Personalized Learning
The Critical Need for Genuine School Reform
Over the last few years, fund manager and edu-eBlaster Whitney Tilson developed and refined the most compelling data-driven case for school reform, The Critical Need for Genuine School Reform. Warning: it’s about 170 pages plus appendices, but if you haven’t read it you really should.  At least take 15 minutes…
Personalized Learning
School Choice in Sweden
BBC‘s Liz MacKean offers great report on school choice in Sweden where “There are now more than 1,100 such schools in Sweden, funded by the state, but operated independently.” And “About 10% of all students of compulsory school age now attend the new schools, and in the upper secondary level…
Personalized Learning
Two Sisters Improve Reading Online
When I was superintendent in Federal Way, two of our best reading teachers happened to be sisters, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Â I had the good fortune to run into them on a flight this week. Â They’ve published two great books, The Daily 5 most recently, and run an…
Personalized Learning
Games Will Change Everything
Games (and other smart adaptive learning media) will be part the core instructional program for most kids in a few years because they are: Adaptive: continuous performance assessment identifies and targets a student’s instructional level and provides instant feedback–it’s personalized learning; Engaging: good games use creative media to teach key…
Personalized Learning
Why Isn’t Everybody Learning Online?
Pretty good free online K-12 learning options exist in most states, so why aren’t more students learning online? There are more than 2 million students learning online and that’s growing by more than 30% annually, but there are five significant barriers to more rapid adoption: Babysitting: Don’t underestimate the custodial…
Personalized Learning
Edu-Innovation, an Oxymoron?
In preparation for the New Schools Summit, following are a few thoughts for a great group. Acknowledging the difficulty of penetrating the complex decentralized maze of US public education, a New Schools regular asked a dinner gathering of notable reformers last week if education innovation was an oxymoron.
EdTech
Go West (to China), Canada, and Take Your Teachers With You
Two great stories surfaced in my Twitter feed today and they speak to the strange and illuminating practices in Chinese education industry. Some if it could be instructional for those of us in the Americas trying to make a business out of teaching. One was a story about Canada…
Personalized Learning
Rocketship Ready to Takeoff
Rocketship Education a charter network in development in San Jose, is working hard to create the future. Â It’s an early hybrid–a blend of online and onsite learning. Kids spend about a fifth of their time learning basic skills online; this allows Rocketship to run a long day/year program and…
Personalized Learning
Make Early College Available to All Students
National Journal takes up the subject of Early College High Schools today. Â Here’s my entry: Call it coincidence, but in one week in 2002 I had a bus ride with Cece Cunningham, a phone call from Bard President Leon Botstein and a discussion with Utah Gov. Leavitt that…
Personalized Learning
Building a Better Teacher (the Online Version)
New York Times Magazine got the title right but the story wrong. Doug Lemov is great and his book, Teach Like a Champ, will be a big contribution to the sector. But we’re still trying to solve a 1990 question—how does one teacher lift the achievement level of…