#EIA12 Summit App

As we’re gearing up for our National Summit (and by gearing up, I really mean we’re in full swing!) we are excited to give you a tool to help navigate the event.

Writer flunks AP exam

By: Adam Peshek

When I was in high school, I wasn’t exactly sure what Advanced Placement courses were. All I knew was classes with “A-P” in front of them carried a level of rigor that underachievers shied away from. As a student who foolishly avoided valuable courses like the plague (i.e. math and science), I decided to hedge my bets with a couple AP courses in history and government. The courses proved to be valuable in many ways: more rigorous curriculum, more engaged peers, back-end financial savings, and a leg-up on college courses.

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Beg and borrow because tomorrow is another day

By: Mike Thomas

The Philadelphia school district is taking the rather unprecedented step of borrowing $300 million to stay afloat. This is akin to a starving man munching on his toes.

And it is on top of $3 billion in outstanding bonds. Philadelphia is paying today’s bills by borrowing against the future.

This might work if the school district could grow its way out of the problem.

Ravitch vs Ravitch

By: Mike Thomas

In a recent speech in Chicago, Diane Ravitch pointed out that America has a stellar 90 percent graduation rate.

She notes the dropout rate is at a historical low.

She notes the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, which she calls the only valid measure of academic performance, are at their highest point in history for black, white, Hispanic and Asian students.

Schools are just doing dandy.

Baumol Part Deux in 2D-Your Cliffnotes To Eduwonky Enlightenment

By: Dr. Matthew Ladner

So in our last nerdfest episode, we explored the idea that American K-12 has a severe case of Baumol’s disease- the tendency of labor intensive services to become more expensive over time without a corresponding increase in effectiveness. At some point we will explore some of excuses often weakly offered up in an attempt to explain this collapse in productivity of spending, but for now, we can do something more fun and explore just the weirdness of this trend. You may not have realized it, but the world is getting better and cheaper all the time. K-12 doesn’t have a mild case of Baumol’s disease; it is literally the MOAB (Mother of All Baumols).

Baumol’s disease and the public school

By: Dr. Matthew Ladner

I’m going to blog about something really nerdy, but stick with me because it is actually crucial to understanding what has gone wrong with our public schools over the last 50 years. I promise your patience will be rewarded with insight. Paul Hill and Marguerite Rosa explained in 2010 that American public schools are suffering from “Baumol’s disease”:

In fact, nearly all schools look much the same today as they did fifty years ago. Even after waves of reform, including class-size reductions, new curricula, the introduction of forms of school choice, and the implementation of standards and accountability mechanisms through No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the basic structure of education is unchanged.