State Board of Education

Several interesting conversations with education leaders and Charlie Rose:
Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of Washington D.C. Schools:
(this video is only 27 minutes long, though the timer shows 54 minutes)

Wendy Kopp, director of Teach for America:

Four National Teachers of the Year:

And a commercial from an organization hoping to inject education into the presidential race:

A few […]

Book Reviews
NYTimes editorial about the book, Three Cups of Tea.
Vision
OH SBE introduces its plan for student success
Effective Leaders
Rhode Island to allow mayors to charter schools
Former Sesame Street president now leads public charter schools
Effective Teachers
Feist helps kids learn to count on Sesame Street:

Alfie Kohn suggests what you’ll find in an effective classroom
Rigorous, Relevant Curriculum
Students and teachers […]

The State Board of Education will have a conference call on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and No Child Left Behind on Friday, July 25, 3:00 P.M. Central Time.
If you are in Nashville, dial 532-5141; if you are outside of Nashville, dial 1-877-468-0082, pin number #2158.

I’ve mentioned the book, Disrupting Class, to many of you.
Here’s my review of the book, in the context of the Master Plan. You can also listen to a helpful introduction to the concepts in this podcast of an interview of Christensen with Business Week magazine.
Effective Leaders
Blackmun High School selected as example
NOTE: Dr. Nixon was […]

The State Board will host a Teacher Advisory Council Meeting on Tuesday, July 8, 2008
10AM - 3PM
State Board Conference Room
9th Floor, Andrew Johnson Tower
Nashville, TN 37243

Effective Leaders
The 21st century superintendent
Transparency on union-school district contract negotiations:
Andy Rotherham and Jane Hannaway suggested in a book on teachers’ contracts that more transparency in the bargaining process would help. A parent in MN took that advice and chronicled the process in his district.
Real World 2.0
Review of Clay Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power […]

Effective Leaders
The “first couple” of education entrepreneurs
MA Governor unveils education initiative for the next decade (including promoting mastery learning (and exiting high school at 16). Related stories here and here.
There are some great graphs in the first few pages of the report, especially the economic impact to individuals and communities of high school and college […]

All eyes on Florida’s educational policies

Effective Teachers
Utah looks to Singapore for better ways to teach math:
“We only have one resource - our children - so education is the most important thing for us,” Ban Har said. “If we don’t do well in that area, then economically we are a doomed country.”
WSJ on Teach for […]

Effective Leaders
Massachusetts Governor to propose “readiness schools”
Under the plan, there are four ways a readiness school could open: A group of educators could form a collaborative and present the local school committee with a plan to operate a school; a district could convert a school with teacher consent; a School Committee could contract with outside […]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.”
- Thomas Carruthers
Big Picture
The Turnaround Challenge: Great report, with links to other big picture analyses of school improvement, and helpful charts & graphics to highlight innovative ideas for state-led improvement of low-performing schools. Some sample pages are here.
- Overview & links.
- Main report […]