Tag: students

  • To Improve Learning, the Energy of Money Has to Change

    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,…

  • Habits of Mind Drive Success

    This is a Best of the Best article, originally posted by The Education Game back in 2021. The topic is a good one, especially since our kids are headed back to school this month. Enjoy! In most traditional schools, academic work begins the first day of instruction. Teachers are seen as “on task” if they…

  • How Hard Is It to Change a High School?

    I’ve written about the personalized learning lab school we launched while I served as the executive director of a Houston-based educational non-profit. In 2015, our lab school partnered with a Houston area school district to apply for a XQ Super School grant. The hope was to take what we were learning in our lab school…

  • What if The Smithsonian Ran Public Education?

    A few weeks ago, I participated in an online conference hosted by The Smithsonian, their National Education Summit. It was two days of deep, exploratory learning for both young and adult learners. When I reviewed some of the session titles, it became apparent to me that these learning sessions were a bit different than most…

  • Friday News Roundup

    It’s Friday! Time for the news roundup. Are There Better Ways Than Standardized Tests to Assess Students? Educators Think So (EducationWeek) EducationWeek writer Larry Ferlazzo recently shared a series of posts addressing assessment. Here’s a sampling of topics addressed in each of the posts: Let’s Take a Holistic Approach to Judging Schools Let’s Dump the…

  • The Problem with Ed Reform

    I think the Aurora Institute (AI) tries to do good work. Previously the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, this organization believes it’s lifting up new ideas to shift mental models on public education. The Aurora Institute believes it’s drawing from the latest developments in education systems change nationally and globally to transform K-12 education…

  • We Need Innovation and We Need it Now

    This past spring, Getting Smart, a Washington-based group committed to helping leaders, schools, and systems ideate, design, and implement innovations for equity, released a report titled Building an Innovation Index. The report was written by Nate McClennen, Getting Smart’s Vice-President for Strategy and Innovation. Nate earned a reputation as a learning leader when he served…

  • 100 Years to Thrive, Part 2

    Yesterday I wrote about a Stanford University’s Center on Longevity report titled The New Map for Life: 100 Years to Thrive. A copy of yesterday’s article can be found here. Today, let’s discuss the implications this report might have for our country’s public education system and the probable need for a new system of learning.…

  • 100 Years to Thrive

    Back in November of 2021, Stanford University’s Center on Longevity issued a report that caught my eye. The report, titled The New Map of Life: 100 Years to Thrive, details what we can expect moving forward as our human longevity continues to increase. The report begins with a startling statement: “In the United States, demographers…

  • Friday News Roundup

    It’s August! Time for back to school shopping and maybe a quick vacation with the family. Even though school starts here in Iowa August 23rd, the educational news the past few weeks has been rather slow. But there’s a few items to share today, so let’s get to it. Ed Dept. Announces New Push to…