The Futures of School Reform and Jal Mehta’s visit to Minnesota

November 7, 2013 • Ted Kolderie

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The growing desire to ‘do something’ about education is paralleled by a growing uncertainty about what exactly to do. A project organized by the Harvard Graduate School of Education concluded: “If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re never going to get there”. It concluded that the basic K-12 system will have to be changed in some fundamental way.

Jal Mehta at HGSE wrote the book setting out its five possible ‘futures for school reform’. The project neither chose among the alternatives nor explained how to implement any of them. The thinking it produced is, however, a major contribution to the nation’s policy discussion. October 24-25 Education|Evolving brought Mehta to Minnesota for discussions about its conclusions. Here are notes from his presentation and from the discussions with individuals and organizations around the Twin Cities.

» Download full Mehta visit notes