Posts by Tom Vander Ark
10 Things Superintendents Should Do Now
A discussion with a group of Ohio superintendents led to a list of ten projects we discussed for fall 2014.
10 Things Educators, Mayors, Business Leaders Should Do Now
Take 10 minutes and think about ways you can extend your impact. Here's 10 things educators, civic and business leaders can do to help create #SmartCities
20 Things States Should Do Now
Considering the opportunity provided by new tools and new schools, here are 15 things every state should do now.
College Now: Scott Mendelsberg’s Great New Book on College Prep
In many high schools, the shuffle of a discipline-based, big-catalog master schedule can lead to lack of sustained relationships and increased risks for students to fall through the cracks. Important outcomes get little attention with the lack of an advisory spine. In his new book College Now, Scott Mendelsberg takes on these problems of aims and architecture; of inequitably distributed resources and expectations; and the political dysfunction of urban school districts.
Teaching Students to Learn Using the Dominant Media
Alan November led a provocative conversation with Ohio superintendents at a TRECA retreat. He urged problem solving and teaching with the dominant media of society--the internet.”
Smart Cities: Lessons from Tampa
Tampa area districts serve more than 300,000 students but don’t get much national attention. Hillsborough provides a great example of effective homegrown leadership.
New York: An EdTech Hotspot, A Stalled District
Despite state barriers to online learning, young people in NYC are taking advantage of anywhere, anytime learning. The NYC Department of Education has been slow to improve student access to technology. The iZone was the largest blended learning initiative in the country but its future seems in question. Outside the district, the learning revolution continues.
Fostering Next Gen Learning: a Q&A with iNACOL’s Susan Patrick
Tom recently discussed next-gen learning with Susan Patrick of iNACOL. Here's a Q&A from their discussion...
Using Blended Tools to Maximize Instructional Time
Based on over twenty years of research, READ 180 was developed to assess, differentiate, and quickly boost literacy skills so that struggling students could achieve success across their coursework. The program is designed to meet the instructional needs of teachers while helping students meet the rigorous expectations of the new standards and experience success on the new assessments.
David Dockterman on 4 Belief Statements Underlying Student Performance
David Dockterman would like to see more productive failure. But as a lecturer at Harvard’s GSE, Dockterman sees students afraid to blemish a polished transcript.