Group items tagged

recently assigned a new project to my 11th grade English students: The 20% Project. Although it's called a "project", that term is merely for student understanding and lack of a better word. This project is based on the "20 percent time" Google employees have to work on something other than their job description. It has been well documented, and Google has exponentially grown as a company while giving this 20 percent time

"So I hope no one minds if I continue to try to document the ways in which "education" is being reframed in this country at the peril, I think, of losing everything that is best about schools and teachers and classrooms. If you're not up to speed with these reframing efforts, the above titled article in the Wall Street Journal this morning should do the trick. The canary is singing in full throat. And let's not make any bones about it: the Journal has a vested interest in making the type of online learning it describes successful as it owns a large stake in many of the vendors trying to occupy the space."

"Moving Your Numbers provides examples of real districts - from small rural communities to large urban centers - that are positively affecting the performance of all children, including students with disabilities, through collective and focused actions of adults."

Rowland Foundation Conference on High School Transformation with Sir Ken Robinson September 22, 2011 at the University of Vermont

"What makes one low-performing school turn around and build momentum over time, while another, seemingly similar school tries the same strategies but continues to struggle? It's not just particular programs or practices, but the interplay of school implementation with district policies and support, according to the Institute of Education Sciences' Turning Around Low-Performing Schools project-the most comprehensive federal research on such schools to date."

"This guide identifies practices that can improve the performance of chronically low-performing schools-a process commonly referred to as creating "turnaround schools." The four recommendations in this guide work together to help failing schools make adequate yearly progress."

"Mike McCarthy, principal of Portland's Helen King Middle School, shares his ideas for effective leadership in the following article for Edutopia. These are strategies that are infused with a great deal of common sense and compassion, which makes them that much more effective in the field of education.""

"America Achieves helps communities and states leverage policy, practice, and leadership to build high-quality educational systems and prepare each young person for success in careers, college, and citizenship."

"Led by Alan November, a veteran educator of nearly 40 years and a leader in transforming teaching and learning, November Learning is filled with passionate educators and school leaders. It is our mission to empower educators to expand their own boundaries of what is possible."

Group working with the former Stokes Elementary in Cleveland, one of the Investment Schools " As the newly named Voyager Education Services, we will continue this important mission while now expanding our offerings to include the latest research-based services around multi-tier support systems, schoolwide improvement, and school turnaround, transformation, and restart. "

""The Active Implementation Hub is a free, online learning environment for use by any stakeholder involved in active implementation and scaling up of programs and innovations. The site goal is to increase the knowledge and improve the performance of persons engaged in actively implementing any program or practice."

"It may be a good time to ask some fundamental questions: Why has there been so little success in reforming high schools? What have the myriad reform efforts to date done wrong? Can urban high schools be reformed at scale-and if so, what works? The answer to that last question is yes-but only under a set of very specific conditions. The Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, where I served as chief academic officer, has created these conditions in its work with a network of 11 high schools and five middle schools in Los Angeles. These schools, all located in less-affluent sections of the city, have dramatically outperformed demographically similar district schools-despite spending $1,000 less per student."

"Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch have found themselves at odds on policy over the years, but they share a passion for improving schools. Bridging Differences will offer their insights on what matters most in education"

Issue Brief by Richard Rothstein from the Economic Policy Institute

On August 4-6, 2010, more than 150 invited education leaders convened in Boston around the need for the systemic redesign of our K-12 education system to one that is centered on the personalized learning needs of each student. Attendees identified the top 10 essential elements and policy enablers. Now available are a report of these findings as well as an archive of the presentations, including session summaries and videos, student videos, and attendee poll results.

"In this new report, "How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better," we analyzed twenty systems from around the world, all with improving but differing levels of performance, examining how each has achieved significant, sustained, and widespread gains in student outcomes, as measured by international and national assessments. Based on over 200 interviews with system stakeholders and analysis of some 600 interventions carried out by these systems this report identifies the reform elements that are replicable for school systems elsewhere as they move from poor to fair to good to great to excellent performance."

Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools Low-performing schools can quickly increase student achievement using multiple turnaround actions that need to be jointly implemented. These actions target leadership and instructional practices, staff commitment, and visible improvements early in the process.