Chessboards and rice: A lesson for exponential growth
In the book The Second Machine Age, MIT professors Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson document the way in which technology and automation are changing our economy. And one particularly effective way they do it is through a story about a chessboard, rice, and Gordon Moore. Gordon Moore is the cofounder of Intel and in the […]
Lessons learned from the PISA
Another round of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam results was recently released, allowing researchers to compare education systems around the world. The PISA matters because unlike the majority of standardized tests, it asks students to think critically, to make arguments, to problem-solve, to identify patterns. In the words of Amanda Ripley, author […]
The easy part of education reform
At Michigan Future we spend a lot of time talking about how we can prepare Michigan students – all Michigan students – for the 21st century economy. This is an economy in which the returns to “highly-skilled” workers – who can communicate well, think critically, and have deep content knowledge and technical skills – continue […]
The real skills gap
Odds are, you’ve heard by now that there’s a serious skills gap in this country. And there certainly is one – though it’s just not the one you’re thinking of. There’s a been a lot of talk in Michigan about the shortage of Michiganders prepared for skilled trade jobs. The rationale is that there are […]
More on why school funding matters
In my last post, I argued that we should be spending more on our k-12 schools. And I argued we should do that in order to provide for all students what parents of means make sure are provided for their children: well-paid teachers, small class sizes, broad and engaging curriculum. But I also mentioned that […]
Money, schools, and what matters
For years there’s been a persistent myth that school funding is unrelated to student outcomes. Politicians on both sides of the aisle decry the rising spending and stagnant test scores. It’s not the money, these politicians say, but how the money is spent. In a certain sense, they’re right. School funding in the aggregate certainly […]
Solving the mystery of childhood poverty
Child poverty rates in the United States are often treated as a mystery. How can so many children be poor in a nation this wealthy? But as it turns out, reducing child poverty is no great mystery at all – just ask the United Kingdom. Historically the U.S. and the U.K held the dubious distinction of […]
Helping students beat the odds
These days, it seems nearly every high school serving low-income students can boast of a 100% college acceptance rate. Indeed, it’s a very low bar to clear. Because community colleges and some four-year schools are open-enrollment, achieving a 100% college acceptance rate simply means that you’re able to get everyone to fill out an application. […]
Michigan charter schools: Ensuring success or replicating failure?
A couple weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of Education John King paid a visit to Detroit, during which time he offered some advice to Michigan education leaders in an interview with Chalkbeat: stop shuttering failing schools, because the schools we’re replacing them with are no better. He went on to question the effectiveness of charter schools […]
Using choice to encourage integrated schools
Last week, my colleague Sarah Szurpicki wrote about how school choice policies in Michigan have led to further racial segregation in Michigan schools. This is obviously not good, as racially integrated classrooms produce all sorts of pro-social benefits. And to the extent that race correlates with socioeconomic status, the resulting economic segregation in our schools […]