Publications

Resisting the Temptation to Comprehensive Action

Memo • May 1983

Consider a given public policy problem. Everyone sees the problem is complex. From this comes an impulse to control all its elements. Everyone sees the importance of improvement. From this comes an impulse to command improvement. Together these produce the ‘blueprints’ we so often see: lists of actions all of which must be taken, in a certain order, over a period of time. But in the public sector blueprints usually fail. Mechanisms of “mutual adjustment” usually work better.

Professionals and Administrators: Two Models of Organization

Meeting Notes • May 1983

Notes from an evening with a group of teachers, and the partners in a law firm and a medical clinic. The discussion about the relationship of professionals and administrators, in law and medicine, compared to the relationship of teachers and principal in a typical school, is fascinating especially with regards to authority and pay.

Electronics Technology for Public School Systems: A Superintendent’s View

Memo • November 1981

George Young, in 1981 superintendent of St. Paul, foresaw technology as a tool not to replace teachers, but to help them do their jobs. Using technology to individualize education can reform a system where students are lumped into grades and instructed as a group regardless of their learning style and abilities.

The Aims of Education (Whitehead, 1929)

Article • January 1929

Culture is activity of thought, and receptiveness to beauty. Scraps of information have nothing to do with it. We should aim at producing people who possess both culture and expert knowledge in some special direction. Their knowledge will give them ground to start from, and their culture will lead them as deep as philosophy and as high as art.

Origins of Chartering Timeline

Web Resource • September 2010

Albert Shanker and Ray Budde had the 'charter' idea early. Minnesota got it into law; seeing 'charter' not as a kind of school but as a platform for developing different schools. Use this timeline to learn more about the progress of the chartering idea.

Why President Obama Should Speak to the States

Memo • January 2009

The country has the governmental relationships upside down, with the states setting the targets for results and Washington leaning on the states, districts and schools to make it happen. President Obama should put the roles right, so that the national government is "pushing buttons that are connected to live wires".

What Is Innovation… and What Isn’t?

Memo • June 2009

The discussion about "innovation" in K-12 education is coming on rapidly, as the sense grows that K-12 requires radical change. But there is confusion about concepts and terms. Partly, this is because we are all still learning. This brief paper will try to distinguish the various meanings of "innovation."

Teacher Voices on Video

Video • July 2009

Watch teachers describe what it's like to work in schools designed and run by teachers—that is, teacher-powered schools.

What Matters to Students and Their Performance?

Meeting Notes • November 2006

Students of Minnesota chartered schools say they may have dropped out had they not attended new and different schools. While all of the students appreciated improved relationships with teachers and peers, their different schools, in different ways, enhanced the students’ abilities to learn. Notes from a student panel.

Students Inform Legislators: What’s Important to Understand About Chartered Schools and Student Motivation

Memo • May 2005

At the Charter School Student Summit held in St. Paul in December 2004, students discussed the growth and challenges facing the charter movement. Students discussed their own experiences and exchanged ideas for improvement of the sector, and were asked to inform legislators about chartered schools and what motivates them to learn.

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