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.
Luajean Bryan is a star.
Just ask her principal at Walker Valley High School in Tennessee, the students who flock to her advanced math and science classes, or the people at USA Today who named her to their 2006 all-star teaching team.
Bryan recently spoke with us about the innovative teaching practices that have won her local admiration and national attention. Her emphasis on hands-on learning is exciting students and swelling enrollments in higher-level science and math classes. With support from the NEA Foundation, for example, she accompanies students into caves and on untethered hot-air balloon trips to help them learn first-hand about mathematic and scientific principles that govern the world around them. ...
Pedro Noguera is a professor at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, a leading authority on school reform, and a co-chair of the task force that recently released a statement promoting "A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education." As I wrote in an earlier post, the statement calls for policies to reduce the educational, economic and social disadvantages that depress the academic achievement of our most vulnerable students.
Noguera recently took some time to tell me about the content and goals of the task force's work, and to address criticisms of the statement that have been circulating through some education policy blogs: namely, that the task force is letting schools off the hook and shying away from hard-hitting education reforms. ...
A new report from the venerable National Research Council has found that teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards are more likely than their peers to boost their students' achievement and to remain in teaching.
You can read more about the report and the National Board here. ...
At long last, Public School Insights is providing written transcripts of our exclusive audio interviews with educators, thought leaders and celebrities.
So, put on your reading glasses and have another look at some of the most engaging interviews we've done over the past couple of months: ...
Stories about what's working in public schools and districts keep rolling in to Public School Insights. Here's a list of five inspiring new stories we've posted in the past two weeks:
- Great Neck Public Schools, New York: Bending Bureaucracy to Meet Kids Needs, June 10
- George Middle School, Oregon: Promoting Academic Success through Community Partnerships, June 6
- Cameron Elementary School, California: Using Incentives to Motivate Students, June 2
- Interlake High School, Washington: Helping All Students Reach their Highest Potential in Math, May 30
- Clarke County School District, Georgia: Bringing Dropouts Back to School, May 28
A diverse coalition of more than 60 experts in education, health, civil rights, economics and other fields just released a joint statement calling for "a broader, bolder approach to education" that includes policies to reduce the economic and social disadvantages that exacerbate academic achievement gaps. While continuing to urge school improvement efforts, their approach promotes early childhood education, after-school and summer opportunities, physical health, character, social development, creativity, and effective citizenship.
According to the coalition's ads in the New York Times and Washington Post, "Some schools have demonstrated unusual effectiveness. But even they cannot, by themselves, close the entire gap between students from different backgrounds in a substantial, consistent and sustainable manner on the full range of academic and non-academic measures by which we judge student success." ...
A little-noticed item in Science Magazine points out a whopper of a quantitative error in Rising Above the Gathering Storm, a respected National Academy of Sciences report on the nation's declining standing in mathematics and science. According to Science, one important claim in the report--that "there were almost twice as many U.S. physics bachelor's degrees awarded in 1956 [pre-Sputnik] than in 2004"--is "dead wrong." ...
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. ...
This month's School Administrator includes Jay Matthews' paean to departing AASA executive director Paul Houston. It offers a profoundly respectful account of Houston's 42-year career in education.
In a couple of weeks, Public School Insights will publish its own interview with Houston. ...
While poking around the internet today, we encountered what looks like the trailer to Dave Eggers' and Vanessa Roth's planned documentary on the professional lives of teachers. Eggers told me in our recent interview that they intend the documentary to transform public perceptions of teaching and fuel much stronger public support for public schools.
Eggers, a best-selling author, and Roth, an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, certainly have the talent and fame to get their film noticed. Still, they have their work cut out for them.
Anyway, I suspect we'll hear more about this documentary in the coming months. ...
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
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