The Hope Survey is a different way of looking at assessment. It measures student perceptions of autonomy, belonging, and goal orientation—seeking to diagnose whether a school culture has the components that encourage higher levels of engagement in learning.
Fraser Speirs is a software developer and teaches computing at Cedars School of Excellence, an independent school in the UK. He maintains a blog and recently wrote about bringing iPads into their school. Here he describes their experience supplying all 106 students with an an iPad, giving them space to use it as they see fit. "It is finding many uses."
Critics have descended on the "Investing in Innovation" ("i3") program of the U.S. Department of Education. Most argue it's financing not innovation but the replication of old innovations. In a talk August 3 to the Knowledge Alliance, E|E's Ted Kolderie explained why 'continuous improvement' alone is unsound policy; why sound policy does require true innovation – followed, of course, by “improvement”.
The LA Times story evaluating teacher performance has reignited debate about whether testing students is a suitable way to measure teacher success. Instead of arguing over the relative merits of imperfect tools, why not try flipping the process of teacher evaluation entirely, from the outsiders to the teachers themselves?
In this guest post Will Fowler, program director at the Architectural Foundation of San Francisco, describes a partnership between AFSF and San Francisco Unified School District to create opportunities to allow students to demonstrate expanded forms of achievement from the usual schoolwork.
Chicago Public Schools is beginning to move on use of the iPad, bringing them into 20 schools this year. How the devices are picked up in the schools, and what trends of adoption and use emerge, will illustrate the potential and limitations of this new kind of technology in traditional schools. More and more as technologies advance learning models will need to be rethought to accommodate the capacity of technologies, instead of trying to fit new devices into existing schools and programs.
The senior vice president of retail for Apple Computer recently described how Apple successfully brings thousands of customers each year from inexperience to proficiency with their software, for a relatively small cost. In the One-to-One program, for one hundred dollars per year customers get one hour per week with a Mac Genius.
Laura Weeldreyer is deputy chief of staff for the Superintendent of Baltimore City Public Schools. In this guest post, pushing against a recent report from the Fordham Foundation, Weeldreyer describes the reasoning behind that district’s move to create conditions inside the district that provide more autonomy to innovative schools and programs.
The Mind Trust is an Indianapolis-based incubator program for individuals with visions to remake schooling. They award competitive fellowships to help individuals with ideas and the talent to develop their ideas and bring them to reality. They are taking 50-word statements of intent now, from prospective applicants.
Against the tide of comprehensive reform asserts that problems do not arise themselves but are the result of conditions. Instead of trying to foresee all possible problems, and seeking to know all answers, wouldn’t it be more effective to create the best environment at the school level for self-improvement, and to productively identify and work on problems as they occur?
