Alfred Thompson

Chris Stephenson does a great job of laying out some of the pitfalls of corporate sponsorship of educational organizations on the CSTA blog from the side of the educational organization. Many of the same issues apply to just about any non-profit organization. Non-profits need sponsors and their…

Something like 80% of Americans live in metropolitan areas and so of course most of the education attention seems to be focused on those areas as well. It seems to me though that school reform should be easiest in those metropolitan areas. In densely populated areas it is easier to create more and…

I try not to be too much of a marketing dork, especially in this forum, but I'm a little concerned that so many schools seem to trail behind in updating computer software.Schools and educators are often very change adverse. Call it risk adverse perhaps. But I run into a lot of teachers who just…

Having kids changes your life. I doubt that any parent would disagree with that statement. Apparently having children has gotten Bill Gates to think a lot more about education.Bill says that the US education system needs work. No kidding!To no ones surprise Bill's kids are in private school.…

The announcement is here. The one thing I object to is that only people who have education blogs can make nominations. That means that a whole lot of people who read blogs and who may be very good judges of such sites cannot make nominations. The process seems a bit like an insider's club to me. I…

It appears that Tom Vander Ark, executive director for education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is stepping down. The Gates Foundation has billions of dollars to give away and can make quite an impact. The results of their giving has been mixed so far. Of course the results of pretty…

The Department of Education announced amended rules to allow more flexibility in the creation of single gender schools and classrooms. As one might expect there has created some controversy. The Education Wonk likes the idea of single gender classrooms but is skeptical of whole schools. Some people…

Just when you think some parents are over protective some school steps in to prove that they are even more so. According to this article some schools are banning games like tag and others that might involve physical contact. What next? No more after school sports like football, basketball or…

The LA Times reports on a new trend towards hiring school district superintendents who have not previous academic (teaching or management) experience. One popular option is hiring retired military officers. Now I have known several military officers who have become great teachers. Some move from…

Have you ever looked at teacher certification requirements? One of the reasons I taught in a private school is that I wouldn't need to go for state certification. At this point in my life I have 9 years of teaching experience including a year in two elementary schools and 8 years of teaching high…