By John Thompson. When Dale Russakoff conceived of The Prize, she “viewed education reform from a distance but as a movement full of promise.” She was eager to follow the story of Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million matching gift to the Newark schools. The subtitle, “Who’s in Charge of …
By Anthony Cody. This weekend a select group of philanthropists will gather at Stanford University for an “Innovation Summit,” where they will hear from Melinda Gates and Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, and other experts in giving money away. The event is hosted by the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil …
By Michelle Gunderson. The hunger strike for Dyett High School ended this morning on day 34. Once again I headed to the south side to be with my friends and fellow education fighters known as the Dyett Twelve. Education activists had been told that the hunger strikers would have an announcement this morning, and …
By John Thompson. Dale Russakoff’s 2014 New Yorker profile “Schooled” is a wonderful account of Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million investment in Newark school reform, and how and why it failed. Perhaps the best new revelation in “Schooled” starts with the lesson Russakoff learned …
By Bill Cole. As another school year has started, one thing is certain, a vocal coalition of education reformers, market-based advocates and policymakers will continue extolling the virtues of school choice initiatives, such as private school vouchers and charter schools. These groups enthusiastically note that …
By Michael Finn and Michael Jones. As it has every fall since it opened in 1931, the stately campus of John Marshall High in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz sits ready for the upcoming school year: new classes, new students, new hopes, new challenges. We’ve witnessed this cycle for over 20 years, as …
By Michelle Gunderson. A circle of ten people sit outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office demanding a meeting with the mayor. They have not taken solid food for 12 days. The Dyett hunger strikers ask that a decision be made regarding their proposal to keep the only open enrollment high school in the Bronzeville …
By Paul Horton. A couple of years ago I had the privilege of listening to the late Nobel Economics laureate Gary Becker speak at my school. Professor Becker won the Nobel Prize for his book Human Capital that argued that the marketplace provides consumers with “rational choices” that rational people will …
By Michelle Gunderson. Twelve people sit in a circle under the trees outside Dyett High School in Chicago on a hunger strike. They share stories of their experience with Chicago schools – teachers they have loved, principals they have battled, the times they have been arrested fighting for equity in our schools. …
by Stephen Stollmack, Ph.D. My life now seems to be on Fast-Track – so much more to learn about what’s going on in the world each day and more and more suspicion that the government has been hiding important things from us for years. Now that I am back to living alone, no longer having the responsibility of …
