Harvard Graduate School of Education
About HEPG | Contact Us
Voices in Education

Posts archives

 The Arts and UDL: What General Education Can Learn from the Margins
by Don Glass on April 12
In the national discussions about school and curriculum reform, arts education is continually marginalized, requiring its advocates to keep making the case for the contribution of the arts to academic, social, and personal learning outcomes.
Deeper Learning and the Common Core
by Robert Rothman on April 1
The first things I noticed when I walked into classrooms at International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn were the dictionaries. In every room, students sat in groups, and in the middle of the groups they placed their language dictionaries: Spanish-English, Uzbek-English, French-English, and more.
Universal Design for Learning and Improving Education for Incarcerated Youth
by Joanne Karger on March 20
On any given day, more than 81,000 youth are confined to residential facilities in the juvenile justice system. These youth are disproportionately students of color (particularly African American males), students from low-income backgrounds, and students with disabilities.
The Power of Parents
by Michael Sadowski on March 4
Ricky immigrated to California with his parents and four siblings when he was four years old. Although Ricky is very much an American high school student (his history teacher was surprised to learn that he was not born in the United States), his home life very much reflects the experience of an immigrant family.
Stand Up or Bystand? New Insights on Bullying
by Silvia Diazgranados Ferráns and Robert L. Selman on February 11
Why do we hear so much about bullying in schools today? Is bullying worse now than ever before? Or is it just more visible to the outside world--more pervasive in the new digital era?
Comments (1)
The End of Exceptionalism in American Education
by Jeffrey R. Henig on January 15
In the late spring of 2011, the New York City Council delivered a message. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had announced a plan to eliminate 4,100 teaching jobs through layoffs, and about 2,000 through attrition.
Comments (1)
Educating for Intellectual Character
by Jason Baehr on January 2
In his recent book Character Compass, Boston University professor Scott Seider tells the story of three successful Boston-area charter schools each with a strong but relatively unique commitment to character education.
Comments (3)
Who Is Educating the Nation? How the New Media Landscape Is Changing the Middle East
by Linda Herrera on December 11
Schools once served as focal points of youth citizenship education, but for the wired generation of Internet-savvy youth this is no longer the case. From North America to North Africa, youth are coming of age in an increasingly more plugged-in, digital, and new media era. As a result, young people are learning and exercising citizenship in fundamentally different ways from past generations.
Justice Kennedy’s Role in Fisher and the Reality of Race
by Liliana M. Garces on November 16
Those of us in the social science community who have been following the Fisher case know that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, like the 2003 decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, could have a lasting impact on the practices and policies of postsecondary institutions across the country.
Comments (1)
Critical Mess
by Michael J. Feuer on November 5
One of the rhetorical puzzles that arose during Supreme Court arguments in the Fisher case, in which a white student challenges the race-conscious admissions system at the University of Texas, poses a "catch-22" that could spell the end of affirmative action.
The Stories a Classroom Tells
by Kurt Wootton on October 30
Many years ago when I was a student in a teacher certification program, one of our daily requirements was to observe the classroom of a different teacher in the school.
Comments (2)
Too Much Diversity?: The Abigail Fisher Case and Race in College Admissions
by Sylvia Hurtado on October 28
On October 10th, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case contesting the use of race in college admissions brought by petitioner, Abigail Noel Fisher, against The University of Texas at Austin.
Comments (1)
Education for a Civil Society
by Peter Levine on October 11
Two myths arise in almost all discussions of civic education: "Kids today don't know any civics," and "We don't teach civics nowadays." As I argue in my chapter in Making Civics Count, civic education does need reform, but we must first get the facts straight.
Comments (1)
Learning from Abroad: Rapid Improvement Is Possible, Even in a System Like Ours
by Ben Levin on September 20
For those who study comparative education policy, one of the really interesting features of the education debate in the United States is how little it has been influenced by developments in the rest of the world. When traveling around other countries one is struck by how different much of the debate about education is.
Bringing Learning to Life in the Classroom
by Eileen Landay on September 10
It was the beginning of the spring semester in a large urban high school. The student teacher, having just taken over the class from her cooperating teacher, was attempting a class discussion using a protocol in which students talked to one another rather than through the teacher in the usual wagon wheel format. As her university supervisor, I was seated in a corner, observing, taking notes, and preparing to offer support and feedback.
Comments (3)
Coping with Racial Trauma in Doctoral Study
by Kimberly A. Truong and Samuel D. Museus on September 1
Let us introduce you to John. He was the first in his family to graduate from college and came from a low-income background. John's advisors, a White couple, recruited him into his graduate program. They promised him four years of full funding and touted the fact that he would be the first Vietnamese American to graduate from their doctoral institution.
Comments (1)
First Things First: Being an Instructional Leader
by Karin Chenoweth and Christina Theokas on July 31
Not long ago, principals were simply expected to be administrators. No one should think that "simply" implies that administering a school well is in any way simple or easy.
Academic Return on Investment: Spending Only on What Works
by Nathan Levenson on June 28
Duh! Who wants to spend money on what doesn't help kids learn? No one. But how many superintendents and school boards know what actually works in their district? Not too many.
Reputations (and More) at Risk: Using Value-Added Reports Responsibly
by Hilary Dauffenbach-Tabb on June 14
The insights gained from teacher value-added reports have the potential to benefit schools, students, and communities. However, because these reports are generated from complex statistical methods that rely on inaccurate or incomplete data and have wide margins of error, more responsible use of these reports is needed to reap their benefits--and minimize their risks.
Comments (1)
Anxiety: The Hidden Disability That Affects One in Eight Children
by Jessica Minahan on June 1
The Anxiety Disorders Association of America reports one in eight children suffer from anxiety disorders. Without intervention, they're at risk for poor performance, diminished learning and social/behavior problems in school. Because anxiety disorders show up differently in children, parents and teachers can't always identify them until the child hits the breaking point.
Comments (4)
Binding Education Science to the Practice of Teaching
by Gary Thomas on May 24
I can't remember when people first started talking about "what works." Was it 15 years ago? Whenever it was, it's probably time to reconsider our espousal of this enticing idea.
Comments (11)
Ramping Up Schools’ Preventative Approach
by Nancy Rappaport on May 7
Handcuffing a kindergartner for a tantrum, which happened in Georgia, is teaching the ABCs of aggression. It promotes a "might is right" logic, rather than using the child's tantrum as a tool for how to effectively teach disruptive children how to acquire necessary skills so that they are ready to learn.
Promoting District-Led Turnaround
by Heather Zavadsky on April 30
Near the end of January this year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced his intentions to target the next wave of Race to the Top funds to districts rather than states. Although he stated he was not ready for concrete details, he asserted that the next $550 million would flow to districts, allowing them to decide how to target funds.
Comments (2)
More Youth, More Ready: A Broader Approach to College Access and Success
by Mandy Savitz-Romer and Suzanne M. Bouffard on April 10
At a recent fundraiser for a community-based college access program, the sense of opportunity was palpable. Speaking about their experiences, students and parents made clear the incredible impact the program had had on their lives, and program leaders described impressive plans for expanding students' reach.
Comments (3)
Measuring Effective Teaching with a Team of Superheroes
by Thomas J. Kane on March 28
As the parent of a six-year-old, I'm often reminded that a team of superheroes should not share the same superpower. Rather than have three Supermen, it's much better to have one guy who is super strong, one who can run really fast, and one who can do something totally unexpected--like turn themselves invisible.
Comments (2)
Value-Added Measures: The Public’s “Right to Know”?
by Douglas N. Harris on March 14
I love newspapers. I really do. I subscribe to both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. But their recent decisions to publish teacher names along with their "value-added" ratings shows the newspapers at their very worst--focusing on what sells papers rather than the public good. In the process, they may single-handedly bring down what could be one of the more positive developments in K-12 education in recent decades.
Comments (2)
Slow, Erratic, and Underwhelming—Progress in Narrowing Achievement Gaps
by Nancy Kober on March 1
For more than a decade, states, districts, schools, and teachers have devoted enormous energy to closing achievement gaps between rich and poor students and between students from different racial and ethnic groups. But how much progress has been made in narrowing these gaps?
Comments (1)
The Power of Pivotal Moments
by Roberta Espinoza on February 14
How do minority students who are first in their family to attend college manage to make their way to higher education despite what seems like overwhelming odds? Most Americans believe that low-income minority students who excel in school do so because they are smarter, more motivated, and willing to work harder. Stories abound in mainstream media outlets about minority working-class students who are able to "beat the odds" to become highly successful students.
Comments (3)
Ordinary Teenagers, Extraordinary Results: Apprentices at Work
by Nancy Hoffman on January 30
In a small office lined with desks and computer stations, a dozen teenagers pored over paperwork and deliberated decisions, one young man zipping from table to table in a wheelchair. The young people, 15 to 18 years old, were reading, discussing, and evaluating job applications.
Comments (1)
Setting Off and Sustaining Sparks of Curiosity and Creativity
by Dan Rothstein on January 13
In the summer of 2010, Newsweek pronounced--on its cover no less--that the United States was suffering from a "Creativity Crisis." The coauthors of the cover story, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, quite ably synthesized cutting-edge research about how to create the conditions for promoting creativity and offered specific ideas on how to address the crisis.
Comments (5)
Assessments That Measure What Matters
by Paul Horwitz on December 12
My father-in-law was a classical pianist. He immigrated to the United States from Austria in the early forties. His first official act was to apply to the American Federation of Musicians for a union card, which he needed in order to work. To get this card he had to pass a simple test: the examiner pointed to a piano and asked him to play something.
Comments (3)
What Inspired Me to Study Parent and Community Engagement
by Soo Hong on November 29
As is true for many teachers, I have fond and not-so-fond memories of my first year teaching. It was a year both of trial and error, of extreme joy and disappointment--that led to self-doubting about my effectiveness as a teacher. The first couple months were, at times, terrifying and discouraging.
Comments (4)
Overpaid? A Teacher's Perspective on Compensation
by Jaime L. Hudgins on November 15
For many Americans who have never worked in a classroom, teaching could look like a cushy profession: days that end at three; long holidays; a work year that's significantly shorter than that in other fields.
Comments (6)
Understanding Diversity: What’s a Parent to Do?
by H. Richard Milner IV on November 8
There is no question that U.S. society is becoming increasingly diverse. This diversity spans race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, geography, educational background, ability (cognitive, social, physical), religion, and language. Schools across the country are not exempt; they are also increasingly diverse. What is the role of parents in helping students understand diversity in order to live meaningful lives?
Comments (4)
What Inspired Me to Launch the Comic Book Project
by Michael Bitz on October 31
Open any children's book--Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, take your pick--and you'll experience rich visual imagery combined with literary text. We present these books to young children, knowing that they will adore the pictures, engage in the narratives, seek more books, eventually learn to read, and hopefully love to read. Yet as children get older and enter school systems, the pictures quickly fall by the wayside. We expect students to become "serious" readers, working toward paragraph-based chapter books and the accepted canon of classic literature. For those students, like me, who loved to read at an early age, this entrenched method was a non-issue. For countless others, however, reading was, and still is, a struggle and seemingly insurmountable barrier to success in school.
Comments (2)
“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”: the Deeper Legacy of Steve Jobs
by Dave Saltman on October 12
It barely registers, if at all, that one can start, and operate, an automobile without knowing the physics and chemistry that run its combustion engine. And it is equally true, and perhaps more significant, that you do not need the car's technical specifications to drive it to your own personal choice of a destination. If that choice turns out to be mistaken, you can potentially drive it elsewhere.
Comments (4)
Ethnicity Matters—and So Do Contexts
by Min Zhou on September 27
Since 1970, the United States has admitted more than thirty-million immigrants from around the world. While the vast majority of newcomers are of Latin American and Asian origins, they hail from heterogeneous socioeconomic backgrounds, ranging from investors and entrepreneurs to low-skilled laborers and undocumented migrants. As foreign-born populations continue to grow at the turn of the twenty-first century, the new second generation, born and raised in America, has come of age, making an indelible mark in cities across the United States.
Comments (1)
What Inspired Me to Study Social Networks
by Alan J. Daly on September 15
I grew up in Boston, the first born in a working-class family with Irish roots. My family had all the stereotyped traits of the Irish working class in America: hardworking, gregarious, a commitment to "celebrating" with spirits at a moment's notice, and a dedication to family in the broadest sense of the word.
Comments (2)
Good Teachers
(the Movie You Will Never See)
by Colleen Gillard on August 30
It all began with a trip to the cinema to see Cameron Diaz in her new comedy, Bad Teacher. It was a bad choice, really. But what can I say? My editor was curious.
Comments (11)
Increase the Representation and Advancement of Women of Color in STEM
by Muriel Poston on August 1
What are the factors that sustain women of color through higher education and contribute to their educational and career success? What strategies can increase the representation and advancement of women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields?
Comments (1)
Q&A with Laura Pappano, author of Inside School Turnarounds
by Staff on July 28
Laura Pappano, award-winning journalist and writer-in-residence at the Wellesley Centers for Women, discusses her book, Inside School Turnarounds: Urgent Hopes, Unfolding Stories.
Comments (1)
35 Years After The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science
by Evelynn M. Hammonds on June 29
In December 1975, thirty Native American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Black American women met under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). These minority women (this is the term they used to describe themselves) in science, engineering, medicine, and dentistry met to "discuss their unique position as the most underrepresented and probably over selected group in the scientific disciplines."
“I Used to Think . . . And Now I Think . . .”
by Richard F. Elmore on June 14
At the end of a course or a professional development session, I frequently ask the learners I work with to reflect on how their thinking has changed as a consequence of our work together. This reflection takes the form of a simple two-column exercise. In one column, I ask them to complete the phrase, "I used to think . . . ," and in the other, "And now I think . . . " People often find this a useful way to summarize how our work together has changed their thinking and their habits of mind, and how we have influenced each other.
Comments (8)
It’s an Amazing Time to Be a Learner
by Will Richardson on April 27
Whether it's the two billion teachers we can now connect to on the Web, the myriad of entertaining and at the same time educational video games we can play with our friends (or by ourselves), or the potential to answer almost any question we can pose through a few keystrokes on the phones in our pockets, we live at a moment of ubiquitous learning, one few of our ancestors could have imagined. It's a moment that in many ways we ourselves are still struggling to make sense of, struggling to imagine the endless possibilities that we find ourselves swimming in.
Comments (11)
Is Online Learning a Disruptive Innovation?
by Peter J. Stokes on April 14
Depending on the sources you turn to for your higher-education reading, you might come away with the perception that online learning is a risky experiment taking place in the margins of higher education--largely under the oversight of profit-seeking, fly-by-night diploma mills.
Comments (8)
The Strategic Question of Class Size
by Theodore Hershberg and Claire Robertson-Kraft on March 29
In his new edited volume, Stretching the School Dollar, Frederick Hess notes that teacher ranks have grown twice as fast as student enrollment over the past several decades, sharply increasing what has always been the single largest expenditure in district budgets. In times of limited resources, the essential question for policy makers should be how to save money while also maximizing teacher productivity.
Rating Teacher Education? A Fork in the Road
by Michael Feuer on March 15
In the old days, before caller ID and no-dial lists, victims of obscene phone calls faced a difficult choice: hang up in hopes the perp would go away, or try to trace the origin and press charges (or at least stay on the line and persuade the caller to get some therapy). Police psychologists usually recommended the more passive strategy, but that was never entirely satisfying because the dilemma evoked a deeper conundrum. From operant conditioning one could hope that ignoring bad behavior would extinguish it, but from our 16th president we learned that "to sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men..."
Comments (3)
How Change Really Happens: The Hidden Potential of Social Networks
by Alan J. Daly on March 1
When I was a teacher, a colleague of mine wanted to try a new reading program. He had done his homework and carefully examined the research base upon which the program was grounded. Moreover, he even went to visit schools that had successfully implemented the approach, carefully noting strengths and necessary modifications for our school. As he presented the approach at a staff meeting, he was convinced he had constructed a very powerful, balanced, rational argument for the program. I was quite impressed with the work he had done and the persuasiveness of his line of reasoning.
School Boards and Adult Issues
by Nancy Walser on January 28
Anyone who is interested in school governance should check out the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the Atlanta School Board. In brief, all its high schools were put on probation this month by an accrediting organization due to dysfunctional behavior on the APS school board.
Let’s Leave No Child Inside
by U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes on January 19
Our country has a growing problem--our kids are spending less time outdoors learning and exploring and more time inside hooked up to video games or surfing the web. Lucy Hood's recent piece, "The Greening of Environmental Ed," provided a good look at how science teachers are combating this problem through their curricula and teaching methods. I'd like to offer an additional viewpoint.
Comments (13)
Q&A with Jeffrey R. Henig
by Staff on November 29
Jeffrey Henig, coeditor with Katrina Bulkley and Henry Levin of the new Harvard Education Press book, Between Public and Private: Politics, Governance, and the New Portfolio Models for Urban School Reform, discusses the book's subject--the new Portfolio Management Model (PMM) for district management--and its implications for school improvement in four urban districts.
Comments (1)
Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
by Michal Kurlaender on November 15
Arizona is the latest state that voted to end affirmative action in higher education (and other public domains). Earlier this month, voters in Arizona passed Proposition 107, titled the Arizona Civil Rights Amendment, making it the fifth state banning the use of race in consideration for higher education admission through public referenda.
Comments (3)
School Choice, Race & Democratic Schooling
by Claire Smrekar on November 1
The Obama Administration has endorsed school choice--in particular, the promise of charter schools--as a strategy to reform urban education. An army of policymakers, private foundations, education leaders, and parent groups that has long championed school choice has amplified the Administration's assertions with an arsenal of rhetoric related to the purchase power of choice: innovation, accountability, and results.
Another look at Bias in the SAT
by Paul De Boeck on October 26
As the debate on a possible SAT bias continues, I want to address two among the many possible issues.
Q&A with Frederick Hess and Eric Osberg
by Staff on October 14
Frederick M. Hess and Eric Osberg, editors of Stretching the School Dollar: How Schools and Districts Can Save Money While Serving Students Best, on why there has never been a better time to start talking about solutions for successfully managing school budgets.
This Is the Moment
by Karin Chenoweth on October 6
This is the moment when the education field can prove its mettle. Public interest in schools and the political will to improve them have never been higher. If we don't seriously increase the knowledge and competence of today's students, we may bequeath to our children and grandchildren a nation in decline.
Comments (5)
Bias in the SAT?
by HER Board on September 27
Seven years ago the Harvard Educational Review published an article that inspired great controversy, fiery rebuttals, and highly technical debates. What was the big deal? And why does it matter today?
The Little Engine That Could
by Nancy Walser on September 15
When Helen Featherstone agreed in 1985 to be the editor of a new newsletter based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, there was no such thing as e-mail, listservs, Google, RSS feeds, or Twitter.
Comments (3)
If Schools Can’t Spend More, They Need to Spend Differently
by Nathan Levenson on September 13
The recent debate over the president's jobs bill centered on how many teachers would be rescued from layoffs. Little or no discussion was heard about which jobs mattered most. Could anyone have dared suggest adding new positions by cutting existing staff even deeper? This might be heresy, but it is necessity.
Comments (3)
Not by “Value-Added” Alone
by Douglas N. Harris on August 25
Publicly reporting test scores for entire schools is one of the more positive and logical educational innovations in recent years. Perhaps this is why someone at the L.A. Times thought it might be a good idea to take this one step further and report scores for individual teachers. Or perhaps someone just wanted to make headlines. Did they succeed?
Comments (4)
The “Boy Crisis”: Beyond Reading to Relationships
by Dr. William S. Pollack on July 27
Michael Sadowski makes some extremely thoughtful points about what growing numbers of scholars and the popular press have come to refer to as a "crisis"in boys' ongoing academic failure in American public schools. Sadowski argues that we must go "beyond gender" to the highly potent embedded contexts of social class, ethnicity, and race.
Comments (4)
Can "Learning for Jobs" work in the U.S.?
by Nancy Hoffman on May 28
Across today's developed countries, educators, policymakers, and economists recognize that the new "knowledge economy" demands different, higher-level skills than the 20th-century high school or upper secondary school provided.
Comments (1)
Is Teach For America a Learning Organization?
by Marya R. Levenson on April 14
I applaud Dick Murnane's focus on how we can foster the growth of schools as learning organizations. Murnane reminds us that tackling the improvement of the K-12 education of America's most disadvantaged children will require that we see the multiple pieces of the puzzle. Instead of relying on one simple approach, we need to step back and frame some large research questions.
Comments (1)
Beyond the Bullies: Bystanders and Instigators Enable Aggression
by Denise Wolk on April 7
Bruce Springsteen refers to high school as the "glory days" in one of his popular songs, and he regrets that the high school years pass by so quickly. Yet the sad truth is that high school is a far cry from glorious for children and youth experiencing bullying and harassment.
Comments (2)
What You Might Not Know About “Common Core Standards.”
by Edward Miller on April 1
The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have proposed a set of common core standards for English and math for children in kindergarten through grade 12. Forty-eight states (all but Alaska and Texas) agreed to participate in creating these standards. President Obama has announced his intention to link Title I funding to the adoption of the standards.
Comments (8)
Will the Apple iPad Transform Schools?
by Andy Zucker on March 15
The recent introduction of devices like the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad is a reminder that the printed book will evolve in the face of new digital devices, new capabilities for users, and new business models. In some disciplines taught in institutions of higher education, such as statistics, there is already substantial use of electronic textbooks. Change is coming to the K-12 schools, too.
Comments (9)
Duncan’s Message for Year 2: Move Out of Your Comfort Zone
by Nancy Walser on March 1
Declaring, "We must educate our way to a new economy," Arne Duncan came to his alma mater last week and clicked off the tasks for his second year as secretary of education. During his speech at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Duncan also addressed some of the more controversial aspects of his first year, including support for merit pay, charter schools, and competitive grants.
Comments (5)
How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up
by Gretchen Brion-Meisels on February 8
The tragic deaths of Lawrence King (age 13), Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover (age 11), and Jaheem Herrera (age 11)--all victims of school-based homophobia--serve as stark reminders that American schools remain unsafe for many young people who perform gender in a way that may not match dominant social norms.
Another Missed Opportunity for Reform?
by Kavitha Mediratta on January 19
Today, states across the country will submit applications to the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top fund.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
by Nancy Walser on January 7
Volume 1, No. 1--the first-ever issue of the Harvard Education Letter--looks older than its 25 years. The well-thumbed issue we keep in our makeshift archive (a plastic three-ring binder) is slightly tattered, the words worn where the issue was folded in three for mailing. All three holes in its three-hole punch are ripped.
“Platooning” and the Industrial Model of Schooling
by David Marshak on November 24
"Platooning" is another example of the intensification of the factory model of schooling which ignores most of what we've learned from scientific psychology about how human beings learn and grow.
Comments (1)
"Platooning" Touches a Nerve
by Lucy Hood on November 12
Reaction to my story on efforts to departmentalize elementary education around the country has come fast and furious since it was published in this month's Harvard Education Letter.
Comments (8)
Why School Boards Fail to Perform
by Gene I. Maeroff on October 22
School boards are more or less invisible partners in education reform. Nancy Walser correctly notes that the role that school boards can play in school improvement tends to get overlooked. On the other hand, many boards fail to perform in the high-functioning manner of those that she studied.
Comments (1)
Know What You’re Doing
by Karin Chenoweth on September 28
Great consternation has greeted Secretary Arne Duncan's stated goal of turning around 5,000 of the country's lowest-performing schools over the next five years.
Comments (1)
The Need for a Moratorium on High-stakes Testing
by David C. Berliner on September 14
There is a growing movement in the US to abandon high-stakes tests because they don't work as anticipated and are costly. I agree, but hope that we don't throw out the need for accountability along with the high-stakes bathwater.
Comments (4)
The Race to the Top
by Theodore Hershberg and Claire Robertson-Kraft on August 4
The U.S. Department of Education's proposed guidelines for awarding Race to the Top grants communicate a powerful message. States barring the use of student data in decisions about teacher and principal evaluation will not be eligible for funds.
Comments (2)
“What Greater Investment Can We Make?” Special Education and the Stimulus
by David Gordon on July 21
"Of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that Congress approved in February, nearly $100 billion is targeted to education, including hefty one-time increases of $10 billion and $11.3 billion for IDEA (special education) and Title I (high-poverty), respectively."
Comments (4)
Opening Doors to Postsecondary Education for More Students
by Andrea Venezia on July 8
"With education headlines about my home state of California reading along the lines of, "LA Unified School District Cancels Bulk of Summer School Programs," (Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2009), it is inspiring to read headlines coming out of Colorado such as, "Bill Helps High Schoolers Go to College" (INDenver Times, April 13, 2009). Given the budget crises in states across the country, it is exciting that Colorado's policymakers are taking a forward-thinking view that paying a little extra now could have large pay-offs down the road."
Not by Salaries Alone
by Susan Moore Johnson on June 11
The Equity Project, a new school in New York City, garnered front-page attention in The New York Times recently by hiring eight teachers at an annual salary of $125,000 each. This will be 'a test,' the journalist asserted, of whether high salaries will attract 'superb teachers' and whether superb teachers will solve the problems of failing public schools.
Comments (11)
Is Assessment Literacy the "Magic Bullet"?
by W. James Popham on June 4
Today's educators are being called on, almost hourly, to make important decisions hinging on the results of educational assessments. Yet, in many instances the educators making those assessment-dependent decisions are doing so without a genuine understanding of educational assessment. Clearly, something is wrong with this picture.
Comments (6)
Creativity in Crisis: The “Brain Drain” in American Schools
by Michael Bitz on May 19
"One often hears from the business world: "Jobs are going overseas, but America will stay strong because of its intellectual capital--its creative spirit." This is a strange remark given that we so rarely ask our students to think creatively."
Comments (5)
Education and Violent Political Conflict
by Zeena Zakharia on May 14
"Over the last decade, scholars in the field of international and comparative education have been increasingly concerned with the study of education and violent conflict, as reflected in the mounting efforts to mobilize publication, conferences, and symposia such as Harvard Educational Review's spring 2009 collection on education and violent political conflict."
Comments (2)
A Radical Proposal for Early Childhood Education
by David Elkind on May 7
"David Wilson offers a thoughtful review of yet another compilation of research demonstrating the values of developmentally appropriate educational practice. His article once again raises the question: Why do we as a society continue to ignore this research in favor of imposing academics on young children?"
Comments (1)
Talking with Parents about Adolescent Transitions
by Eric Toshalis on April 22
"I've noticed that when many educators speak about adolescents (the people) or adolescence (the developmental era), we often do so in terms and tones that suggest angst, despair, struggle, or volatility. We frame the era as a phase to get through. We look at teens and all we see is their "raging hormones" as if the transition from childhood to adulthood is always something to endure and never something to celebrate."
Comments (2)
The Differences Between Us: French and American Classrooms
by Colleen Gillard on April 10
"In one scene from the new French film, The Class, about an inner-city school outside Paris, the teacher has students conjugating verbs on the blackboard. After one student's mistakes generate jeers and catcalls, the teacher challenges the rest of the class to do better. When they too fail, he in turn ridicules them."
Comments (17)
Charters, Tests, and the Tiresome Achievement Debate
by Katherine Merseth on April 2
"The recently released RAND study, Charter Schools in Eight States, offers a strong contribution to the never-ending, sometimes tiresome debate about whether students in charter schools do better or worse academically than comparable students in traditional schools."
Blending High School and College
by Nancy Hoffman on March 24
"I was delighted to see the recent New York Times article, A New High School, With College Mixed In (3/18/09) in which Javier Hernandez described the City Polytechnic High School of Engineering, Architecture and Technology as a school where 'graduating students would receive both a high school diploma and an associates degree within 5 years of beginning 9th grade.'"
Comments (1)
Motivating Achievement in Algebra
by David McKay Wilson on March 19
Educators in four school districts are piloting a program to improve ninth graders performance in algebra, based on Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck's research on motivation and University of Texas mathematician Uri Treisman's work with peer groups.
No Principal Left Behind
by Gerald Leader on March 3
"The failure of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and the inability of schools to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements have prompted an avalanche of public commentary, but a significant population has escaped attention: principals have been ignored. Principals have not been adequately screened, prepared, coached or supported to lead schools which can continually achieve higher levels of student academic performance, the essential requirement for AYP."
Comments (4)
Pushing the Envelope on Teacher Pay
by Paul Teske on February 17
"President Obama is bringing change to Washington, D.C. Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, support the idea of merit pay for teachers and have cited Denver's ProComp (Professional Compensation Plan) as a good example of working with the teachers unions, not imposing plans upon them. So, what lies ahead for innovative teacher compensation plans?"
Comments (1)
Reinventing Public Education? Surprise! It’s Happening Already
by Charles Taylor Kerchner on January 28
Let's start with a quiz. True or False: 1. Big city school systems are incapable of change. 2. The only way to move them is to vest power in a mayor or outsider superintendent.
Comments (9)
Transforming Schools with Technology
by Andy Zucker on January 7
"I wrote 'Transforming Schools with Technology' because I felt there were too many skeptics and too many zealots writing about technology in schools. It was time for a new book that would be realistic and optimistic without being utopian."
Comments (14)
Adolescence, Achievement, and Change in the Age of Obama
by Michael Sadowski on December 3
"In his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Barack Obama decried 'the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.'"
Comments (4)
The Need for Socioeconomic Balance in PreK Classrooms
by Rep. Beth Bye (D-CT) on November 19
"Barack Obama spoke of his support for investing in early childhood education during the last presidential debate, at a campaign moment when he was being very cautious: a clear sign that public opinion about early childhood education's value is solidified."
Comments (3)
“Dispelling the Myth” Schools
by Karin Chenoweth on November 5
Every year The Education Trust gives awards to schools that are succeeding in what it calls "Dispelling the Myth," the myth in question being that schools cannot be expected to help most children who are poor, African American, or Latino meet meaningful academic standards.
Comments (4)
The False Debate Over In-School and Out-of-School Time
by Robert Rothman on October 20
Over the past few months, education policy wonks have engaged in a debate over the relative importance of in-school and out-of-school factors in student success.
Comments (5)
A Conversation with Tony Wagner
by Nancy Walser on October 9
Leaves are falling and we are well into the new academic year, but before you get too immersed in the daily routine, scan the faces of the students your classes. Try to imagine the day when they leave high school.
Comments (3)
Welcome to Voices in Education
by Douglas Clayton on October 7