Curricular Opportunities in the Digital Age: The Students at the Center Series

This paper explores how new digital technologies can be used to design curricula that are flexible enough to adapt readily to individual differences. The authors propose that universal design for learning—as the confluence of advances in the neuroscience of human variability and in multimedia technologies—can create an “ecology for learning” which provides rich, diverse and… Read More ›

Expeditionary Learning

Expeditionary Learning schools inspire the motivation to learn, engage teachers, and students in new levels of focus and effort, and transform schools into places where students and adults become leaders of their own learning. Expeditionary Learning provides a model that challenges students – even those starting with low skill levels – with high-level tasks and… Read More ›

Big Picture Learning

Big Picture Learning’s mission is to lead vital changes in education, both in the United States and internationally, by generating and sustaining innovative, personalized schools that work in tandem with the real world of the greater community. Big Picture believes that in order to sustain successful schools where authentic and relevant learning takes place, we… Read More ›

Harlem Children’s Zone

The Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City represents a recent example of a comprehensive effort to support academic success and disrupt the cycle of poverty through wrap-around services. Serving a 100-block radius in Harlem, HCZ is a collaborative network of social services, health services, charter schools, and academic supports aimed at the entire life… Read More ›

Making a Case for Comprehensive Assessment (Exhibition)

Example of an exhibition. project-oriented evaluations that include critiques by outside experts are among the innovations at New York City’s Urban Academy. Editor’s Note: Since this video was filmed in 2001, the Urban Academy has become a member of the New York Performance Assessment Consortium, a coalition of public schools in New York State that uses… Read More ›

The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching

Martin Haberman’s “Pedagogy of Poverty versus Good Teaching” challenges educators to think differently about the “core functions of urban teaching”. An excerpt, “The classroom atmosphere created by constant teacher direction and student compliance seethes with passive resentment that sometimes bubbles up into overt resistance. Teachers burn out because of the emotional and physical energy that… Read More ›

Interview with Dayton Teacher

Excerpts from interview with Jolie Ankrom, Spanish teacher, Dayton Early College Academy (DECA) in Ohio | May 26, 2011 “I’m a young teacher, only in my second year of teaching. I don’t think I would be a successful student-centered teacher if I weren’t trained in it. There’s a formal program in Michigan that first year teachers go through…” Access… Read More ›

OECD’s Brain Research Website

OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) – Brain and Learning | Learning Sciences and Brain Research project website The culmination of the Brain and Learning project is the publication “Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a New Learning Science”  This enlightening publication is essential reading for all those involved in education as parents, teachers, researchers, policy makers and… Read More ›

Forum for Youth Investment

The Forum for Youth Investment is a nonprofit, nonpartisan “action tank” dedicated to helping communities and the nation make sure all young people are Ready by 21®: ready for college, work and life. Informed by rigorous research and practical experience, the Forum forges innovative ideas, strategies and partners to strengthen solutions for young people and… Read More ›

New Technology High School Website

  New Technology High School, is a high school in Napa California. According to the website, “New Technology High School is committed to leading educational reform. Our program encourages students to learn through collaboration with family, business, and community. Students develop the resilience necessary to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Their education at NTHS… Read More ›

A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform

A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, A Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education United States Department of Education, The National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 1983 A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform is the title of the 1983 report of American President Ronald Reagan‘s National Commission on Excellence… Read More ›

MDRC: Transforming the High School Experience

MDRC: Transforming the High School Experience MDRC was created to learn what works in social policy—and to make sure that the evidence we produce informs the design and implementation of policies and programs. Created in 1974 by the Ford Foundation and a group of federal agencies, MDRC is best known for mounting large-scale evaluations of… Read More ›