Category Archives: Ed. Policy

The more things change…

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0

  Two recent articles caught my attention. It’s hard to read them together and not shake your head. The First Race to the Top by William Reese, professor of educational policy studies and history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison The testing groundwork was laid in 1837, when a lawyer and legislator in Massachusetts named Horace Mann became [...] Read more »

assessment, Cuban, Ed. Policy, Ed. Tech., education, history, Reese, technology

(Re)Introducing the Virginia Education Report

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0

A while back, my edu-colleague Chad Ratliff asked me if I was interested in joining him in an effort to create a space for “independent” reporting and commentary on educational policy issues in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was a terrific idea, and soon the Virginia Education Report was born. We had lots of grand [...] Read more »

Blogging, community, Ed. Policy, social media, VER

Triangulation or Strangulation?

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


In the span of the last two weeks, three articles were published about the role of for-profit corporations in K-12 online learning. Individually and collectively, they are serious and comprehensive pieces of investigative journalism and they all reach similar conclusions and raise serious concerns about the role of these companies, especially K12, Inc., in the [...] Read more »

distance learning, Ed. Policy, K12 online learning virtual schools corporate profit

Tightening the narrative around school change

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. In an opinion piece in the New York Times, [...] Read more »

argument, critique, Ed. Leadership, Ed. Policy, Ed. Tech., education, Learning, logic, McLeod, narrative, social media, technology

The Missouri “Facebook Law”: A conversation

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Jon Becker | Permalink 4


Senate Bill 5, also known as The Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, signed into law on July 14 in Missouri, goes into effect on August 28. Among lots of other provisions, the law stipulates that: No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use a work-related internet site unless such site is available to school administrators and the [...] Read more »

Ed. Policy, educator, facebook, misconduct, missouri, policy, sexual, social media, technology

Can #Educon catalyze a movement?

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


“This is a game about power, and I think you have a vacuum on one side…She’s concluded — and I think with some wisdom — that there’s really no countervailing force that is well-funded, is well-organized. What I think she wants to build is an organization that can really step up and amass political support [...] Read more »

agenda, community, Ed. Policy, Educon, policy, Rhee

To everything there is a season…except learning

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon it destroys our democracy. – John Dewey (1900, p. 3) I am by no means the best or wisest parent. However, lately, [...] Read more »

blog4reform, community, Ed. Policy, Ed. Research, education, equity, Equity / Discrimination, Learning, parenting, research, seasons, summer learning