A Better Path to Learning

Tag: parents

  • The Rebundling of Learning

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    Over a year ago, Nate McClennen and Tom Vander Ark wrote an article for the online newsletter Getting Smart titled “The Great Education Unbundling and How Learning Will be Rebundled.” In the article, McClennen and Vander Ark write, “More schools, more courses, more online learning experiences – for 25 years there has been steady expansion…

  • Learner Agency is Not a School Priority

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    One more thought related to yesterday’s post [Try As They May, Schools Just Can’t Innovate] – if you take a look at the text describing various state policy related to desired innovation zones, it’s clear that these descriptions weren’t written by innovators themselves. Innovators employ creative phrases and provide a vision of what is possible.…

  • Try As They May, Schools Just Can’t Innovate

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    Aurora Institute is one of my favorites when it comes to imagining what learning could be like in this country. Susan Patrick, President and CEO of Aurora Institute, and her group are the best at linking learner-centered policy to practice, trying to convince traditional public schools to change. If only the traditional system paid more…

  • Friday News Roundup

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    It’s usually a slow news week returning from the holidays, but I found a few stories you might be interested in. Quarantines, Not School Closures, Led to Devastating Losses in Math and Reading (The 74) According to a report in The 74 this week, “The recent dismal results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress…

  • Is There Common Purpose Inside Schools?

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    I usually try to stay away from political landmines in my posts, but the latest updates on public vaccines, especially when it comes to children, caused me concern. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) report, “While most of the public continue to have confidence in the benefits of childhood vaccines for measles, mumps,…

  • AI Will be the Death of School As We Know It

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    The Van Beck family has a tradition of participating in “table talks” where anyone in the family can bring a topic to the table for discussion. Topics range from politics to climate change to cheating – yes, that’s right, cheating. Specifically cheating at school. Is group work cheating? Allowing a student to take an open…

  • Schools Either Want Parents or They Don’t

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    Parents and schools make for strange bed partners. Parents want the best for their children, and most entrust their most prized possessions to a public school system that says it is committed to making that young person into a strong and smart citizen. Schools say they want parent involvement, but most want parents to do…

  • Why Don’t We Do What We Know?

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    I’m back from my travels. I hope everyone enjoyed a peaceful and restful holiday season. And I hope all of us keep our new year’s resolutions – at least through the month of January. At the end of 2022, The 74 posted an article listing their most significant education studies of 2022. Let’s take a…

  • Looking Back at 2022

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    This will be my last column for 2022, so I thought it would be a good idea to review the year utilizing charts and studies most significant when it comes to telling this year’s public education story. Yesterday, The 74 published an article that shared 14 charts designed to help us better understand COVID’s impact…

  • Our Public Schools Are Struggling

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    Whenever systems struggle, human resources seem to be at the top of the list of problematic indicators associated with that struggle. Our public school  system is struggling. At the top of the human resources chain, The 74 reported this week that, “Half of the nation’s 500 largest school districts have changed superintendents or are in…