Place Based Education
Personalized Learning
Dropout prevention reports…and the rest of the solution
NASBE recently released a dropout prevention report that included some typical recommendations (data, training, community partnerships, multiple pathways). I’m glad the state boards on on the case. NGA also issued a report which better describes the solution set including a recommendation to “provide rigorous, relevant options for…
Personalized Learning
Public & private investment will benefit edu
The private sector plays a big role in K-12 education especially in the four Ts: textbooks, testing, technology and tutoring. There has been relatively little R&D spending in education, but most of the useful investment has been by the private sector. Federal stimulus investments will accelerate efforts to bring quality…
Personalized Learning
Blended Restarts
There are about 10,000 really bad schools in America. The majority are elementary schools. We know how to make them better, but it takes political will and capacity to improve them. We know less about turning around bad secondary schools. The one thing wrong with them is everything. That makes…
Personalized Learning
More on the killer app question
1. Killer field trips. Imagine taking a group of kids to the mall for a field trip. What do you think they could learn? How would your answer be different if they had a smart phone application that showed them the history, economy, demographics, and engineering of the place?…
EdTech
Rebooting Education: Technology & the Future of Learning
Philanthropy Roundtable held a one day conference on the Stanford campus. Here’s a summary of two interesting morning discussions Panel 1: Kid’s Eye View of Online Learning: Connie Yowell, Michael Horn, Susan Patrick Eleven year old Zach Bonner kicked off the Roundtable meeting with a tour of Florida…
Personalized Learning
Yowell & Hastings highlight Breakthru Learning @Google
Connie Yowell, MacArthur, opened day 2 of the Breakthrough Learning conference at Google with a powerful set of observations drawn from four years of grant making in youth media & learning: 1. kids (out of school) are learning, connecting, participating in new ways 2. schools are node on…
Personalized Learning
Barber on Standards: E(K+T+L)
Sir Michael Barber, architect of many of the UK education reforms of the last decade and McKinsey’s education lead, recently spoke to teachers in Singapore. As usual, Michael framed the situation in a unique and helpful way particularly on the aims of education. He described what students should know and…
Personalized Learning
Google conference, day 1
Eric Schmidt opened an education conference held at Google headquarters. He noted that kids often ahead of their teachers on the tech front and that it’s ridiculous to memorize stuff when you could ask for favorite search engine. His hope for the conference was that we could forge a consensus…
Personalized Learning
A Parent Revolution brewing in LA
Great summary of new choice policy in this EdWeek blog. Here’s a portion: In what may be a first-of-its-kind reform, the nation’s second-largest…
Personalized Learning
Restarts beat turnarouns
We just don’t know how to turnaround failing schools, but we do know how to start good new schools. We should do what we know works. That’s the message from Andy Smarick in his important EdNext article, The Turnaround Fallacy. I’ve been involved with the development of 1200 new…