Author Archives: axooms

Dems and ed reform, redux

Posted on October 15, 2009 by axooms

An illuminating piece by Nicholas Kristof in the NYT: Good schools constitute a far more potent weapon against poverty than welfare, food stamps or housing subsidies. Yet, cowed by teachers’ unions, Democrats have too often resisted reform and stood by as generations … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Poverty | Leave a comment

Pop quiz: Neighborhood schools

Posted on October 14, 2009 by axooms

Pop Quiz. Note that there may be multiple accurate responses. Readers are free to suggest answers in the comments and I’ll update the post with the right answers (just kidding) my thoughts later this week. Question One: Is a “neighborhood school”: a) … Continue reading →

Posted in Engagement, Whimsy | Leave a comment

Infinity and beyond…

Posted on October 11, 2009 by axooms

Pension discussions are not as interesting as DPS election hurling.  But I think they will have a far greater impact over the long term.  In many ways, the merger of the DPS pension into PERA makes it less of a local … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiscal & Economic | Tagged | Leave a comment

NY charter study: What districts can do

Posted on September 24, 2009 by axooms

There is a lot of noise around the evaluation of charter schools, and a paucity of good data, which makes most comparisons of little use.  That is starting to change. One of the problems in gauging the effectiveness of charters … Continue reading →

Posted in Charter Schools, School Performance | Leave a comment

Sunlight and election questions

Posted on September 21, 2009 by axooms

The plight of newspapers is well known; how information about important topics like school board races is disseminated and reviewed by voters is both incredibly important and in real flux. How does the public – especially a younger demographic less … Continue reading →

Posted in Media, Politics | Leave a comment

School Performance Framework shorthand

Posted on September 18, 2009 by axooms

I looked at the DPS School Performance Framework (SPF) data in a number of different ways. There is some intriguing data, but I found a shorthand that I think serves as a pretty good summary. Let’s look at the DPS schools with … Continue reading →

Posted in District Performance, Student Achievement | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The ghost of selective admissions

Posted on September 15, 2009 by axooms

The Denver Post this weekend kept alive the oppositional dualism that far too often permeates the education debate by doing the usual Tastes Great, Less Filling argument on charter schools (see for; and against). This puzzles me.  I don’t know too many reasonable people who think that … Continue reading →

Posted in Charter Schools, School Performance | Tagged | Leave a comment