“. . . as education companies we can't just come up with a great product, show it to teachers, and expect to be successful. Our products and services have to help decision makers with their state and federal compliance and intricately defined funding requirements if we are going to be successful. If we don’t know what these are, we can’t get our products accepted.”  — Mitch Weisburgh, Managing Partner, Academic Business Advisors

A recent article in Politico claims that the federal E-Rate program produced no gains in student SAT results in North Carolina public high schools. With this assertion, the author concludes that federal programs supporting school connectivity nationwide should be eliminated, or at least halted until investments can demonstrate a stronger relationship with student outcomes. But the article’s underlying study doesn’t support such a sweeping conclusion, and the author fails to recognize the key role played by professional development for teachers in improving classroom learning through technology. more

The post-August recess has not been a quiet time for education policy on Capitol Hill or in the states.  The reauthorization of ESEA is moving to conference, the U.S. Senate has announced its intention to reauthorize the Perkins CTE Act, two Federal student privacy bills are pending, and Michigan has been moving its own student privacy legislation. SIIA has not been sleeping through this season either.