Posts by Tom Vander Ark
Bloomberg & urban mayors should control schools
School districts are a strange American anachronism—no other country delivers public education through strong local authorities. This strange historical remnant is not crippling in all cases but has been proven to be completely ineffective in urban America. We are no longer able to elect and sustain effective urban…
Read new AEI white paper on edu innovation
American Enterprise Institute suggests an entrepreneurial approach to most problems we face including education.  They recently published my white paper Private Capital & Public Education: Toward Quality at Scale.  …
Indian innovation capital flowing to edu
Times of India, drawing on “Private Equity Pulse-Education,” reports that 80% of private equity and venture capital firms see education as recession proof and plan investments in the next 6-8 months. Given more room for innovation in India, its likely that we’ll see new learning innovations taken…
Reconciliation on Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay is a quiet elbow of the Puget Sound north of Tacoma. Twelve foot tides leave their mark twice daily. Herons guard the beach with air support from a family of bald eagles. It’s a spiritual place, which is a nice way of saying that for nine months of…
3 legislatures attempt to turn back clock
In a ridiculous effort to set back the clock, the Oregon legislature is considering protecting districts from online competition. The Florida senate is considering a bill that would limit courses that students can take online. And, as previously reported, Arkansas joint budget committed…
Day in the life of online learner; limited social networks
1. Read Learning Without Limits for a good description of a 5th graders day in Florida Virtual School. 2. Despite all the teacher social network startups, the “National Online Survey of District Technology Directors Exploring District Use of Web 2.0 Technologies” …
Incentives for Equitable Education
The US Education Department (USED) will soon be writing checks totaling more than $100 billion (yes that’s a b) to states and districts. About 95% is just backfilling budget holes–a good thing given the precipitous and potentially disastrous drop in state and local revenues. Unfortunately, USED will be criticized because…
Edu-innovation will improve quality, expand choice
A charter school investor asked me what innovation had to do with school choice. Â The answer is that adaptive content–engaging, personalized, online learning with continuous feedback–will improve student motivation, accelerate learning, and expand options for students and families in 3 ways: * Informal learning:Â Â Improved access to broadband and powerful…
This video will change LA, then USA
Parent Revolution offers a simple powerful promise—get 51% of parents to sign up and in 3 years you get a transformed school. Wow, that’s a big idea. Easier said than done and only possible: • in states where parents can vote to convert a school to charter (I’m trying…
Challenges for Charter Schools
Read this important piece from AEI on Challenges for Charter Schools. Hess makes some good points about the challenge of scaling: • Models that rely on heroic effort have inherent limits to scale (e.g., KIPP) • The quality backlash and focus on ‘what works’ has driven innovation…