Personalized Learning

Flipping Florida: The New Employment Bargain

The only thing at stake is the future of American. Two big dramas involving teachers and testing are at play in education. My last post discussed the $350m federal grant program that is likely to lock in another decade of bubble sheet tests rather than a forward leaning framework open to the flood of keystroke data telling us more than we ever knew about achievement, motivation, and learning modality.

Personalized Learning

More Widgets, Fewer #2 Pencils

With last week's launch of the $350m federal grant program last week, National Journal is hosting a conversation about student assessment. Here's my contribution.

Personalized Learning

Why Great Teachers Matter to Low Income Students

"Consider the recent national math scores of fourth- and eighth-graders, which show startling differences among results for low-income African American students in different cities. In Boston, Charlotte, New York and Houston, these fourth-graders scored 20 to 30 points higher than students in the same socioeconomic group in Detroit, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and the District of Columbia. Boston fourth-graders outscored those in Detroit by 33 points. Ten points approximates one year’s worth of learning on these national tests, which means that by fourth grade, poor African American children in Detroit are already three grades behind their peers in Boston."

EdTech

JD Hoye Taking NAF to Next Level

Sandy Weill can be very persuasive.   About three years ago, a consultant enjoying a Bay Area lifestyle found the former Citi CEO’s pitch good enough to convince her to commute to New York City every week. Sandy formed National Academies Foundation in 1984 (when I was still working in…

Personalized Learning

Cristo Rey: Keeping Urban Catholic Education Vibrant

Out of financial desperation, Father Foley created a corporate sponsored work-study program at this Little Village Catholic high school on Chicago’s westside.  Soon student work was helping to pay the bills.  And then something surprising occurred to students, teachers, parents, and Father Foley—the work-studies were often the most important experience…

Personalized Learning

Making Data Matter

Interesting day at the EdWeek Leader’s Forum on Making Data Matter.  Dan Katzir, Broad, did a great job kicking off the event with lessons learned over 10 years.  Amiee Guidera did a great job outlining the Data Quality Campaign agenda. It was disappointing only 6% of the participants responded…