Jeff Spalding, former CFO for the City of Indianapolis and current director of Fiscal Policy and Analysis at the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, published an interesting blog post last week titled If you think expanding school choice is expensive. I found his examples intriguing as they stimulated some good discussion around the question of whether we can really fund school choice in North … Read More
The Teacher Effect
There was a motorcar company commercial that ran in our local television market, coining the phrase “The Eide Effect”. According to their website, this meant that their company built a business on the values that takes one beyond the “business as usual” transaction. This company wanted customers to know that they cared about the human connection and that this “Eide … Read More
Another Look at Why Parents Choose Christian Schools
Tony Kamphuis, Director of Niagara Association for Christian Education, sent CACE a link after reading More Than Scores – An Analysis of Why and How Parents Choose Private Schools, the Friedman Foundation’s paper documenting their findings on why parents choose private schools. A similar discovery paper was funded by the Society for Quality Education and published by The Fraser Institute … Read More
People, Process, Product
I was listening to NPR radio last week when a phrase caught my attention: People, Process, Product. This phrase, from my quick search, was first used by Motorola in their development of Six Sigma, the set of techniques and tools they developed for process improvement in the late 1980’s. Six Sigma hit the big time when Jack Welch used it … Read More
Why CACE? Why Now?
Good questions for sure! And, ones I have been asked a few times this past month. My personal response reflects two thought paths. The first comes from Philippians 2:1-4: Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united in Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then … Read More
Take One, Leave One: CACE as a Marketplace of Ideas
As we navigate the best ways that CACE can help meet the needs of Christian schools, we have heard this phrase, “marketplace of ideas,” from a number of educators. This phrase has definitely stuck and helped us focus on some specific ways our web presence might facilitate this need of Christian schools. Thus, to learn from the merchant and marketing … Read More
Where Are They Now? A “First Look” at 2002 High School Graduates
First Look is an intriguing longitudinal study that tracks the 2002 class of sophomore students through their next ten years of life. Not an easy undertaking, so I was excited to see what the Institute of Education Sciences uncovered through this study. This research was meant to paint a picture about the factors and circumstances related to the performance and … Read More
“Not now Mom, I’m multitasking!”
Does this scenario resemble a study session at your house? Kayla is in her room, papers and technology spread across the floor. The Algebra book is open as is the World History text. There is music playing from the iPhone which is wirelessly connected to a Bluetooth speaker on her desk. She is talking out loud, seemingly to herself until … Read More
The wisdom of crowds…
James Suroweicki wrote a fascinating and thought-provoking book with this title in 2005. He tells tales such as that of Sir Frances Galton, a man obsessed with the measurement of physical and mental qualities, statistics, and breeding. Galton decided to put his obsessions to the test at a livestock fair in London in 1884. A fat ox was selected and … Read More
School Choice in My State? Really?
I am guessing that if one would survey random citizens as they walk the downtown streets in your community asking the question, “Does our state have school choice legislation?”, you would receive some interesting responses. A fair guess would be that most would not be aware of school choice legislation in their state. The Friedman Foundation has declared “No More!” … Read More