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Frederick M. Hess's Blog

Straight Up Conversation: New NSNO CEO Neerav Kingsland

I recently had a chance to chat with Neerav Kingsland, recently named CEO of New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO). NSNO has been a pivotal player in New Orleans' post-Katrina reform landscape. A Tulane and Yale Law School alum, Neerav previously served as the chief strategy officer for NSNO. You may also recall him as a former guest star at RHSU. Neerav is taking the reins from Sarah Usdin, the founder of NSNO who is stepping back after a half-dozen years at the helm. Given the centrality of New Orleans to various reform debates, including those over charter schooling and "recovery districts," I thought it worth chatting with Neerav about NSNO and the work of transforming education in New Orleans. Here's what Neerav had to say.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Mon, May 21, 2012 8:13 AM  |  Permalink

Sanctimonious Scolding Isn't a Great Strategy for Promoting School Choice

The other day, the Fordham Institute's Adam Emerson attacked Louisiana's Zachary school district for having the temerity to not participate in the state's new voucher program. After expressing initial interest, Zachary opted not to partake. The voucher program, championed by Governor Bobby Jindal, would allow students who attend Louisiana public schools earning a C, D, or F on the state's accountability system to attend a private or another public school.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Thu, May 17, 2012 8:20 AM  |  Permalink

How Romney Should Grade Obama on Education

Given concerns about the economy, jobs, and health care, education policy isn't likely to be a make-or-break issue in November's presidential election. But it matters a great deal, nonetheless.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Wed, May 16, 2012 8:51 AM  |  Permalink

Media Fawning a Little Less When It Comes to Edu-Giving

A number of years ago, in my 2005 book With the Best of Intentions: How Philanthropy is Reshaping K-12 Education, I pointed out that media coverage of education foundations tended to be wide-eyed and sycophantic.  At that time, I analyzed the coverage of the five leading edu-foundations by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, and The Associated Press between 1995 and early 2005.  Researchers coded each story on K-12 giving as positive, negative, factual, or balanced.  Of the 146 articles identified, just five were critical, while nearly half were laudatory.

On the one hand, who could blame the press?  Wealthy individuals choosing to give away millions in order to benefit schools and children is a good thing. And, as I noted in Best of Intentions, there's a "natural inclination [for] journalists to frame stories about generous gifts in a positive manner" and for "newspapers to write positively about professionally endorsed school reforms." Meanwhile, I observed, "Reporters have a difficult time finding local educators or scholars who will publicly criticize philanthropic initiatives."

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Mon, May 14, 2012 8:21 AM  |  Permalink

The CHE's Craven Blow Against Honest Speech

Last week, the Chronicle of Higher Education blogger Naomi Schaefer Riley posted a tough, skewering (dare we say "mean-spirited") item blasting what she sees as a lack of academic rigor in black studies departments (hardly an earth-shattering observation, given that similar complaints have been made about all sorts of race and gender studies programs). For her trouble, on Monday she was fired from her gig as a paid columnist for the Chronicle. Given that the Chronicle is routinely filled with enthusiastic defenses of ethnic studies and casual attacks on "conservatives," you'd think they'd welcome the occasional touch of intellectual diversity. Turns out, not so much.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Wed, May 9, 2012 9:02 AM  |  Permalink

The Big Philanthropic Shift: Now What?

I recently wrote a piece for Phi Delta Kappan exploring a couple of the key developments in edu-giving since 2005. That's the year I published With the Best of Intentions: How Philanthropy is Reshaping K-12 Education, in which I (in my usual mean-spirited fashion) used the dismal experience of the then-recently concluded $1.1 billion Annenberg Challenge as a jumping-off point.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Mon, May 7, 2012 8:43 AM  |  Permalink

Slogans That Didn't Quite Make the Cut

I was tasked with emcee'ing an open mike night a couple nights ago for the annual New Schools Venture Fund summit. Good time. Great people, lots of friends, terrific conversation. Anyway, I took the opportunity to share a few school reform slogans that folks have dreamed up over time, but that didn't quite make the grade. I always find that kind of glimpse behind the curtain an interesting exercise. If you're of like mind, read on.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Fri, May 4, 2012 8:23 AM  |  Permalink

A Lose-Lose Deal: Timid Leadership Yields Half-Baked Policies

Readers may know that I'm currently finishing the manuscript of my Cage-Busting Leadership book for Harvard Education Press, with the crack assistance of Whitney Downs (who coauthored this post). Writing the book has made it clear that one major problem with leaders failing to take advantage of the operational freedoms they already enjoy is that it forces advocates and policymakers to try to compensate with the crude tools at their disposal. Absent bold leadership, reformers feel they have little recourse but to resort to crude policy proposals that often fail to address real chokepoints and let timid boards and superintendents off the hook.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Wed, May 2, 2012 8:44 AM  |  Permalink

The Sorry Stafford Panderfest

Hidy, all. I'm back. Had my head down, crashing away on the Cage-Busting book manuscript. We'll eventually see how that turned out. Meanwhile, I've been blown away by the quality of the guest-blogging, so a special thanks to Jonathan, Chapman, Robin, and Andrew.

Anyway, let's get back to it, shall we? I've been typically disheartened by the Obama-inspired, now-bipartisan panderfest that's broken out over Stafford loans. For those who've been otherwise occupied, here's a quick recap.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Mon, April 30, 2012 8:31 AM  |  Permalink

Introducing Your Special Guest Stars: Plucker, Snowden, Lake, and Kelly

Hi folks. So I'm about to take one of my blog breaks as I start to approach crunch time on my upcoming book on cage-busting leadership. (For a quick intro to what the book holds, see my blog post on it here.) Fortunately, I'm once again psyched to offer up a stellar array of contributors to step in for the next four weeks.

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By Frederick M. Hess  |  Fri, March 30, 2012 8:02 AM  |  Permalink

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