In our 21st-century global economy, shouldn’t we consider knowledge of world language and skills with digital tools when we define academic achievement? What about persistence and determination? Business communities demand problem-solving and collaboration skills; why are we not including them in our definition?
Take a look at this commentary that ran in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on March 11, by Education Evolving’s Senior Associate, Robert Wedl, and Hector Garcia,...
Save the date: March 20-21, 2014
Join Innovative Quality Schools in Saint Paul for an exciting conference designed for professional teachers.
Conference purposes include:
This conference is “hands on” with numerous sessions with teachers who are leading...
On Sunday, January 26th, Education Evolving's Curt Johnson will keynote an interactive event designed to introduce children and families to personalized learning.
Students will have a chance to experiment with adaptive educational games, much like those used by Mr. Pai in our A Split Screen Strategy video from last year.
From the event's webpage: Does your student fit the mold? Join other parents and educators to explore the possibility for all students...
» Download full Premack visit notes
Almost unheard of, in all the talk about the more conspicuous issues in K-12 education today, is California's decision to stop trying to control and regulate its school districts so tightly.
For 40 years or more California has tried to run public education out of Sacramento. The state selects the textbooks; approves the districts construction plans; tells the districts what to do and how to do it. The education code, the education statutes, fill...
Innovative Quality Schools, a Minnesota charter school authorizer, has again this year issued a Request for Proposals to start new chartered schools in Minnesota.
Highest priority will be given to proposals which (a) propose new and innovative models of school and schooling; or (b) draw from a demonstrated research base. IQS recognizes the need to both try new things, and to replicate what's been shown to work.
IQS provides an interesting example of a...
Education Evolving invites you to a discussion with a leading national actor and analyst on education policy. Eric Premack, a Minneapolis native, will be here November 21 at 3 pm in the North Klas room at the Anderson Center on the Hamline University campus.
California is the largest state in the nation. What happens there is often a harbinger for what will likely spread further. Premack has lived and worked there for more than 20 years; he runs one of the largest charter school development organizations in the country. He’s become a trusted adviser to the state board and the...
» Download full Mehta visit notes
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...
It's time to start reconsidering the old institution of 'adolescence'.
Have a look at this Commentary that ran in the StarTribune in Minnesota, October 13, 2013. It was intended to provoke a discussion about that curious, and particularly American, notion: the "artificial prolongation of childhood past puberty".
That was done, 100 years ago, with good intentions; in the interest of 'child welfare'. But the question today is whether adolescence has now become harmful -- to young people...
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan raised eyebrows August 6th when he agreed to grant waivers to eight California school districts on the most controversial accountability provisions in the federal “No Child Left Behind” law. The districts – including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento – serve more than one million students or about 20 percent of California’s overall K-12 student population.
The Obama Administration’s decision to grant waivers directly to school districts has been both criticized and downplayed in importance by California state officials, including...
Have you ever wanted to see, hear, and feel what happens inside a school where teachers call the shots? Now, thanks to filmmakers Tom and Amy Valens, you can experience A Year at Mission Hill as a 10-chapter series of 5-7 minute videos. They are soon releasing a full-length film, Good Morning Mission Hill: The Freedom to Teach.
Mission Hill K-8, a Boston Public School, is a pilot...
