Personalized Learning
More on Motivation: Knowledge Workers like Progress
Catherine Gewrtz, EdWeek, make great observation here that the ability to see progress is a great motivator.  Check out Harvard Business Review, “this is worth a look.”  Catherine continues: It’s an argument for the importance of feeling that you are making progress in your work. The authors…
Personalized Learning
Motivation May be More Important than Style
Jay Mathews dug up a report that suggested there was little evidence “to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice.” Â I think most teachers would agree that it’s obvious that kids learn in different ways. Â But it’s fair to say that books like multiple intelligences was taken…
Personalized Learning
A Better Alternative
About two thirds of American students leave high school unprepared for college and careers; almost a third drop out and another third graduate unprepared to earn college credit. There are lots of reasons, but now that there’s agreement that students should graduate college/career ready, it’s clear that American high schools…
Personalized Learning
Creativity and Accountability
Yong Zhao is back in receptive Seattle this week preaching his gospel of edu-innovation. The anti-standards, pro-creativity Zhao is a Chinese-born prof at Michigan State. Here’s his thesis in a nutshell: In my new book Catching Up or Leading the Way, I mostly focus on issues facing…
Personalized Learning
RttT Plans: Detailed, Compliant, Insufficient
I spent the last two days reading Race to the Top plans.  Here’s a few observations: 1. The plans are comprehensive and detailed. They all slavishly follow the Department of Education scoring rubic. As I’ve repeatedly said, RttT is a great program, but this isn’t ‘loose on means’.
Personalized Learning
Time is Running Out
After traveling Asia by high speed train and lounging in spectacular airports, it’s always disheartening to return to JKF or LAX. Bob Herbert makes the case that Time is Running Out for America to build the transportation, energy, and education infrastructure of the future. Quoting that great philosopher…
Personalized Learning
New Frame for ESEA: Half Right, Big Risk
Message refined, Secretary Duncan is doing the morning show circuit socializing a proposal for the reauthorization of federal education policy.  He’s attempting to assemble the first bipartisan coalition of the Obama administration to address a major piece of legislation. It won’t be easy and it probably won’t happen this year…
Personalized Learning
The School Choice Debate in India
HYDERABAD. After three weeks with Gray Matters Capital, I realized that I landed in India at a very dynamic time of education reform—a very different version than is occurring in the US—perhaps not really reform, but a rapid evolution of a multi-provider system of education with 500 million eager customers.
Personalized Learning
Thoughts for Charter School Authorizers
Dear Charter Authorizers, 1. Some of you are becoming school districts–bureaucratic and directive. Â What happened to ‘autonomy for accountability’? Â Reading some of your renewal reviews, it’s like having a boss all over again. 2. Timelines are so long and apps are so big and expensive to prepare,…
Personalized Learning
NY could learn some things from LA too
Margaret Raymond’s LA Times piece suggested that LA could learn from NY. Â That’s true in some areas of school reform, but I think there may be problems with some of her assertions and her timing. 1. She references her study which had obvious flaws regarding matching (i.e., first…