Here are a few additional links and comments on the search for a new WUSD Administrator. First, thanks very much to all those who’ve written, or spoken to me, about yesterday’s posts on the WUSD search, public forums, and candidate receptions. I get a good bit of mail, but I cannot often tell beforehand which…
School District
Press, School District
On the School District Administrator Candidates: Press Coverage
by JOHN ADAMS •
There have been a few newspaper stories about the two final candidates for our next school district administrator. At both the Janesville Gazette and the Daily Union, there were mid-March announcements of the two finalists. See, in the Janesville Gazette, “Whitewater superintendent finalists announced,” and from the Daily Union, “Whitewater picks two superintendent finalists.” The…
School District
Lincoln School — Special Apology Post
by JOHN ADAMS •
Well, I had a letter from a super angry curious Lincoln Leopards booster this morning. (He’s a longtime reader and prior correspondent, actually, and his message was much appreciated.) He wrote to observe that coverage at Free Whitewater seems to focus disproportionately on Washington School, to the exclusion of Lincoln School (home of the Leopards)…
School District
Results of the Primary for the Wisconsin DPl Superintendent’s Office
by JOHN ADAMS •
The AP reports on the primary for Superintendent of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. AP Writer Scott Bauer’s lede is “Evers, Fernandez easily advance in school race.” Well, yes, Arch-Bureaucrat Tony Evers and Home School advocate Rose Fernandez easily outpaced three other minor candidates (Van Mobely, Price, and Holtz). (See, http://www.madison.com/tct/news/439144) What’s surprising…
School District
The Wisconsin Superintendent’s Race
by JOHN ADAMS •
Recently, The Phantom Stranger wrote and asked me what I thought of the race for the Wisconsin Department of Instruction’s meddlesome bureaucrat superintendent post. Today’s the primary, and there’s no better day to run down the compelling choices that await Wisconsin voters. There are five candidates running. The Oshkosh Northwestern offers a “Q&A: State school…
School District
On the School District and its Administrator
by JOHN ADAMS •
You may have noticed, here or there, that our District Administrator will leave her post at the end of this school year, on June 30th, 2009. It was widely circulated over the weekend, and I alluded to it on my Monday morning Daily Bread post. (A school board meeting about contractual matters involving unrepresented parties…
City, School District
Tired of Failure? Mandate Success!
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that public school officials in that city have a policy “that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work.” The policy has been around for a while; it’s drawn recent attention only because of efforts to reduce it to writing and make…
Free Markets, School District
Microsoft Uses Apple
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last week, I posted on a failing Microsoft ad campaign, and Microsoft’s abandonment of Jerry Seinfeld as a pitchman. Microsoft decided to respond directly to Apple’s “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign with an “I’m a PC” reply ad. Ready? When Microsoft created their reply ad, they used Apple hardware and Adobe software to…
City, School District
Microsoft’s Mediocre Ads for Its Mediocre Products
by JOHN ADAMS •
I saw this morning that Microsoft is abandoning the use of Jerry Seinfeld in a multimillion-dollar campaign to boost the Microsoft brand. Wired reports that Microsoft is describing the departure of Seinfeld as a planned ‘phase two’ of the campaign. That’s only true if ‘phase two’ is code for scrapping a bad campaign that consumers…
School District
Schools Run as Markets
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at Cato.org, Andrew Coulson has a podcast from August 7th on Education Markets Versus Monopolies. Coulson shows how even a small direct parental contribution in education, say 10-15% by cost, produces a significant increase in schools’ performance. (The irony is that parents and non-parents both pay a significant amount to public schools now, but…
Free Markets, School District
Bureaucratic Objections to School Choice: Yes, Prime Minister
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a video clip from the British television series, Yes, Prime Minister. The comedy series is from the 1980s, and offers how civil servants try to manage and guide policy in Britain. In this clip, the British Prime Minister, James Hacker, suggests private school choice, and his status-quo-defending, don’t-make-changes cabinet secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, argues…
Free Markets, School District
Public Schools as Old, Expensive Chevy Impalas, Part 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, I posted on the observation of Andrew Coulson at Cato who contends that public schools were like old, expensive Chevy Impalas. Here’s why he makes that analogy: U.S. student achievement at the end of high school has stagnated (reading and math) or declined (science) since nationally-representative NAEP tests were first administered around 1970. Meanwhile,…
School District
Public Schools as Old, Expensive Chevy Impalas?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Andrew Coulson of Cato contends that if the auto industry were run like public schools, then you’d have to purchase an old model car at a high price: What would the U.S. automobile industry look like if it were run the same way, and had suffered the same productivity collapse, as public schooling? To the…
School District
More Choice: The School Board Meeting for May 27th
by JOHN ADAMS •
At our most recent school board meeting, a parent mentioned concerns with nutrition and (as a possible aspect of health and wellness) presentation of movies rated PG-13, for example, to younger children. In the case of nutrition, on some occasions, students may receive candy as reward when parents would not, themselves, reward their own children…