centers, and the Research, Development and Dissemination fund. These programs provide the basic framework for generating new knowledge about what works, translating research to innovation and building the long term capacity of states and districts for significant change.

We are optimistic that the combined federal investments in innovation, school improvement, and research and development programs can make a major and lasting difference in improving our school systems.

Now is the time to unleash America’s ingenuity to solve our most pressing education problems, deliver break-the-mold, research-based solutions to our schools, and guide a new knowledge and innovation revolution in teaching and learning.

Knowledge Alliance looks forward to working with the Administration and the Congress to move this important agenda forward in efficient and effective ways in the months ahead.

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