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 »