This guest blog post written by Danny Rosenthal, who is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former high school math teacher. He practices labor and employment law in Washington, D.C.

Two years ago, Florida’s Alachua County was faced with a dilemma. Under the state’s new teacher evaluation law, the county was required to base 40 percent of evaluations on value-added student achievementContinue Reading »

The research field of teacher pensions has been a relative backwater, but lately it just keeps getting more interesting. Yesterday, the Fordham Institute released a new paper from Marty West and Matt Chingos analyzing a 2002 policy change in Florida which allowed teachers to choose between a traditional defined benefit pension plan and a 401k-style defined contribution plan. The authors were abContinue Reading »

Last December I flew to Tallahassee to testify as part of the Florida State Legislature’s K-12 Virtual Education Workshop. As a native Floridian, I’ve been proud of my home state’s leadership in virtual schooling. Florida Virtual School is the largest and one of the most successful state-run virtual schools in the country. It’s widely regarded as a nationwide model. And,Continue Reading »