Before you roll your eyes at another MOOC story, consider this: An Ohio community college has developed a math MOOC not for its students, but for its local high school students. Why? To get more students math-ready before they come to campus.
It’s an interesting take on the Massive Open Online Course, which — for all its fanfare — still hasn’t seemed to have developed a scalable, sustainContinue Reading »
Blended learning was the topic of a lively Education Sector panel discussion on March 22, and, along with the video, we wanted to share some highlights. The inspiration for the talk was a recent Education Sector article on the Alliance Tennenbaum Family Technology High School, a two-year-old Los Angeles charter school that mixes traditional teacher-led lessons, collaborative learning, and indepContinue Reading »
We live in paradoxical times.
On the one hand, we are getting smarter. Since the 1980s political scientist James Flynn has tracked the rise in IQs globally. For instance, between 1953 and 2006 IQs have gone up a whopping 17.4 points. Rising IQs are now known as the “Flynn Effect.”
On the other hand, only 23 percent of fourth-graders can identify George Washington as thContinue Reading »
While many still question the benefits of online learning, there is one fact that is undeniable: online learning increases access which expands educational opportunity. By accommodating more students, offering greater scheduling flexibility for non-traditional students, and reducing many overhead costs associated with traditional college courses, online learning in higher educatiContinue Reading »
President Obama, in last night’s State of the Union address, announced a new competitive grant program to award schools that “better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy.” A key way to do so is by developing partnerships with local community colleges and employers. Obama heralded P-Tech in Brooklyn, the result of a collaboration between public high schools, CUNY and IBM, that Continue Reading »
The new Education Next piece on substitute teachers by June Kronholz is terrifying. It weaves together her own son’s experiences as a substitute, the latest findings on the prevalence of teacher absences, and eye-opening research on the (lack of) standards for substitute teachers and their harmful effects on student learning. It’s well worth your time.
Kronholz’ son gives the story a perContinue Reading »
When you think of innovative ways to improve student achievement, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not a classroom with one teacher and 48 students. But that’s precisely the set-up at Alliance Tennenbaum Family Technology High School, a new Los Angeles charter that’s using blended learning to improve outcomes for at-risk kids.
Tennenbaum, a member of Alliance College-Ready Continue Reading »
On Tuesday the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project released its third and final series of reports. The media has reported the main findings: that we can measure and predict effective teaching. And, because the MET Project randomly assigned students to teachers, we can say that there is causality in this relationship, that teachers with high value-added scores in one year caused studentContinue Reading »
It’s unsettling to hear that some 90 percent of teachers believe that today’s technologies are creating “an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.” Unsettling, not for the fear mongering it conjures about the future of student achievement, but for the belief that technology exposure actually reduces the ability to learn and progress and achieve. Technology is ever-present in oContinue Reading »
Districts across the country are considering cutting the number of school days. The move is an extreme cost-savings measure, one that many are saying is unfortunate but necessary and unavoidable. But cutting school time, in some cases reducing the school year by weeks, is more than unfortunate. It’s wrong, and quite possibly the worst thing you can do for the education of kids. Consider Los AngContinue Reading »
Accountability (69)- Accountability and Standards (849)
- Charter Schools and Choice (325)
- College Access and Student Success (109)
- College and Career Readiness (45)
- College Costs and Student Debt (198)
- College Rankings (16)
- Community Colleges (24)
- Data Testing Assessment (115)
- Education Finance (103)
- ESEA/No Child Left Behind (67)
- For-Profit Higher Education (22)
- Higher Education (1280)
- Improving Schools and School Systems (55)
- K-12 Education (847)
- Podcasts (19)
- Quick Hits (854)
- Teacher and Principal Quality (515)
- Teachers Unions (46)
- Technology and New Models For Learning (61)
- Technology New Designs and Innovation (30)
- Uncategorized (5)