Tuesday, July 20
New data cause confusion about Maine high school graduation rates
So the news is that depending on how you count, Maine's graduating either 80 or 83% of students. While I admire the attempt to create a meaningful and consistent method of tracking, the larger point to me is that one out of five...or is it one out of six...young people are not graduating high school. That need not be.
Friday, July 16
Innovating can help Maine schools lead nation
I wrote this back in January when Maine Department of Education introduced three bills that they hoped would qualify Maine for Race to the Top funds. All three bills passed, including one that purported to allow "innovative schools," but most folks agree that the restrictions placed on that bill, mostly at the urging of the MEA, enable no more innovation that school districts are already
Sunday, July 11
Asking the right questions...
During the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee debate around the innovation bill that was passed in May to facilitate Maine's Race to the Top application, much of the testimony - including that around enabling charter schools as an innovation strategy - repeated some fairly old arguments based on some assumptions that may longer be true. What is a public school? What kinds of public schools can serve Maine's young people, parents, and communities? How can innovation thrive without dismantling the parts of our current system that are working? If we ask the right questions, we might get closer to agreement on what kinds of policies and practices will work for Maine.
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