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Race to the Top Analysis: Spreading The Wealth

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EPILOGUE (8/24/2010) : Well, my predictions below didn't quite pan out. FL and RI came in strong, but IL and SC flopped (but by mere points , of course). I was almost right that with two large states funded -- Florida and New York -- it would limit the number of winners. But the predicted nine became ten with the surprise inclusion of Hawaii (75 mil) among the winners, along with DC (also only 75 mil). For more on the winners, see here . --- Education Week (and its Politics K-12 blog), the Hechinger Report, the New America Foundation's Ed Money Watch , and the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education have provided some excellent Race to the Top Phase 2 analysis. Based on Phase 1 scores, reviews of Phase 2 applications, and other considerations, I believe Florida , Illinois , Rhode Island and South Carolina are locks for Phase 2 funding. [ UPDATE (8/4/2010) : One thing that should be concerning to Georgia is an extremely low level of district buy-in ( 14% ) to its app...
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Back to School

Today our son entered public school. The first day of kindergarten was the theme of my Facebook news feed, as dozens of my fellow moms and dads sent their kids off on yellow buses, lunches packed, shoes carefully tied. I felt a part of that moment, but I was conscious of an additional layer to the experience in my home, where my husband and I spend so much time consciously agitating for the preservation of public education. Until today, Conor attended the Madison Waldorf School.  We enrolled him there partly because of a lack of a public preschool option, of course, but also because we felt that what he'd most benefit from was what Paul Tough calls in his wonderful new book How Children Succeed "character education" -- lessons in perseverance and generosity, grit and compassion. For three years we watched him flourish in this setting, where the 3 R's were ignored in favor of spirited play, outdoor romps, and fervent social interactions.  He developed into a wonderf...
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Back to College

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UW-Madison students are happy students, as we recently learned from the Huffington Post . This high ranking of our institution is a coup when it comes to attracting more applications, and since we rise in rankings by rejecting more applicants (and rightly care about happiness), this will likely be seen as a good thing. Of course I'm delighted that our students are happy. Pleased as punch that they rate our sports culture and political activity highly (a 9 and an 8 out of 10 respectively), and the opportunities for things to do "endless."  It's wonderful-- they are spirited, free-thinking, and enthusiastic, and as all of my students well know, I love to teach them. But with love (yes, really) I need to offer a little constructive critique. We have some things to work on and they directly pertain to the educational mission (and indirectly the affordability mission) of our school.   In that same set of rankings we scored just a 6 on "professors accessible" and ...
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