A new report by LFA and Grunwald Associates, with support from AT&T, examines how parents perceive the value of mobile devices, how they see their children using mobiles, and what they think of the possibilities for mobile learning.
Standards that Matter
Blog Entries
Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is teaming up with two law schools (and presumably a lot of twenty-something computer programmers) to create civics education video games. At the Games for Change conference yesterday, she announced a project to develop interactive on-line games that let students "engage in real legal issues"--and, in the process, learn how courts work. ...
I couldn't swing a cat over the past few days without hitting a reference to the virtues of performance assessment--thanks in large part to the Coalition of Essential Schools' effective promotion of National Exhibition Month, which "promote[s] and celebrate exhibitions as a preferred form of student assessment" ...
In the first installment of our interview with best-selling author Dave Eggers, Eggers told us about 826 National, the network of community-based centers he co-founded to help students with their expository and creative writing skills.
In this second installment, Eggers describes his strategies for motivating reluctant writers. These strategies include:
...
We've received and published five new public school and district success stories in the past weeks. Have a look at these inspiring accounts of what's working in American public schools and schools districts:
- Pateros School District, Washington: Arts Education Broadens Horizons in Washington State, May 5
- Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District, Texas: In Texas, a Second Chance at a Bright Future, May 8
- Coachella Valley Unified School District, California: Awareness Initiative Boosts College Attendance, May 12
- Spencer County High School, Kentucky: Changing a Culture by Building Relationships, May 15
- Walker County High School, Tennessee: Innovative Courses in Math & Science Take Students from the Earth to the Sky--and to High Achievement, May 20
On this 25th anniversary of Nation at Risk, a chorus of education commentators has lamented that
serious problems persist even after a quarter century of education reform. Rather than allow such gloomy assessments to stifle faith in reform, we should consider this oddly reassuring point: We've sooner pantomimed than truly enacted the most promising reforms. Many of our best systemic reform ideas have yet to be thoroughly tested on a large scale. ...
Just last week, the Forum for Education and Democracy issued an important report on the federal role in K-12 education: Democracy at Risk: The Need for a New Federal Policy in Education. With its obvious nod to Nation at Risk, the publication joins a long line of reports that raise the alarm over American students' declining standing in international assessments. Unlike many of those reports, however, Democracy at Risk strongly criticizes recent reform efforts' almost exclusive focus on "mandates and sanctions." ...
In a few days, a new and expanded edition of Richard Louv’s best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods, will hit bookstores around the country. Louv’s book has fueled an international movement to combat what he calls “nature deficit disorder,” children’s growing alienation from the natural world. (Louv’s term for the disorder is quickly catching on, turning up in major newspapers, on television, and even in a February cartoon by Bloom County creator Berke Breathed.)
A quotation from our recent telephone interview with Louv elegantly captures the thrust of his argument: “[T]he message we’re sending kids is that nature is in the past and probably doesn’t count anymore, the future’s in electronics, the boogeyman lives in the woods, and playing outdoors is probably illicit and possibly illegal.” ...
In observance of Earth Day 2008, veteran science teacher Kenny Luna cooked up a clever way to
get young students thinking about the impact they have on the environment every day. In a few short months, he has managed to get thousands of school children in schools across the country to take on the "Great Copy Machine Epidemic of 2008."
In his own words:
When more than 23,000 school kids at 30 schools in 13 U.S. States and the Island of Curacao participated in The Great Copy Machine Epidemic of 2008, they took a step towards reducing both deforestation and global warming by going without photocopies in classes for a day.
But they also had fun while "diagnosing" which contagious disease they believe has been causing school photocopy machines everywhere to chew up trees and spit them out at such an amazing rate. They dressed copiers up with the disease of their choice to create awareness of the problem among students, teachers, parents and staff throughout the day. ...
Gary Swick has become something of a legend--not only at the Illinois high school where he teaches
science, but also among environmental educators nationwide. A winner of the prestigious Milken Educator Award, Swick regularly gets his students into the field, where they actually help protect the environment while they learn science. In one case, his students' careful observation of conditions at a nearby river prompted a City Council to adopt a construction site erosion control ordinance.
In our interview, Swick listed many benefits of environmental education. Among them: Students become better stewards of the world they inhabit; Reluctant or struggling students become much more engaged in science when they can do authentic work in the field.
Perhaps most important, Swick has turned his high school students into evangelists for the environment. They put on "energy fairs" to carry their message of energy conservation and green living to elementary school children and others across their state. He and his students travel to these fairs in a school bus (they call it a "cool bus") they have reengineered to run on biofuels--which can include grease and other waste from the school kitchen. ...
Where There's a Will, There's a Way
If you haven't heard of Will Steger, you should have.
He mounted the first unsupported dogsled expedition to the North Pole, the longest unsupported dogsled trek
in history (1,600 miles through Greenland), the first dogsled expedition across Antarctica (all 3,471 miles) and the first Antarctic crossing on foot (!). Along the way, he has witnessed at close hand the dramatic effects of rapid climate change in some of the world's remotest places. He recently spoke with Public School Insights about his ongoing work to share the impact of climate change with K-12 teachers and students nationwide. ...
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
On this website, educators, parents and policymakers from coast to coast are sharing what's already working in public schools--and sparking a national conversation about how to make it work for children in every school. Join the conversation!
