Category: Learnings

EducationWeek released a report this past May titled “Laptops and Learning: 5 Trends in K-12 Education in 5 Charts.” What is revealed in these charts is interesting, especially if you are someone like me who is frustrated by the implementation gap between a young learner’s desire to learn virtually and an adult learning leader’s ability…

Like most issues in America these days, there is a raging debate about “learning loss.” Because of losing school time due to the COVID pandemic, some fear America’s youth are falling behind in their reading and mathematical problem-solving abilities, while others feel young learners haven’t lost much ground in those areas and, instead, have become…

We must be careful not to let traditional school districts control the conversation when it comes to young learners and their ability to learn virtually. If you would just listen to the traditionalists, then you might get the feeling that every kid struggled with out of school learning over the past two to three years,…

The Des Moines Register recently published an article highlighting six new superintendents hired recently to lead Des Moines area school districts. One of the questions asked by the newspaper reporter was: “What are the top three things you are spending ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds on? And how are you going to…

One of the challenges, to those of us who want our traditional school system changed into something more centered on the individual learner, is the inability of others to “see” what that future might look like. I ran across an article recently shared by Education Reimagined, that might help us “see” better into the future…

Earlier this summer, Kelly Young, President and Founder of Education Reimagined, shared her thoughts on what infrastructure is needed to enable learner-centered ecosystems to thrive. In her article, Young writes: “Luckily, there are pieces of this infrastructure already out there, whether they are being deployed in a single learner-centered environment, a micro-school, or in an…

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 1933 Change is hard inside schools. It’s easier to keep doing the same things…

School starts here in Iowa this week, so an EducationWeek article, written by Tyrone C. Howard and published on August 12, 2022, caught my eye. Dr. Howard is a professor of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles and the director of the university’s Center for the Transformation of Schools. Howard is also president-elect…

This past week I came across an article printed by the Stanford Social Innovation Review titled “To End Homelessness, the Energy of Money Must Change.” I usually write about education and learning, but stay with me here as we use homelessness to inform us how improving learning for our young people could improve. Daniel Heimpel,…