Kick the tires, avoid hype of reform
Larry Cuban of Stanford offers practical advice
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There have been waves of education reform in the five decades that teacher, superintendent, and emeritus professor at Stanford Larry Cuban has been observing and writing about education. The difference now, he says, is that the cycles have become compressed; reforms come and go, financed by advocates and, increasingly, corporate and foundation leaders, who “shape school reforms based on some combination of ideology, best guesses, and hope.”
In his latest book, Cutting the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform, which he co-authored with Jane David, Cuban offers a layman’s guide to 23 reforms, from performance-based pay for teachers to charter schools to small high schools, with tips on
Ace in the hole: Tax Bush-era breaks for rich - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess
Writer and occasional TOP-Ed contributor Peter Schrag reported this intriguing figure in a column in the California Progress Report this week: Continuing the Bush-era tax cuts for the top 5 percent of California earners will save those 888,000 taxpayers about $20.5 billion this year ($14 billion for the 1 percent earning an average $1.775 million [...]
