The Alliance for Excellent Education filmed a special edition of Federal Flash that condemns the actions by white supremacists in Charlottesville and urges parents, teachers, and others to talk about Charlottesville in their homes, classrooms, and communities. This blog post includes the video, a transcript of the video, as well as a series of resources that individuals can use to help start conversations about the nation’s dark history with slavery, the dangerous white supremacy movement, and the importance of equity, inclusion, and diversity in America.
This week’s digest features highlights from a deeper learning gathering in Detroit, new data on student success in New Tech Network schools, a story on student-centered learning, an upcoming webinar on using Title I funds for deeper learning, and more.
Last week was one of the most rejuvenating weeks I have experienced in a long time; it began in Detroit, Michigan, and finished in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Despite great differences between the two in cultures and contexts, I saw a steady and strong commitment to improving equity in education despite significant hardships that educators and advocates face.
This month, as students across the country return to the classroom, those in Silver Lake Unified School District (USD 372) in Kansas will find technology and resources that were not available previously. Their computer lab has been transformed into a print shop where students can participate in project-based learning with the help of predictable and reliable Wi-Fi, changes made possible by the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) E-rate Modernization Order, adopted in 2014 and implemented in 2015.
This week’s digest features a new set of toolkits to deepen learning for students, an upcoming deeper learning webinar series, a look at the connection between military values and deeper learning, and the importance of sharing learning.
Nearly a century ago, civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois was asked about the system of education in the United States. He remarked, “Education must not simply teach work—it must teach life.” With his choice of words, Du Bois demonstrated what education leaders and practitioners, policymakers, and researchers now are coalescing their efforts around—creating an education system that prepares students for college, career, and life in the twenty-first century and that builds success of the individual, the community, and overall society. One way this body of work has emerged is called deeper learning.
This week’s digest features several stories on how students are gaining real-world experience and building the necessary skills and competencies to prepare them for success in their jobs and careers.
This week’s digest highlights the benefits of competency-based learning, personalization, and connecting students to the real world. But looking beyond student learning, how are teachers engaging in deeper learning experiences themselves?
In the past decade, the rate of violent incidents occurring in public schools declined by nearly half, but middle schools and schools that serve mostly students of color still experience higher rates of violence than other schools, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
Estonia, the northernmost of the Baltic countries, has a population of 1.3 million people, roughly the size of the population of Maine or New Hampshire. Although it is one of the poorest countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with a 2014 per capita gross domestic product of $28,140 compared to the OECD average of $39,333, Estonia has one of the strongest education systems among OECD countries. The nation boasts above-average results on PISA, almost universal access to pre-primary education, and a rate of educational attainment at the secondary level that is among the highest in the European Union and among OECD member nations. So how does Estonia do it?
Don’t expect to find students sitting passively in neatly rowed desks at MC2 STEM High School. It’s far more likely to see students cutting plywood with laser cutters or driving remote-controlled robots down the hall at this open-enrollment high school dedicated to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The school fosters an atmosphere of innovation, both in its physical structure and its approach to instruction, that empowers students to direct their own learning.
