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Friday, June 10, 2011

Healthy Skepticism of Education Entrepreneurship - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Healthy Skepticism of Education Entrepreneurship - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Healthy Skepticism of Education Entrepreneurship

Rick Hess has words of wisdom:

Sigh… Look, Sal Khan is clearly smart as hell, a Renaissance guy, and a terrific teacher. But what he’s done, more or less, is make a bunch of excellent lectures available on YouTube. That’s an excellent development, and a promising platform. In the vernacular of my Education Unbound, it’s a textbook example of a brilliantly executed 1% solution. Where I get lost is why the hype portrays this as so radical and newsworthy. We don’t see medical device makers on TV or in


The Right Way to Approach School Reform

Kris Amundson sums it up:

Walker’s approve-disapprove rating now stands at 43-53. Kasich faces an even bigger deficit—just 33 percent of Ohio voters approve of his on-the-job performance, while 56 percent disapprove. In Florida, Rick Scott has a 29 – 57 percent gap. (Scott, you may recall, was elected with less than 50 percent of the vote in a very close election.)

But is their unpopularity due primarily to pushing for big changes in K-12 education? Or is the answer more complicated than that?

For an answer, we might take a look at what’s happening in Illinois. Conveniently situated between