By way of truth in advertising, your editor wrote the first draft of a good part of this report.   more »

The programs that should have been eligible for purchase under Reading First - or not.   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 »

The battleground is the school district, not the state capital. The antagonsts are parents, not policy wonks. The school improvement industry has an interest and a possible opening.   more »

The disclosure is a great improvement. Whether the conflicts should have barred many participants deserves attention and debate. Still, a good first step, and one silk purse from the sows ear of Reading First implementation.   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 »

A top-notch team of researchers from your editor’s former employer find “statistically significant” improvements for students taking advantage of SES. But what is the significance of “significance” in this context? And what of the dogs that didn’t bark? What we have here is “the truth,” “and nothing but the truth,” but not quite “the whole truth.” Statistically significant effects are not necessarily educationally significant - and RAND is close to slient on the latter point. The fault here lies less with RAND, than those who will take advantage of the report's incomplete nature and a naïve public - and a Department of Education that has once again politicized education science.   more »

Blessing a "race to the bottom" or making the case for national standards?   more »

School improvement providers who walk the talk of scientifically based research - reading or otherwise - need to form their own trade group and start lobbying hard for a market based on outcomes rather than marketing budgets. Their investors need to get behind them or push them into it. Absent this, expect to see cultural change at a pace that makes watching paint dry exciting by comparison.   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 »

And NCLB changes nothing....   more »

Assignment: Read SES provider spokesperson and Education Industry Association President Steve Pines’ letter to the Chicago Sun Times discussing the poor showing of most local SES providers on state tests. Then read the letter of the law. Identify the gaps and overlaps. Discuss the implications for SES providers and the broader school improvement industry in NCLB reauthorization.....    more »

The legislative intent of No Child Left Behind is to shift the measure of success from what meets the various desires of public education’s principal institutions - constrained only by budgets, to what actually works to improve student performance. Your editor has long argued that the ultimate demonstration of a commitment to student performance is a provider's investment in ongoing research. Many readers know of the nonprofit Success for all Foundation’s years of study behind its interventions. Your editor has pointed readers to ongoing research by privately-held provider Carnegie Learning and ProQuest’s (NYSE:PQE) Voyager Expanded Learning unit. Now consider Scientific Learning (NASDC: SCIL).   more »

The private sector is no more entitled to waste federal tax dollars than the public schools. When it comes to poor student performance, the defense that that parents feel good about their children’s teachers is no more relevant for SES providers under NCLB than it is for schools or districts. Applying the rule of student performance equally to schools and providers is about “accountability” to the taxpayer, “equal protection under the law” between schools and providers, and, in the end, the credibility of the entire school improvement industry. Is the taxpayer getting real value here?   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 »

Still, who would you rather have as principal of your kid's school - Chamberlain or Churchill?   more »

In the words of Voltaire, "the best is the enemy of the good."   more »

Sorry, but "Data Driven Decision Making" is Coming to Capitol Hill.   more »

In their discussion of a new Fordham/AIR report on public school principals, Finn and Petrilli convey the unsurprising and not exactly new finding that most are not all that thrilled about the prospect of real managerial autonomy. It is still worth reading.   more »

Our monthly listing of announcements from the research and development community. Every item hotlined to the press page. Free dowmload until June 1.   more »

If you've got it (scientifically based research), flaunt it. But note as well that the standard of beauty is rising in this market. What's glamorous this year will soon seen quaint. Firms need to look beyond compliance with an evaluation requirement to the role of evaluation in program quality and ongoing development.   more »

It is unlikely that the media will treat this report with much subtlety, but the study may tell us much more about the state of the evaluation art than the efficacy of technlogy-based software programs.   more »

The attached e-mail from Software and Information Industry Education Division VP Karen Billings is the first evidence of any k-12 trade group ("old industry" or "new industry") adressing federal evaluation of k-12 programs as more than a communications challenge. The substance of its premptive comments on the Department of Education's forthcoming study of the value added by technology to student achievement is less important than the decision to comment.   more »

There is no escaping the need to demonstrate program efficacy, and that the bar constituting "proof" will be going up. Firms that have not made this a priority have no future in the market for school improvement services. Firms that are commited to demonstrating superior performance should be gathering as much insight into the subject as they can. The National Center for Education Statistics - part of the Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences - is part of the interagency mix that will be setting the bar. It offers a variety of free/low cost resources for evalution, including training. Every firm should be sending people to these activities - for a variety of reasons, but at a minimum because this is an open door invitation to the world of k-12 evaluation - and your profitability is affected by the rules this community will set.... One last point. If you look through the one training opportunity given as an example here and you can't think of anyone in your firm you can send, or even a close advisor or consultant - you have a staff capacity problem you need to fix. If you are an investor reading this and ask your CEOs who they might conceivably send to this kind of a session and they don't have good answers - you have one or more management problems.   more »

School enrollment questions go to the heart of charter schools' financial viability and are clearly a factor in the sales of school improvement products and services. "Customer acquisition" costs are lower for one school of 1500 students than three of 500; but three schools with different views of teaching and learning offer more marketing opportunties. Should industry groups have a view on the "right size?"   more »