Tag Archives: reform

Teachers vs Reformers?

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Education reformers on the move.

When it comes to our education system, the concept of reform figures prominently into any current dialogue on the subject.  The prevailing sense among those discussing education is that  that the modern system is in serious need of an overhaul.  However, some of the most marked resistance to recent policy reform has sprung from a somewhat surprising source – teachers themselves.  While the resistance coming from teachers seems surprising at first, given that they stand to benefit from an education system that is overall improved, it makes sense as you begin to look at the ways in which reform is being implemented.  The overall course of modern policy reform identifies teacher inefficacy as a major contributing factor to the diminished quality of education.  “Revamping the makeup of the teaching profession through tweaks such as altering tenure and teacher evaluations has become a policy debate-du-jour, one that has riled many a state house in recent years.” Continue reading →

How To – Turn Your Ailing School Around

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Ten years ago, New York City’s Intermediate School 339 (IS339) was home to the type of learning environment one might expect from an inner-city school in a low-income neighborhood.  Located in the Claremont district of the Bronx, this middle school struggled to meet the educational needs of its 945 students.  Nearly 85% of students qualified for free or reduced cost lunch, with 28% enrolled in the English as a second language program.  One assessment of the school showed that only 9% of students were testing to the appropriate grade level in math.  Teachers struggled to keep kids engaged, often failing to do so thanks to an immense lack of resources.  Boredom among the student body meant that fights and gang activity were also common. “Walking through the hallways, it felt like at any moment chaos was gonna break out.” However all of that would change when one man realized that the “light at the end of the tunnel might [just] be a laptop screen.”
Image by IB Times.

"We make school make more sense for them when we provide them with the opportunity to use technology." Jason Levy

The State of Education

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Photo by ABC News.

"Challenges remain. And we know how to solve them."

Last Tuesday on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama delivered the penultimate State of the Union of his first term.  In previous editions of this historic annual speech, education has been somewhat overshadowed by other domestic issues such as the ailing economy and the fate of the middle class.  However, scholastic issues figured largely into Tuesday’s speech, as a range of shortcomings in education were connected with the untapped potential of the American workforce – the products of a flawed education system.  Sara Ferguson, a teacher from Pennslyvania who was invited to attend the speech, was pleased to see that Obama made the connection between education and the United States’ economic issues. “We need more politicians to realize that quality public education is the way to economic recovery.”  Continue reading →

Adapt or Die; Textbooks Slowly Go Digital

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An article published a couple weeks ago in the “Special Report on Education” by the New York Times’ Christopher F. Schuetze, shared some interesting news on shifting currents in blended technology in classrooms of the future.

Photo by Joshua Lott of The New York Times

I noted on twitter some months back of South Korea’s decision to switch to digital textbooks,  a $2 billion dollar investment, beckoning a reconsideration of digital education worldwide and possibilities for the future.  Within a couple of weeks of this news, Idaho began accepting bids from the private sector to provide a laptop to every teacher and high school student in their public education system.  Today, it appears that California too is heeding the call for digital textbooks by legislating a 25 million dollar investment to create 50 new textbooks that would be “free in digital form or $20 in print”.

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