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Election Day
It’s Election Day here in DC, and in my neighborhood of Columbia Heights, a diverse mix of citizens – old and young, wealthy and struggling, black and white and brown – have been casting their votes...
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Why Adrian Fenty Lost The City – and How Vincent Gray Can Win It Back
Now that the dust is beginning to settle from the DC mayoral race, it’s worth examining what outgoing mayor Adrian Fenty failed to understand about leadership and systems change, and what Vincent Gray...
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Questions for the Next Schools Chancellor
Today, presumptive-next-mayor Vincent Gray will meet with presumptive-ex- chancellor Michelle Rhee to discuss the future of DC public schools. In a way, this is a lose-lose meeting for both. As Rhee...
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Is Michelle Rhee putting Students First?
Like everyone else who does education for a living, I read that Michelle Rhee is launching a new national advocacy organization, Students First. And after checking out the site and hearing how she...
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Education Inception
(This article also appeared on the Huffington Post.) I just watched Christopher Nolan’s remarkable new movie Inception, a futuristic film about a group of people who, through a variety of means, plant...
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What If Learning — Not Fighting — Were the Focus?
(This article also appeared in the Huffington Post.) As accusations fly back and forth over the reported DC cheating scandal – the latest in a series of battles between America’s two dominant...
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Calling Bill Maher
(This article also appeared in the Huffington Post.) After reading Michelle Rhee’s surprisingly casual dismissal of cheating allegations in DC’s public school system, I’ve decided we need to do...
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What DC Can Teach Us About Teacher Policies
This weekend, an article in my local paper crystallized three things we need to stop doing if we want to transform American public education for the long haul – and three things we should start doing...
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Your Education Stories (for a price)
It’s suddenly in vogue to gather and tell stories as part of an organization’s larger strategy to build an audience and effect change. On one level, I love this development — indeed, I’ve been...
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What Happened in DC in 2008 – & Does it Still Matter in 2013?
If a prominent urban school leader told you he couldn’t recall being informed that half his city’s schools may have allowed the gross mistreatment of students to occur, would you believe him? And even...
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