Pasi Sahlberg had a day of conversations with Minnesotans on July 19, 2012 about the schools in Finland. An official in the Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki, Sahlberg is probably the person most involved with explaining to countries around the world about the education system that Finland developed beginning about 1970.
An analysis of two innovative chartered schools in Minnesota, including a financial analysis which shows this innovation is possible at a net cost well below district schools of similar demographics. By Charles Kyte, a former superintendent and executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators.
If you want to know more about Avalon (a school with collective teacher autonomy) without visiting in person, this is probably the best you could do. A compilation of stories, studies and other publications by people who have been there; the founders, current advisors, former students, and national researchers. Edited by EE Senior Fellow and Hamline University Education Professor Walter Enloe, Avalon Alumna Holly Marsh, and David Pugh from Golden Hill Alternative Learning Center.
In 2010 and 2011 Education Evolving studied the policy frameworks being used in large cities around the country to encourage innovation in school. Here is a summary of those district and state policy frameworks, as of 2011.
In 2010 and 2011 Education Evolving studied the policy frameworks being used in large cities around the country to encourage innovation in school. Here is a summary of key elements of those frameworks.
The key question of education innovation is whether schools and teachers will be free to adapt to the needs, aptitudes, interests, and motivations of their students. Ted Kolderie in Education Week, November 2011.
This timeline traces the evolution of schools with teacher autonomy, since the 1980s. It documents the critical roles school districts, unions, and chartering laws have had since then, in developing teacher autonomy and greater professional roles for teachers.
One effect of the federal stimulus funding for K-12 has been to create an impression that schools are suffering today because of the economic downturn. This is true. But the downturn is not the sole reason for their financial pains... nor is it the principal reason.
Ron Wolk, founder of Education Week, draws on his three decades in school reform to make the case for a "new schools" strategy, focused on individualized instruction instead of an assembly line approach to learning.
Digital' carries the potential to improve learning. But, potential alone won't sell district management on bringing it into schools. New technologies are most likely to be adopted when decisions are made at the school, when schools are given autonomy.
