The Education Evolving Blog

A brief summary of the new California district NCLB waivers
August 30, 2013 · By Jon Schroeder

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...

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It’s time to spend A Year at Mission Hill
June 24, 2013

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...

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Students differ: time to move beyond one-dimensional concept of achievement
June 17, 2013 · By Ted Kolderie

This Commentary, in the StarTribune June 9 has now been circulated pretty widely around the country. It's drawn a good deal of favorable response. Clearly it has also distressed some people.

Raising uncomfortable questions does upset people. When action seems urgent, when people think they see the problem and think the goal is clear, they do get impatient with those who call the conventional wisdom into question.

But good decisions come only out of full discussion. Especially in a time of rapid...

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What's achievement?
June 14, 2013 · By Ted Kolderie

In this Commentary in the StarTribune on June 9th I said we are not having a very intelligent discussion about 'closing the achievement gap'.

I ask what seem to me to be relevant -- practical, and important -- questions. Among them:

  • Is is sensible to use a one-dimensional definition of achievement? Is it fair? The late Jack Frymier used to say it is quite unfair for adults not themselves at risk to be imposing failure on young people just getting started in life.
  • So far as proficiency...
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Questioning the institution of "adolescence"
May 24, 2013 · By Lars Esdal

"Why does our whole discussion about improving learning go on with no one questioning the old institution of adolescence?"

These were Ted Kolderie's opening words in a TED talk at the New Schools Venture Fund 'summit' May 1 in San Francisco. The session topic was: "It's time to give up on _______ and replace it with ______". In the three-minute video below he explains why we should give up on adolescence and replace it with 'adultness'.

...
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Hopes and dreams, standardized tests and the achievement gap
May 17, 2013 · By Guest Blogger

Guest post by Julie Sabo, currently a 5th grade teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota and former state Senator.

Hopes and dreams

A popular way to begin the school year is with an expression of Hopes and Dreams from students and sometimes also from parents. When I first began doing this beginning of the year ritual the Hopes and Dreams expressed were usually broad and blustery, grand in nature. Some students dreamed of worldwide social justice, some for personal strength, fame, great riches, and some for very specific careers.

An interesting change has happened...

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Young People Want More Exposure to What Professionals Do
May 16, 2013

This post was originally blogged on the Education Week Of, By, For blog.

Young people can be very ambitious and are capable of great achievements. Consider these stories of teens' achievement from a different time, as described by Newt Gingrich in Business Week:

"At age 13, Benjamin Franklin finished school in Boston, was apprenticed to his brother, a printer and publisher, and moved immediately into adulthood. John...

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Nation At Risk: 30 Years Later
April 30, 2013 · By Dan Loritz

National Public Radio education reporter Claudio Sanchez did a (five minute) story late last week about the 30 year anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s “Nation at Risk” report. Sanchez interviewed several leading national figures in the education realm, including Education Evolving’s Ted Kolderie. The story provided a sobering assessment of how little has changed in American education in the last three decades. Click here to listen to the full story.

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Minnesota's new Innovation Zone schools: Ted Kolderie talks with the Pioneer Press
April 26, 2013 · By Ted Kolderie

A story in the Pioneer Press earlier this week, More green lights, less red tape for Innovation Zone schools, explains Minnesota's developing interest in innovation, though it doesn't quite capture how we at Education Evolving believe innovation can most effectively appear in schools.

At Education Evolving we see innovation as both "top-down" and "bottom-up." The "innovation zone" legislation from a year ago encourages administrators...

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Upcoming Minnesota conference on redesigning schooling
April 25, 2013 · By Lars Esdal

Next Monday, April 29th, a Minnesota chartered school authorizer, Innovative Quality Schools, will be holding a conference on school redesign. Education Evolving associate Robert Wedl is on the IQS leadership team.

Highlights:

  • Learn about redesigning school for the 21st-century. Includes discussion of: individualized learning, non-traditional ways of measuring achievement, and the "Age 3-to-Grade 3" approach to primary school.
  • Learn about different organizational and...
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