If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
As a professional conference go-er, the Global Education & Skills Forum reminded me very much of the World Economic Forum's Annual Summit in Davos for its professionalism, and high caliber of delegates.
Wouldn't it be more logical to enact real reform -- especially if there is not very compelling evidence for what the school closure movement is accomplishing?
Single-sex education is seeing a reemergence and could be a key to helping low- to middle-income minority students succeed in the classroom.
Given that school finance systems are often not designed to provide equitable opportunities for student learning and support, the Community School approach is an effective and efficient way to make the most of existing resources to meet a child's needs.
How did Pearson, which claims to have checkpoints "built into the process to ensure consistent progress in achieving school improvement goals," attempt to establish the validity of the Atlanta school district's claims for off-the-charts improvement on test scores before taking credit for the results?
Money was always mysterious to me. As a child, the subject of money was only reserved for 'grown folks.' I knew that my father, a career officer in the United States Army, left home every day for some place called work. Still, I never knew how money was earned or how it affected my life.
When President Obama releases his budget next week, we urge him to stand strong and announce a robust early learning budget proposal that truly puts the nation's earliest learners first. California is a ready partner for investing robustly and wisely in early learning.
We must capitalize upon teenagers' intrinsic motivation towards technology while recognizing that being adolescents means needing relationships with caring teachers. It's time to change the paradigm.
The examples of Mexico and Brazil should teach us the importance of a holistic approach to early development: one that that addresses health and nutrition as well as classroom time.
To prepare American students for today's global economy, we need trips that build global competence with quality cultural engagement. With a few exceptions, most international student travel is failing to build that skill.
I suspect that these "reformers," secure in their ignorance of urban realities, still believe that their opponents are to blame. Had educators welcomed enough rookies willing to gut it out and to "put children first," the short term pain they dumped on neighborhood schools would have produced transformational gain.
I'm convinced that the outpouring of political activity on social networks -- especially around hot-button social issues like marriage equality -- is a frustrated attempt to engage by a generation of people unsure of how else to make change.
We've all seen teachers assign texts and say, 'There will be a test to follow.' This is how the system is set up -- but it's not the kind of learning that kids need. What are they going to do when they get out in the real world?
Are we talking to the digital natives to get an understanding of why they are so interested in that cell phone that we think is a distraction in the classroom? The answer may be deeper and more complex than "Oh, they just like to be on that silly Facebook."
To this day, despite its progress, this is one of the most racially segregated cities in America. We have a moral imperative to speak up and demand that the education system treat all of our city's children equitably, independent of race and class.
Free markets have sometimes led to excess -- reality TV and supersized soft drinks come to mind -- but have also given us incredible innovation, a remarkable degree of choice and the world's strongest economy. And yet free markets are absent from K-12 education.
