Of, By, For: In Search of the Civic Mission of K-12 Schools
Education activist Sam Chaltain wrote about the changing nature of public education and highlighted where the K-12 learning revolution is already underway. This blog is no longer being updated.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
The Monday After Thanksgiving
To understand what's happening in American education, spend the Monday after Thanksgiving in a school with many students living in poverty.
Education
Opinion
Do We Want Kids to Belong or Fit In?
In this guest post, Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center Executive Director Kimberlee Kiehl wonders if our historic fixation on getting kids to fit in is getting in the way of creating communities to which they feel they belong, and suggests a few ways we might need to change our practices as a result.
Education
Opinion
Understanding the Cognitive Demands of Poverty on our Students
New Jersey shoppers and Indian sugarcane farmers might have something to teach us about poverty and cognitive load. If you're an educator working with low-income children and families, you're going to want to know what the researchers found out.
Education
Opinion
The Public Trusts Teachers. . . To Do What Exactly?
Guest Column by Kim Farris-Berg
Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) and Gallup published the results of their annual poll of "The Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools" back in August 2013, and one of the findings has been on my mind ever since. That is, 72 percent of Americans have trust and confidence in the women and men who teach in public schools. Among Americans under the age of 40, that number goes up: 78 percent trust teachers!
Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) and Gallup published the results of their annual poll of "The Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools" back in August 2013, and one of the findings has been on my mind ever since. That is, 72 percent of Americans have trust and confidence in the women and men who teach in public schools. Among Americans under the age of 40, that number goes up: 78 percent trust teachers!
Education
Opinion
The Moral Limits of School Choice
I support school choice - but it's complicated.
I live in Washington, D.C., where almost half of the city's students attend charter schools. I helped launch a charter school here. My son attends another one, and the city is beginning to see some real collaboration between its charter schools and the district. Good things are happening.
I live in Washington, D.C., where almost half of the city's students attend charter schools. I helped launch a charter school here. My son attends another one, and the city is beginning to see some real collaboration between its charter schools and the district. Good things are happening.
Education
Opinion
Rethinking Early Education, & Why It Matters
Guest post by Kimberlee Kiehl
As I sit working in my D.C. apartment, shut out of our school at the Smithsonian because we are deemed "non-essential," I am thinking about how this phrase in many ways applies to how we see early learning in this country overall.
As I sit working in my D.C. apartment, shut out of our school at the Smithsonian because we are deemed "non-essential," I am thinking about how this phrase in many ways applies to how we see early learning in this country overall.
Education
Opinion
(More Than) Four Ways to Reverse Engineer How We Learn
As this country's Battle of the Edu-Tribes rages on, I find myself increasingly disinterested in the slings and arrows of each side's successive character assassination, and increasingly excited when I come upon a school, a community or an organization that is focusing all of its energies on attacking the central challenge of the day: moving away from the one-size-fits-all Industrial-era model of learning, and toward, well, something better.
Education
Opinion
How Do You Help Young People Care About School?
Guest post by Lennon Flowers.
It's 6:50am on a Tuesday. Erwin is knocking on Tyrell's door near the Poe Homes in West Baltimore. A few miles away, in a very different Baltimore, Mike is picking up Kelvin's favorite yogurt to add to the lunch that he will drop off at Dunbar High School that morning. Elizabeth is texting Jayden to make sure he's up and got his English paper done. To kick off her day, Cheryl is messaging Kelsey on Facebook with career ideas. Amanda is driving Juan home from rehab.
It's 6:50am on a Tuesday. Erwin is knocking on Tyrell's door near the Poe Homes in West Baltimore. A few miles away, in a very different Baltimore, Mike is picking up Kelvin's favorite yogurt to add to the lunch that he will drop off at Dunbar High School that morning. Elizabeth is texting Jayden to make sure he's up and got his English paper done. To kick off her day, Cheryl is messaging Kelsey on Facebook with career ideas. Amanda is driving Juan home from rehab.
Education
Opinion
Game Changers
If you want to change the ongoing inequities in American society - and in our public schools - is it better to invest in universally available early childhood programs, or universally available computer tablets?
Education
Opinion
Reign of Terror: Diane Ravitch's Personal Crusade
The first time I learned about Diane Ravitch is a lot like the first time I learned about Ronald Reagan. Let me explain.
Education
Opinion
Do Charter School Students Have First Amendment Rights?
Are public charter schools, when it comes to the law, actually public schools? Sam Chaltain is not so sure.
Education
Opinion
How Should We Evaluate Our Preschools?
IN DC, the city's public charter school board has proposed a plan that would base 80% of a Kindergarten's overall quality on its students' reading and math scores. Sam Chaltain thinks that's a bad idea -- and he has a solution to offer.
Education
Opinion
Should the Common Core Extend Into Early Childhood?
Should the early childhood community seek its own set of early learning standards? Or is the increasingly polarized debate over the Common Core reason enough to stay away?
Education
Opinion
With Teacher Evaluations, Let's Slow Down to Speed Up
As families across the country get ready for the rhythms of a new school year, teachers are getting ready for something else: new evaluation systems with high stakes and different definitions of what constitutes a job well done.
In theory, this is a good thing. So why has almost every new framework for measuring teacher effectiveness been met with such fierce resistance?