Transforming Education IV
In writing the three previous Transforming Education posts – in the pursuit of being brief (apparently the rule for blogs) – I have skipped topics I think are important. So here in summary form are my thoughts on some other topics that are part of designing a k-12 system that increases the number of high […]
Transforming Education: Policy Framework
In my last post I suggested that all schools should be held accountable for a “every student meets a without remediation at the next level ” standard. That leads to the question “what levers do we have to make that happen as quickly as possible? My answer: close chronically failing schools and grant the ability […]
Transforming Education: Quality Standards
As bad as the current results are from our entire k-12 education system, I’m optimistic that we can get big gains in student achievement. My optimism is based on a decade of progress made by schools here and around the country in student achievement – primarily in new high quality urban schools. These are the […]
Transforming Education
If, as we and others have argued, education attainment is the key to economic success for both individuals and communities in a flattening world, how you improve education outcomes becomes a central question for community leaders and policymakers. We need big change. The current reality for Michigan is generally poor results. The best metric for […]
What Matters Most
Real interesting James Fallows article in the Atlantic. Its about how America gets out of the current mess we are in. Fallows brings a unique perspective, just returning after years living in China. Worth reading! Fallows makes the point that no matter how bad things appear today, the country still has the best assets to […]
Rock Climbing
In a recent post I wrote about a Tom Friedman column that illustrates how globalization and technology are fundamentally and constantly changing the economy. Now comes a David Brooks column, also in the New York Times, that is quite insightful about how the economy keeps evolving. (Brooks, along with Friedman, are two of the people […]
Immigration and Economic Growth
Interesting study from the Fiscal Policy Institute on the role of immigrants in growing regional economies. They looked at the nation’s twenty five largest metropolitan areas – including metro Detroit – and found that immigration spurs, rather than retards, economic growth. More specifically the growth in the immigration share of the labor force and growth […]
Our Politics
Many believe, because of the mess we are in and term limits, that the 2010 elections are particularly pivotal for the state’s future. I’m sure I will be writing about the elections regularly in these posts. So I thought it made sense to disclose our political orientation. Several months ago an article in the Muskegon […]
Managing Decline vs. Investing for Growth
SEMCOG – the council of governments in metro Detroit – has just released its 2035 transportation plan. Paul Tait, its excellent Executive Director, notes that one of the common concerns he runs into is folks – including policy makers – who wonder why we are working on long range plans, when we have an immediate […]
Lessons Learned by the Freep
A terrific recent editorial in the Detroit Free Press. Its their summary of what they learned matters most from their series on the collapse of the domestic auto industry. The editorial’s subtitle says it all. Rx for recovery: A new commitment to education. The world has changed. As we say repeatedly, what made us prosperous […]