Publications

Podcast on the concept of disruptive innovation, and its application to US compulsory education. The second half considers Higher Education through the lens of disruptive innovation, and explains how radical developments such as iTunesU and OpenCourseWare may not be as disruptive as they first appear.

E|E asserts that student motivation is critically relevant to K-12 policy. The country has radically changed the assignment to its schools. A system earlier told to expand access to learning is now told it must ensure that students learn. But, what do young people think of E|E's assertion? Here is an overview of five students' responses.

There's growing interest in improving the "management of human capital" in K-12: teacher recruitment, retention, compensation, accountability, etc. Usually this suggests 'better administration.' Yet, these decisions might be better made by teachers running a professional partnership. This interview with teacher Carrie Bakken addresses how a partnership handles running a public school.

Notes from December 2007 conversations with L. Scott Miller about minority achievement in K12 and at the university levels. Scott argues that some of the greatest disparities in performance come "within-class," and that greater focus placed on African American and Hispanic students among middle and professional classes.

A commentary submitted to Education Week, March 12th 2008, summarizing EE's paper "The Other Half of the Strategy: Following Up on System Reform by Innovating with School and Schooling".

System-level reforms like standards, accountability, choice and chartering make it more necessary for schools to succeed with learning. But these reforms do not by themselves affect achievement. Kids learn from what they read, see, hear and do. So success in the effort at improvement requires capitalizing now on the system-level changes with a major effort to create new forms of school.

Chartering is hailed as providing a space for innovation in public education. However, research and reporting on chartered schools usually focus on test scores and student demographics, and not on the innovations taking place. This report outlines some of the innovations appearing in Minnesota chartered schools.

Marshall (Mike) Smith argues, based on evidence, that it's too early for Congress to proceed with reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind program. Smith, a senior official in the Clinton administration's U.S. Department of Education, was a key author of the strategy of standards-based systemic reform. Written Spring, 2007.

This report examines the experiences of youth who quit school or were on the path to quitting. It describes their human, and democratic, desire to choose whether or not they will learn. It finds that once engaged students learn better and that different things motivate different students; no one factor is motivating for all students.