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.
A new study by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) finds that low-income youth are far less likely than their peers to learn about politics and citizenship in school. At a time when voter turnout among disadvantaged youth is dishearteningly low, CIRCLE's findings raise concerns that a generation is being disenfranchised through neglect. 
Fortunately, schools like the Boston Community Leadership Academy are working to level the playing field.
Let me hear from you. How can we ensure that our low-income youth have access to excellent civic education? ...
We hear a great deal about the United States' standings in international comparisons of students' academic performance, yet we hear relatively little about what the highest performing countries have done to ascend the rankings. Fortunately, Stanford professor and American Association for Colleges for Teacher Education Board member Linda Darling-Hammond has had a gander at both Finland and Singapore, two of the countries topping the international list.
The practices she finds there are not hard to grasp: Give teachers an excellent education on the government dollar (or Euro), guarantee them substantive, ongoing professional development, and promote ample time for collaboration with colleagues. ...
The National Association of Secondary School Principals has released a list of Breakthrough Middle and High Schools for 2008. NASSP and the Metlife Foundation have recognized these schools, all of which serve many poor students, for dramatically improving student achievement. ...
Welcome! This new Learning First Alliance website presents a fresh, 21st century vision for public schools, with real examples of what is working in all kinds of public schools and districts. see how public schools - maybe even yours -- are pursuing imaginative strategies to helping students succeed.
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You might want to put your kids through art school after all.
Best-selling author Dan Pink's prediction that the MFA could become the next MBA is sure to kindle joy in the hearts of underfed visual arts majors everywhere, but it also has profound implications for K-12 public schools. Right-brained skills are becoming an increasingly important ticket to success in the post-information age, Pink argues in his book A Whole New Mind.
Public schools will have to do much more to promote such skills, he suggested, at a time when employers can easily automate or outsource traditional left-brained activities.
In a phone interview last week, Pink spoke with me at length about this new state of affairs, and he gave me a rare preview of his upcoming projects.
Here’s a thumbnail sketch of what Pink told me…. ...
As I mentioned last week, a new organization called Common Core has taken shape to combat narrowing of the K-12 curriculum.
Common Core has come out of the gates with a study examining American students' knowledge of history and literature. Among its findings: More than half of the American 17-year-olds surveyed believe that the Civil War occurred either before 1850 or after 1900, and more than a quarter believe that Columbus sailed the ocean blue after 1750. ...
No one slips by Lee Ann Galusha.
As a teacher at Chenega Bay School in Alaska’s remote Chugach school district, she knows where each of her students, mostly native Aleutian islanders, is on a trajectory towards mastery of standards. That’s because demonstrated performance on a variety of measures—and not grade levels or Carnegie units—determines student progress. The results of this strategy have been astonishing, earning Chugach a national reputation for student achievement gains that place it far ahead of districts with much wealthier students. (Click here for PublicSchoolInsights.org’s story on the district)
To find out more about this system, PublicSchoolInsights.org spoke with Galusha last week.
Here’s what we learned….
The Basic Overview: ...
The Center on Education Policy just released a new report on changes to the elementary curriculum since NCLB. Their findings: Schools have put subjects like social studies and the arts on the chopping block to make way for more time in mathematics and reading. (Way back in 2004, yours truly wrote a similar, though less sophisticated, report that reached similar conclusions.) Given the wide range of skills and knowledge students will need to thrive (see here, here and here), this is unsettling news. ...
ASCD's excellent February issue of Educational Leadership takes a careful and practical look at the oft-invoked but seldom examined topic of critical thinking in schools. It's well worth a read.
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I recently spoke with Professor Yong Zhao from Michigan State University, a leading international education expert who worries that American fears for its economic competitiveness are actually fueling counterproductive education policies.
A native of China, Dr. Zhao is University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State, the founding director of the US-China Center for Research on educational Excellence and a Phi Delta Kappa International Board Member. He and I spoke about the dangers of following in China's educational footsteps, the kinds of skills youth need in a global society, the promise of educational technology, and the importance of international education.
Listen to the following excerpts of our conversation, or read through the highlights below: ...
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
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