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What You Might Not Know About “Common Core Standards.”
by Edward Miller on April 1, 2010
The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have proposed a set of common core standards for English and math for children in kindergarten through grade 12. Forty-eight states (all but Alaska and Texas) agreed to participate in creating these standards. President Obama has announced his intention to link Title I funding to the adoption of the standards.
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Will the Apple iPad Transform Schools?
by Andy Zucker on March 15, 2010
The recent introduction of devices like the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad is a reminder that the printed book will evolve in the face of new digital devices, new capabilities for users, and new business models. In some disciplines taught in institutions of higher education, such as statistics, there is already substantial use of electronic textbooks. Change is coming to the K-12 schools, too.
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Duncan’s Message for Year 2: Move Out of Your Comfort Zone
by Nancy Walser on March 1, 2010
Declaring, "We must educate our way to a new economy," Arne Duncan came to his alma mater last week and clicked off the tasks for his second year as secretary of education. During his speech at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Duncan also addressed some of the more controversial aspects of his first year, including support for merit pay, charter schools, and competitive grants.
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How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up
by Gretchen Brion-Meisels on February 8, 2010
The tragic deaths of Lawrence King (age 13), Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover (age 11), and Jaheem Herrera (age 11)--all victims of school-based homophobia--serve as stark reminders that American schools remain unsafe for many young people who perform gender in a way that may not match dominant social norms.
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Another Missed Opportunity for Reform?
by Kavitha Mediratta on January 19, 2010
Today, states across the country will submit applications to the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top fund.
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Looking Back, Looking Forward
by Nancy Walser on January 7, 2010
Volume 1, No. 1--the first-ever issue of the Harvard Education Letter--looks older than its 25 years. The well-thumbed issue we keep in our makeshift archive (a plastic three-ring binder) is slightly tattered, the words worn where the issue was folded in three for mailing. All three holes in its three-hole punch are ripped.
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“Platooning” and the Industrial Model of Schooling
by David Marshak on November 24, 2009
"Platooning" is another example of the intensification of the factory model of schooling which ignores most of what we've learned from scientific psychology about how human beings learn and grow.
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"Platooning" Touches a Nerve
by Lucy Hood on November 12, 2009
Reaction to my story on efforts to departmentalize elementary education around the country has come fast and furious since it was published in this month's Harvard Education Letter.
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Behind the Classroom Door: A rare glimpse indicates the extent—and persistence—of variation in teacher practice
by on November 1, 2009
In recent years, a raft of research has called attention to the importance of effective teaching in influencing student achievement. Yet federal and state accountability policies continue to focus primarily at the school level: using schools as the unit of performance, identifying “failing schools,” and more recently targeting “turnaround schools” for special intervention. One of the best-kept secrets in educational research, it seems, is the fact that differences in the quality of instruction from classroom to classroom within schools are greater than differences in instructional quality between schools. This finding has been documented in a variety of studies, most of which used indirect measures to evaluate instruction (such as relying on teachers’ perceptions or looking at curriculum materials to determine how much time they spent on particular topics). Despite the limitations of these measures, these studies have suggested that there is considerable variation in practice even among teachers in the same building.
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The Real Race to the Top: To win, your district needs a strategy—not just a strategic plan
by Rachel E. Curtis and Elizabeth A. City on November 1, 2009
The Obama administration’s planned investments of $100 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and an additional $4 billion in Race to the Top funds offer tremendous opportunities for school systems to focus intently on the work that will bring the greatest learning results for students. However, these new funding programs also have the potential to be just two more things (albeit big things) to which districts react haphazardly. Whether our society will reap a return on these massive investments depends on whether school systems are able to use these funds strategically.
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