Two words that do not immediately fit together in my mind. My immediate connection to the word “platoon” will continue to be the Oliver Stone movie from 1986, starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, and Charlie Sheen as Vietnam soldiers on their tour of duty. I don’t know if this film made the act of war more real for an … Read More
Saving Money for Public Education through Christian Schooling?
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
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
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
Will and Wisdom
As I consider beginning to work with schools through CACE in both of the areas of improvement and innovation I think it is appropriate to start with the words will and wisdom. Over the years I have observed that effective change in schools is often simply a matter of having the will to do something. The leader must possess the … Read More