Here in New York (my home until Saturday), our new mayor has made universal prekindergarten classes a political priority. Winning pre-K burned some of de Blasio’s leverage with other leaders in Albany and New York. Now that it’s been approved, we’re getting into tricky situations with the schools that want to participate. Religious organizations want to… Continue reading Meanwhile, across the pond…
Category: News
Who will test the testers?
Great follow-up to yesterday’s post. Dylan of the Learning Equality Foundation confirmed that they’re planning on doing randomized control trials (RCTs) on the KA Lite program. @finnismundi great question! Yes, partnered with UCSD Econ and great group in India to run a 40 classroom RCT for ’14-15 school year. — Dylan Barth (@Dylan_Barth) August 22,… Continue reading Who will test the testers?
Somebody’s making the web go world-wide
This week I learned (via Tony Wan at Edsurge) that Khan Academy lessons are now being offered offline. The program is called “KA Lite” and is run by the Foundation for Learning Equality. The idea is that users, or teachers, around the world will be able to download lessons with translations in their local language,… Continue reading Somebody’s making the web go world-wide
The debt is too damn high
This week I was disappointed (and simultaneously a little relieved) to read that my home state of Oregon may ditch their innovative to plan for zero-tuition colleges. Relieved because, let’s face it, it would be a rocky and difficult task to implement over several generations. Oregon has been at the forefront of a lot of cool ideas… Continue reading The debt is too damn high
Chegg ditches books (or at least, sending them)
This is old news (well, from last week), but I didn’t see it while I was in San Francisco for interviews. Chegg, the company that made its name buying and selling textbooks, is offloading the actual warehousing and shipping of books to the Ingram Content Group. I suppose it make sense, but I’ve still been… Continue reading Chegg ditches books (or at least, sending them)
An Oregonian Gets It
Nick Kristof has a great piece this week in the Times about poverty and empathy in America (Is a Hard Life Inherited?). I’m probably a little biased toward Kristof’s writing because he is, like me, from Oregon, but I do think that he does an excellent job of bringing attention to overlooked social and economic… Continue reading An Oregonian Gets It
Welcome from the end of the earth
Welcome to finnismundi. I’m Finn, and I’ll be using this blog to share tools for nonprofits and my thoughts on trends in topics that interest me. The title for this site is a play on my name, Finn, but it also reflects my interests and professional philosophy. Finis is Latin for “boundary,” and mundi is… Continue reading Welcome from the end of the earth