Finding the Right Fit: 6 Things to Look For in Districts Ripe for Community Engagement
When the Nellie Mae Education Foundation launched its regional school-community engagement initiative in July 2014, we made an important decision: instead of selecting districts through a traditional request-for-proposals (RFP) process, we developed—in collaboration with the Great Schools Partnership, our intermediary partner—a comprehensive “engagement process” that entails a series of conversations, interviews, and in-person meetings with… Read More ›
Teachers Still Struggling to Use Tech to Transform Instruction, Survey Finds
This article documents findings from a survey that was conducted by the Education Week Research Center for the 2016 edition of Technology Counts. The results of the survey suggested that teachers, on the whole, still face systemic challenges in adapting their instruction to new technologies in transformative ways. The survey was conducted online in April 2016, with participation… Read More ›
Measures that Matter Most
This report marks the first time the Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) has asked their networks of innovators to lend their voices to a critical set of questions: how should NGLC go about measuring the success of an educational innovation? And what measures matter most? Next Generation Learning Challenges represents some of the nation’s most innovative… Read More ›
5 Big Ways Education Will Change By 2020
This article asks the world’s most innovative companies in education about the future of the classroom, and shares their predictions for the next five years. Some of the predictions include schools and classrooms in which students interact remotely with others, utilize more individualized learning, have a greater voice with opportunities for feedback, and feel respected. This article could be a… Read More ›
Games For Change Festival
The 2016 Games for Change Festival, organized in collaboration with Parsons School of Design at The New School, offers two days of keynotes, panels, workshops, networking events, and arcades. Explore the latest impact games in three tracks of programming: Civics & Social Impact, Neurogaming & Health, and Games for Learning. For more information, visit the event page.
Digital Badging and Micro-Credentialing
This paper explores what badging really represents for PK-12 educators dedicated to student-centered learning with the help of voices directly involved in badging and micro-credentialing and educators thoughtfully watching it. It reflects on the potential of using badging with students and with educators, as a strategy to transform professional development. The perspectives included in this… Read More ›
‘Making’ as a (Student-Centered) Approach to Learning
The White House will celebrate the National Week of Making beginning today through the end of next week (June 17-23), inviting formal and informal learning spaces to host events showcasing the power “making” has had in their communities. Makerspaces celebrate do-it-yourself interactions, creative thinking, and idea-sharing. The maker movement was first introduced by Maker Media. Maker projects… Read More ›
How Misconceptions About Competency Education Could Undermine Equity
This article, the third in a CompetencyWorks series on equity in personalized learning, explores implications of the misunderstanding and misuse of terms within competency-based and blended learning. The author asserts these misunderstanding can lead to poor implementation, inequitable practices, and lower achievement. He reviews four common misconceptions, such as failing to understand the difference between “flexible pacing” and… Read More ›
What a Blended Learning Classroom Really Looks Like: An Urban Teacher’s Reboot
This opinion piece was originally written for The Hechinger Report, June 2, 2016 Can we teach all students? In an increasingly diverse nation, I want you to consider the question. If you are not sure, it’s o.k. Now I want you to imagine a world where you would not have to do this —… Read More ›
#21STEDCHAT – Twitter Chat
We hope you can join #21stedchat (21st education chat) this Sunday, June 12, 8:00 PM EST to talk about student-centered learning. You can join the chat simply by following and using the hashtag #21stedchat. Revere High School history teacher Charles Willis (@flippedwillis) will be co-moderating the chat – tweeting questions with the hashtag and looking… Read More ›
Students Take Charge
This article takes a look at two models of assessment in student-centered classrooms to find out what’s working. There are now hundreds of schools, dozens of districts, and at least 15 states actively striving for a student-centered learning system, but if kids are in charge, how do you know they’re learning? Since assessments can factor in… Read More ›
College, Career, and Civic Readiness: The Case of the Missing ‘C’
This article by Stephen Hamilton, Dean of the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, discusses his observation of the neglect of the idea of “civic readiness” in conversations about preparing students to succeed. He asserts that if career readiness is often neglected, civic readiness is all but forgotten. He also asserts that civic readiness somehow seems… Read More ›