Deja vu. Declasse. Clauswitz. Will this turn out to be characterized as "all about the fees?" And what do you know about "groupthink" or how to protect against it?   more »

Three, arguably four, of the five risks identified in the summary section of K12's IPO prospectus are political.   more »

The price? The founder is slowly, gently, but probably, eased out, handing management over to people with the investors' confidence.   more »

It's a false choice. The arts contribute to literacy and numeracy, and there's no reason the stuff of math and reading can't be the great works of world culture. School improvement providers that fuse the two worlds can only do well as educators wake up to the possibilities.   more »

Norm-referenced tests aimed at an accountability regime based on average student performance give way to criterion-referenced tests based on every student’s performance. There are industry implications.   more »

Imagine if American hospitals permitted doctors who treat brain injuries by drilling holes in patients' heads to practice alongside those who employ the latest tools of laser surgery.   more »

And a view into the strategic calculus behind these buys.   more »

Starting at the bottom and working our way up, the basic economic unit of tutoring is the class. Look at those gross margins!   more »

What it means for k-12 industry structure, Houghton's investors, and the school improvement provider community. How much do you know about antitrust law?   more »

The number of big publishers shrink, but the big get much, much bigger.   more »

Better late than never, Superintendent Roosevelt decides teachers should be part of curriculum reform. And an interesting admission from Kaplan management.   more »

Regarding the practicability of Charter Management Organizations (CMO).   more »

How smaller school imrovement providers leverage limited assets.   more »

School managers serve a purpose beyond raising achievement; it's not clear whether providers dodged a bullet or took one; it will take more than marginal improvements to current operations to get politically significant improvements in student performance.   more »

In reponse to the press release they sent edbizbuzz.com on RAND's Supplemental Educational Services report. With comments from SES evaluator and University of Memphis Prof. Steve Ross. And a non-responsive last word from Steve Pines.   more »

Pay me now or pay me more later.   more »

Maybe regional oprganization is the way for school improvement providers to organize the new education industry.   more »

The alternative may be Alvarez and Marsal at the back end.   more »

What can school improvement providers learn from their experience with Paul Vallas? Should Edison or Victory Schools follow him to New Orleans?   more »

If you know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide - and have determined a few basic rules of thumb from your own experience - you can start thinking strategically about investments in marketing research.   more »

Here’s where we need to draw the ethical line. It's not the size of the bribe that matters, but breaching the duty of loyalty to students, teachers and taxpayers.   more »

Your editor has no doubt that the academic consultants and Administration officials were engaged in a massive conflict between their duty to carry out NCLB faithfully as office holders or their agents and their personal loyalty to ideology, pedagogy or financial self-interest. Still, when the roles of the officials and the academics are untangled it is possible to see how each might honestly rationalize their actions.   more »

The Baltimore-based investment firm's k-12 specialists have an unusual perspective on Senator Kennedy’s report on the connections between consultants like Edward Kame' ennui and the major publishing firms – one that doesn’t serve the investment community’s need for information and analysis all that well.   more »

Your editor can't remember too many times he has agreed with one of the Fordham Foundation's most important gadflies. Still, he owes Mike Petrilli one for telling Education Next's editors that they might consider asking yours truly to comment on an article about education technology providers. (This post includes what Ed Next edited down for inclusion and the original "long" version.")   more »

Judging from AEI’s insider confab, you’d never know there was an industry. This time, blame the wonks for their blind spot, but the industry bears responsibility too.   more »

Every corporate blog is part of the firm’s marketing operations. That doesn’t mean they aren't worth reading. Content analysis of posts and press releases often yields useful information on a provider’s values, priorities, fears and strategy.   more »

Understanding the “program” in program evaluation. School improvement providers who want to get a handle on program evaluation should read Education Week’s Debra Viadero’s May 16 article. To your editor it illustrates two important points on “what” exactly is being evaluated, and how “the what” affects evaluation outcomes.   more »

The firm's adrift. Will listening help all that much?   more »

The “pointy-tip of the spear” in public education is the classroom teacher. The implications for the school improvement industry?   more »

On top of so many other acquisitions relevant to k-12 the purchase of eCollege demonstrates that Pearson can buy major players in every segment of the new education industry. What’s next? What are the strategic issues?   more »

You can't understand the market for school improvement services without appreciating the a struggle between k-12's old and new industries.   more »

The evidence in his emails is unambiguous: While Kame' ennui was working for the Department as a key consultant on Reading First regulation and implementation - a matter that required not only the reality of impartiality but the appearance of impartiality – he was also engaged in high-level lobbying on behalf of Pearson’s corporate position on Reading First. It's a hell of a story. Plus a footnote.    more »