Personalized Learning
Personalized learning is a mindset and approach to teaching that focuses on meeting each learner where they are and tailoring a curriculum that considers their interests, prior knowledge and skill level, and pace. Such a demand on the teacher requires sophisticated usage of technology in a combination of personalized, blended and online 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…
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…
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.
Rocketship Ready to Takeoff
Rocketship Education a charter network in development in San Jose, is working hard to create the future. 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…
Make Early College Available to All Students
National Journal takes up the subject of Early College High Schools today. 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…
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…
What Stuck? Key EdReformer Question
What Stuck? What faded? As an EdReformer, it’s interesting to think about the investment of time and money with a little hindsight. Seven years ago, Caprice Young chaired the LAUSD board. She went on to run the California charter association and is now CEO of KCDL, a leading…
RttT Changed the Landscape
Race to the Top has already changed the landscape–that and Obama and Duncan’s backbone. They’ve done what no Republican president has had the nerve to do–take on teacher effectiveness. Their willingness to incorporate tough language in RttT resulted in 40 states developing very aggressive plans to dramatically improve teacher effectiveness.
US over Spain, Turkey, Mexico in Edu-Squeaker
The NYTimes reports that “Among O.E.C.D. countries, only New Zealand, Spain, Turkey and Mexico now have lower high school completion rates than the U.S.,” Mr. Schleicher said. About 7 in 10 American students get a high school diploma. The…
RttT has Worked & Will Work (with a little backfilling)
Ruckus over at National Journal about RttT accountability. As typical, Ravitch against everything (with Kress begging her to stand for something), Hess skeptical of everything, and clearheaded Chad Wick encouraging folks to use RttT as an opportunity to rethink the system. Here’s my quick addition: RttT is already…