News and happenings

I started my job today as a Research Fellow at the UM School of Ed. I work on several projects involving preschool education, and you can see more here. I'm listed in the Research Team page.

A couple other things...in Michigan there's a schools-of-choice program that is voluntary for districts. If you wish to have students come from other districts to yours, you can allow it. This is possible because of the way schools are funded; each district gets a specific dollar amount from the state for each child attending its schools. So more kids means more state dollars. There are a few cases where property tax dollars still pay for a portion of local education, but for the most part, districts are funded by the state based on a head count.

So attracting kids to your district is potentially lucrative. And now several school districts are running radio ads to attract kids. And some districts are actually touting their adherence and success via NCLB as a selling point. They tell people that all their teachers are qualified according to NCLB guideliness. And they mention that their schools all meet AYP. I found this suprising given the irritation many educators have toward NCLB. I guess it depends on what you need it for.

Also, do you watch Lost? Did you see the season finale on Thursday? Did you notice who was in the coffin, and notice that the dead character's name, and the alias he was using just before he died are both names of philosophers? John Locke and Jeremy Bentham. Perfect. The people who write this show must be wild. I love it.