education reform

New Microschools for a New School Year [McDonald]

On 08/28/2024, in Alternatives, education, education reform, innovation, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, new business models, parents/guardians, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, youth, by Daniel Christian

New Microschools for a New School Year — from the74million.org by Kerry McDonald
As parent demand for more individualized education options grows, everyday entrepreneurs are stepping up to meet that demand by launching microschools

Microschools and similarly creative schooling options gained increased popularity in the wake of the pandemic, and they continue to gain momentum. Not only are new schools and spaces opening across the U.S. but existing ones are expanding.

New data from VELA, a philanthropic nonprofit organization and entrepreneur community, reveals that over 90 percent of the unconventional learning environments it surveyed had more learners last fall than they did at their launch date, and the median compound rate of growth for these programs was 25 percent a year.

Some of the Best Online Learning Games for Kids — from nytimes.com by Courtney Schley

If you’re looking for apps and games that not only keep young kids occupied but also encourage them to explore, learn, and express themselves, we have some great suggestions.

The apps we cover in this guide are good learning apps not because they’re designed to make kids smarter, to drill facts, or to replace in-school learning, but because they each offer something fun, unique, and interesting for kids and adults.

As with our guides to STEM and learning toys, we didn’t test scores of apps to try to find the “best” ones. Rather, most of our favorite apps have been chosen by teachers for their students in classrooms, used by Wirecutter parents and their kids, or recommended by the experts and educators we spoke with.

SATs Have Never Been About Equity — from insidehighered.com by Pepper Stetler
The history of the SAT raises questions about how we value and measure intelligence, Pepper Stetler writes.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Even though the overwhelming majority (about 80 percent) of the country’s colleges and universities will remain test optional for the Class of 2029, our national conversation about the role of standardized admissions tests in higher education focuses almost exclusively on elite colleges, whose enrollments represent only 1 percent of students. Such a myopic perspective will do little to increase access to higher education. Real change would require us to reckon with the history of standardized tests and how they have persistently disadvantaged large numbers of students, particularly students of color and students with disabilities.

One hundred years later, academic success is defined as the capacity to do well on a standardized test. It does not just predict a person’s academic ability. It defines academic ability. And those who have the most time and resources to devote to the test are the ones who will succeed.

Top EdTech Trends Shaping Education in 2024-2025 — from edmentum.com

Trend #1: Schools Are Using Career Technical Education to Increase Student Engagement
Trend #2: Districts Are Looking to Scale Up Tutoring
Trend #3: Virtual Learning Solutions Can Help Address Teacher Shortages

Understood.com | Everyone deserves to be understood
Understood is the leading nonprofit empowering the 70 million people with learning and thinking differences in the United States.

4+ items re: the K-12 learning ecosystem

On 08/14/2024, in accessibility / UDL, Alternatives, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), education, education reform, experimentation, face-to-face, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, neurodivergent/special needs, reading, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

How to use accommodations and modifications in the classroom — from understood.org by Amanda Morin

In a busy classroom, it can be daunting to meet the varied learning needs of all your students. Knowing you’re also responsible for implementing instructional accommodations and modifications in students’ IEPs and 504 plans can make it feel even more challenging. But with the right information, you can provide these important supports to help all students thrive.

Here are key concepts to keep in mind and steps you can take to implement accommodations and modifications for your students.

Unschooling: A way of learning outside of school and it requires no lessons, tests or grades — from cbsnews.com by Janay Reece

BALTIMORE — What if your child didn’t go to school?

Believe it or not, some parents don’t send their children to school five days a week, and it’s called unschooling.

It is a growing and sometimes controversial approach to homeschooling.

Rather than using a defined curriculum, unschooling parents trust their kids to learn organically. Unschoolers are focused more on the experimental process of learning and becoming educated, rather than with “doing or going to school.”

People Are Hunting for Education ‘Fads.’ What Does That Say About Schools? — from edsurge.com by Daniel Mollenkamp

Public schools are particularly vulnerable to pressure, Cuban said on a call with EdSurge. That’s because national problems tend to become school ones, Cuban says. Schools have to walk a “tightrope,” striking a balance that is both stable for students and able to adapt to changes in the broader society, he says.

Pressure on schools to respond to new issues often ends up altering curricula or introducing new courses, because that’s the easiest part of the public education system to change, Cuban argues. But classrooms are isolated from the superintendent’s office, the school board and other “policy elites” who push change, he says.

Many kids can’t read, even in high school. Is the solution teaching reading in every class? — from hechingerreport.org by Julian Roberts-Grmela
Some high schools and states are experimenting with ways to integrate literacy instruction across all classes

Every teacher at her school, the Health Sciences High and Middle College, in San Diego, shares in the responsibility of teaching students literacy skills, regardless of the subject they teach. That’s because so many students, even incoming ninth graders, arrive at the school without basic reading skills, according to Douglas Fisher, an administrator at the school. While some students also receive one-on-one remediation, Fisher said that research shows those interventions aren’t enough to close the gap.

“We have kids that on our benchmark knowledge assessments are scoring what is the equivalent of second grade, first grade, fourth grade,” said Fisher, who is also a professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University. Yet, by the time students graduate, he said, the goal at the secondary school is that they have “reading levels ready for college.”

What to know about homeschooling [Wisner]

On 08/05/2024, in Alternatives, education, education reform, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, parents/guardians, student-related, United States, by Daniel Christian

What to know about homeschooling — from parents.com by Wendy Wisner
Get a closer look at why families choose homeschooling, how common homeschooling is, and what homeschooling really looks like for kids and parents.

There are so many reasons why families become interested in homeschooling their children, and these days the choice has become much more mainstream and accepted.1 You may be interested in homeschooling starting from preschool or kindergarten, or it may be something you are considering for your older child.

While there are a lot of factors to weigh as you consider the option of homeschooling, the good news is that now, more than ever, there are many resources out there to help you. Let’s take a look at why families choose to homeschool, what homeschooling really looks like, and what the options for style and instruction.

Building Durable Skills into Middle School Career Exploration — from edmentum.com

As the needs of the modern workforce evolve at an unprecedented rate, durable, or “soft,” skills are often eclipsing demand for sought-after technical skills in high-demand jobs across industry sectors, geography, and educational level.

Through research, collaboration, and feedback from more than 800 educators, workforce professionals, industry leaders, and policymakers, America Succeeds—a leading educational policy and advocacy group—has developed Durable Skills and the Durable Skills Advantage Framework to provide a common language for the most in-demand durable skills. With 85% of career success being dependent on durable skills, this framework bridges the gap between the skills students are taught in school and evolving workforce needs.

On a somewhat related note, also see:

Green Workforce Connect and Building Green Pathways with Cynthia Finley — from gettingsmart.com by Mason Pashia

Over the last few years, we’ve been covering New Pathways, which we think of as a framework for school leaders and community members to create supports and systems that set students up for success in what’s next. This might be career exploration, client-connected projects, internships, or entrepreneurial experiences.

But what it really comes down to is connecting learners to real-world experiences and people and helping them articulate the skills that they gain in the process. Along the way, we began to talk a lot about green jobs. Many of the pre-existing pathways in secondary schools point towards CTE programs and trades, which are more in demand than they’ve been in decades.

This coincides with a pivotal moment in the arc of infrastructure redesign and development, one that heavily emphasizes clean energy trajectories and transferable skills. Many of these jobs we refer to as green pathways or requiring some of these green skills.

One leading organization in this space is the Interstate Renewable Energy Council or IREC. I got to sit down with Cynthia Finley, the Vice President of Workforce Strategy at IREC to talk about green pathways and what IREC is doing to increase awareness and exposure of green jobs and skills.

A $100,000 sticker price at Vanderbilt U! + other items re: the higher education learning ecosystem

On 07/23/2024, in adult learning, business side of he, career development, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, education reform, higher education, learning ecosystem, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, pathways, student-related, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

The Progressive Case for Reforming Higher Ed — from insidehighered.com by Michael D. Smith
Customized, digital education offers a path for progressive reform, Michael D. Smith writes.

That’s the bad news. But there’s good news, too. New digital technologies have arrived during the past decade for delivering instruction and evaluating individual student learning at scale. If we embrace them, they can make real reform possible and allow us to imagine a fairer, more accessible system of higher education—one that will enable us to better serve the many students who are left out of our existing scarcity-based model.
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I think it should be to reform our educational system in ways that will benefit society. And with the advent of new digital technologies, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do just that. If we embrace those technologies now, we can democratize access to the knowledge that students from all socioeconomic backgrounds need to discover and develop their talents, and we can make it possible for them to earn the credentials they need to signal their knowledge to employers—all so that they can use their talents to make a difference in the world.

But in the years ahead, thanks to these new technologies, the broader ecosystem that these institutions exist in is going to expand and change dramatically. Gradually, elite residential colleges and universities will lose their dominant place in that ecosystem, and customized digital learning will first disrupt and then come to dominate a new system of higher education—one that reaches more people, and generates greater benefits for society, than ever before.

Enrollment woes hit both private and public colleges in 2023, S&P reports — from highereddive.com by Ben Unglesbee
Analysts with the ratings agency described a “tough year” in the higher ed world as revenue pressures ran into rising costs.

Dive Brief:

Fiscal 2023 was a “tough year” for private nonprofit colleges amid a “long trend of weakening demand,” S&P Global Ratings said in a Tuesday report.
Median full-time equivalent enrollment at private nonprofits fell 0.8% year over year in fiscal 2023, while retention rates hit a five-year low of 82.4%, according to S&P’s analysis. Given demand pressures and rising costs, institutions in the private nonprofit sector saw five times more credit downgrades than upgrades during the fiscal year.
In a separate report on public colleges, S&P analysts said the recently ended fiscal year also tested the financial resilience of those institutions, with median full-time equivalent enrollment falling 0.7% for the sector.

We have to remember all of this as we design more inclusive pathways to promising opportunities. A good job can often include flexible or hybrid working options, but a good job also includes some softer aspects connected to safety, wellbeing, creativity, growth, and the freedom to make choices and make decisions.

Dr. Michelle R. Weise in How Do You Define a Good Job?

President Joe Biden canceled an additional $1.2 billion in student debt for public servants on Thursday, the latest effort to provide loan relief and deliver on one of his signature initiatives. The assistance will affect 35,000 public service workers enrolled in the government’s loan forgiveness program, including nurses, firefighters and teachers. The Education Department has now forgiven $168.5 billion in student debt for 4.76 million Americans. Biden’s more ambitious plan to help Americans increasingly buried for decades under massive educational debt, a $400 billion plan for broad student debt relief, was blocked by the US Supreme Court.

— from Bloomberg.com’s Evening Briefing

Sticker shock: A look at the complicated world of tuition pricing — from highereddive.com by Ben Unglesbee
Despite attention to lofty sticker costs, the practice of discounting has reached new highs, confusing students and straining revenue for institutions.

This spring, the price of college rode the news cycle again as headlines featured an eye-popping $100,000 in attendance costs at Vanderbilt University.
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The practice of marking down tuition sticker prices is decades old and comes with few benefits at this point, many experts say. It can mislead students and muddy the conversation around the value of a college education, while for institutions tuition discounting can wear on revenue and finances in a competitive environment.
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At the same time, tuition discounting among private nonprofits hit a new high of 56.1% in 2023-24.

“The number that bothers me the most is the increasing costs for the low-income kids,” Levine said. “If you’re making $50,000 or under, you still have to come up with almost $20,000, which is essentially impossible.”

Students Speak Out: How to Make High Schools Places Where They Want to Learn — from the74million.org by Beth Fertig
Too many high school students complain that school is boring. Students share what makes school enjoyable.

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Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

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Solving chronic absenteeism involves tackling big structural problems like transportation and infrastructure. But we also have to make our schools places where young people want to learn. Too many teens, in particular, had negative feelings about school even before the pandemic. Yale researchers conducting a national survey of high school students found most teens spent their days “tired,” “stressed,” and “bored.” Fewer than 3 in 100 reported feeling interested while in school.

Decades of research prove that students learn more when they experience high levels of academic engagement and social belonging in school.

Students at all four schools experience internships, work-based learning and partnerships with community organizations, which they said make classwork feel more relevant.

“NYC High School Reimagines Career & Technical Education for the 21st Century” [Bauld] + several other items re: the K12 learning ecosystem

On 06/17/2024, in Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, communications, creativity, digital audio, digital video, education, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, engineering, entrepreneurship, experimentation, ideas, innovation, instructional design, journalism, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, maker movement, media/film, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, neurodivergent/special needs, play, podcasting, real-world assignments, robotics, skills, society, sociology, strategy, student-related, teachers, United States, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, by Daniel Christian

NYC High School Reimagines Career & Technical Education for the 21st Century — from the74million.org by Andrew Bauld
Thomas A. Edison High School is providing students with the skills to succeed in both college and career in an unusually creative way.

From DSC:
Very interesting to see the mention of an R&D department here! Very cool.

Baker said ninth graders in the R&D department designed the essential skills rubric for their grade so that regardless of what content classes students take, they all get the same immersion into critical career skills. Student voice is now so integrated into Edison’s core that teachers work with student designers to plan their units. And he said teachers are becoming comfortable with the language of career-centered learning and essential skills while students appreciate the engagement and develop a new level of confidence.
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The R&D department has grown to include teachers from every department working with students to figure out how to integrate essential skills into core academic classes. In this way, they’re applying one of the XQ Institute’s crucial Design Principles for innovative high schools: Youth Voice and Choice.
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Learners need: More voice. More choice. More control. -- this image was created by Daniel Christian

Student Enterprise: Invite Learners to Launch a Media Agency or Publication — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Key Points

Client-connected projects have become a focal point of the Real World Learning initiative, offering students opportunities to solve real-world problems in collaboration with industry professionals.
Organizations like CAPS, NFTE, and Journalistic Learning facilitate community connections and professional learning opportunities, making it easier to implement client projects and entrepreneurship education.

Important trend: client projects. Work-based learning has been growing with career academies and renewed interest in CTE. Six years ago, a subset of WBL called client-connected projects became a focal point of the Real World Learning initiative in Kansas City where they are defined as authentic problems that students solve in collaboration with professionals from industry, not-for-profit, and community-based organizations….and allow students to: engage directly with employers, address real-world problems, and develop essential skills.

Portrait of a Community to Empower Learning Transformation — from gettingsmart.com by Rebecca Midles and Mason Pashia

Key Points

The Community Portrait approach encourages diverse voices to shape the future of education, ensuring it reflects the needs and aspirations of all stakeholders.
Active, representative community engagement is essential for creating meaningful and inclusive educational environments.

The Portrait of a Graduate—a collaborative effort to define what learners should know and be able to do upon graduation—has likely generated enthusiasm in your community. However, the challenge of future-ready graduates persists: How can we turn this vision into a reality within our diverse and dynamic schools, especially amid the current national political tensions and contentious curriculum debates?

The answer lies in active, inclusive community engagement. It’s about crafting a Community Portrait that reflects the rich diversity of our neighborhoods. This approach, grounded in the same principles used to design effective learning systems, seeks to cultivate deep, reciprocal relationships within the community. When young people are actively involved, the potential for meaningful change increases exponentially.

Q&A: Why Schools Must Redesign Learning to Include All Students — from edtechmagazine.com by Taashi Rowe
Systems are broken, not children, says K–12 disability advocate Lindsay E. Jones.

Although Lindsay E. Jones came from a family of educators, she didn’t expect that going to law school would steer her back into the family business. Over the years she became a staunch advocate for children with disabilities. And as mom to a son with learning disabilities and ADHD who is in high school and doing great, her advocacy is personal.

Jones previously served as president and CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities and was senior director for policy and advocacy at the Council for Exceptional Children. Today, she is the CEO at CAST, an organization focused on creating inclusive learning environments in K–12. EdTech: Focus on K–12 spoke with Jones about how digital transformation, artificial intelligence and visionary leaders can support inclusive learning environments.

Our brains are all as different as our fingerprints, and throughout its 40-year history, CAST has been focused on one core value: People are not broken, systems are poorly designed. And those systems are creating a barrier that holds back human innovation and learning.

6 Ways State Policymakers Can Build More Future-Focused Education Systems — from gettingsmart.com by Jennifer Kabaker

Key Points

Guided by a vision – often captured as a Portrait of a Graduate – co-constructed with local leaders, community members, students, and families, state policymakers can develop policies that equitably and effectively support students and educators in transforming learning experiences.
The Aurora Institute highlights the importance of collaborative efforts in creating education systems that truly meet the diverse needs of every student.

The Aurora Institute has spent years working with states looking to advance competency-based systems, and has identified a set of key state policy levers that policymakers can put into action to build more personalized and competency-based systems. These shifts should be guided by a vision–co-constructed with local leaders, community members, students, and families–for what students need to know and be able to do upon graduating.

Career Pathways In A Rapidly Changing World: US Career Pathways Story — from gettingsmart.com by Paul Herdman

Key Points

There has been a move away from the traditional “Bachelor’s or Bust” mentality towards recognizing the value of diverse career pathways that may not necessarily require a four-year degree.
Local entities such as states, school districts, and private organizations have played a crucial role in implementing and scaling up career pathways programs.

While much has been written on this topic (see resources below), this post, in the context of our OECD study of five Anglophone countries, will attempt to provide a backdrop on what was happening at the federal level in the U.S. over the last several decades to help catalyze this shift in career pathways and offer a snapshot of how this work is evolving in two very different states—Delaware and Texas.

U.S. public, private and charter schools in 5 charts — from pewresearch.org by Katherine Schaeffer
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12 Shifts to Move from Teacher-Led to Student-Centered Environments [Wagner]

On 06/03/2024, in active learning, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, more voice more choice more control, motivation, strategy, student-related, teachers, by Daniel Christian

12 Shifts to Move from Teacher-Led to Student-Centered Environments — from gettingsmart.com by Kyle Wagner

Key Points

Despite modern technological advancements in classroom tools, many educational settings still center around a traditional model where the teacher is the primary source of information and students passively receive content.
Slowly, learning environments are inviting students to actively participate and take ownership of their learning through collaborative projects, inquiry-based experiences, and real-world problem-solving, thereby transforming traditional educational roles and practices.

LearnLM is our new family of models fine-tuned for learning, and grounded in educational research to make teaching and learning experiences more active, personal and engaging.

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AI in Education: Google’s LearnLM product has incredible potential — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer and Nick Potkalitsky
Google’s Ed Suite is giving Teachers new ideas for incorporating AI into the classroom.

We often talk about what Generative AI will do for coders, healthcare, science or even finance, but what about the benefits for the next generation? Permit me if you will, here I’m thinking about teachers and students.

It’s no secret that some of the most active users of ChatGPT in its heyday, were students. But how are other major tech firms thinking about this?

I actually think one of the best products with the highest ceiling from Google I/O 2024 is LearnLM. It has to be way more than a chatbot, it has to feel like a multimodal tutor. I can imagine frontier model agents (H) doing this fairly well.

What if everyone, everywhere could have their own personal AI tutor, on any topic?

ChatGPT4o Is the TikTok of AI Models — from nickpotkalitsky.substack.com by Nick Potkalitsky
In Search of Better Tools for AI Access in K-12 Classrooms

Nick makes the case that we should pause on the use of OpenAI in the classrooms:

In light of these observations, it’s clear that we must pause and rethink the use of OpenAI products in our classrooms, except for rare cases where accessibility needs demand it. The rapid consumerization of AI, epitomized by GPT4o’s transformation into an AI salesperson, calls for caution.

The Future of AI in Education: Google and OpenAI Strategies Unveiled — from edtechinsiders.substack.comby Ben Kornell

Google’s Strategy: AI Everywhere
Key Points

Google will win through seamless Gemini integration across all Google products
Enterprise approach in education to make Gemini the default at low/no additional cost
Functional use cases and model tuning demonstrate Google’s knowledge of educators

OpenAI’s Strategy: ChatGPT as the Front Door
Key Points

OpenAI taking a consumer-led freemium approach to education
API powers an app layer that delivers education-specific use cases
Betting on a large user base + app marketplace

Khan Academy & Microsoft partner to expand access to AI tools

On 05/23/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, mathematics, Microsoft, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, teachers, tools, trends, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Khan Academy and Microsoft partner to expand access to AI tools that personalize teaching and help make learning fun — from news.microsoft.com

[On 5/21/24] at Microsoft Build, Microsoft and Khan Academy announced a new partnership that aims to bring these time-saving and lesson-enhancing AI tools to millions of educators. By donating access to Azure AI-optimized infrastructure, Microsoft is enabling Khan Academy to offer all K-12 educators in the U.S. free access to the pilot of Khanmigo for Teachers, which will now be powered by Azure OpenAI Service.

The two companies will also collaborate to explore opportunities to improve AI tools for math tutoring in an affordable, scalable and adaptable way with a new version of Phi-3, a family of small language models (SLMs) developed by Microsoft.

Also see/referenced:

Also relevant/see:

Khan Academy and Microsoft are teaming up to give teachers a free AI assistant — from fastcompany.com by Steven Melendez
AI assistant Khanmigo can help time-strapped teachers come up with lesson ideas and test questions, the companies say.

Khan Academy’s AI assistant, Khanmigo, has earned praise for helping students to understand and practice everything from math to English, but it can also help teachers devise lesson plans, formulate questions about assigned readings, and even generate reading passages appropriate for students at different levels. More than just a chatbot, the software offers specific AI-powered tools for generating quizzes and assignment instructions, drafting lesson plans, and formulating letters of recommendation.
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Having a virtual teaching assistant is especially valuable in light of recent research from the RAND Corporation that found teachers work longer hours than most working adults, which includes administrative and prep work outside the classroom.

“The State of the American High School in 2024” [Vander Ark] + other items from the PreK-12 learning ecosystem

On 05/17/2024, in assessment, credentialing, education, education reform, instructional design, K-12 related, pedagogy, reading, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

The State of the American High School in 2024 — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Over the past 120 days, we’ve conducted tours of over 50 high schools in more than 1,000 classrooms across various cities including Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Northern Colorado, Kansas City, Twin Cities, Pittsburgh, and San Diego. These schools were purposefully selected for their dedication to real world learning, positioning them at the forefront of innovative education. These visits showed schools leading the way into new pathways, active learning methods, and work-based learning initiatives. From our observations at these leading schools, we’ve identified 8 key insights about the state of American high schools.

We are on the brink of a significant transformation in how education qualifications are perceived and valued, thanks to a strategic move by ETS to make Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) a subsidiary. This pivotal development marks a shift from traditional metrics of educational success—courses and grades—to a more nuanced representation of student abilities through skills transcripts.

The partnership between ETS and MTC is not just a merger of organizations, but a fusion of visions that aim to recalibrate educational assessment. The collaboration is set to advance “Skills for the Future,” focusing on authentic, dynamic assessment methods that provide clear, actionable insights into student capabilities. This shift away from the century-old Carnegie Unit model, which measures educational attainment by time rather than skill mastery, aims to foster learning environments that prioritize personal growth over time spent in a classroom.

As we move forward, this approach could redefine success in education, making learning experiences more adaptive, equitable, and aligned with the demands of the modern world.

See:
Skills Transcripts at Scale: Why The ETS & MTC Partnership is a Big Deal — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Key Points

One of the core problems is that education is based on time rather than learning.
We finally have a chance to move courses and grades into the background and foreground powerful personalized learning experiences and capture and communicate the resulting capabilities in much more descriptive ways—and do it at scale

How to Help Older Students Who Struggle to Read — from nataliewexler.substack.com by Natalie Wexler
Many students above third grade need help deciphering words with multiple syllables

Kockler hypothesizes that the reading struggles of many older students are due in large part to two issues. One has to do with “linguistic difference.” If a child’s family and community speak a variant of English that differs from the kind generally used in books and by teachers—for example, African-American English—it could be harder for them to decode words and connect those words to their meanings.

The Decoding Threshold
The other issue has to do with difficulties in decoding multisyllabic words. Kockler points to a couple of large-scale research studies that have identified a “decoding threshold.”

In theory, students’ reading comprehension ability should improve as they advance to higher grade levels—and it often does. But the researchers found that if students are above fourth grade—past the point where they’re likely to get decoding instruction—and their decoding ability is below a certain level, they’re “extremely unlikely [to] make significant progress in reading comprehension in the following years.” The studies, which were conducted in a high-poverty, largely African-American district, found that almost 40% of fifth-graders and 20% of tenth-graders included in the sample fell below the decoding threshold.

What Is Doxxing, and How Can Educators Protect Their Privacy Online? — from edweek.org by Sarah D. Sparks

The education profession relies on teachers being accessible to their students and families and open to sharing with colleagues. But a little information can be a dangerous thing.

Learning to Work, Or Working to Learn? [Crisp]

On 05/12/2024, in apprenticeships, business, career development, corporate / business world, Design Thinking, education, education reform, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, participation, passions, project-based learning, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Learning to Work, Or Working to Learn? — from insidehighered.com by Erin Crisp; via Melanie Booth, Ed.D. on LinkedIn
We need a systems approach to making work-to-learn models just as accessible as traditional learn-to-work pathways, Erin Crisp writes.

Over the past two years, I have had the unique experience of scaling support for a statewide registered teacher-apprenticeship program while also parenting three college-aged sons. The declining appeal of postsecondary education, especially among young men, is evident at my dinner table, in my office, and in my dreams (literally).
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Scaling a statewide apprenticeship program for the preparation of teachers has meant that I am consistently hearing from four stakeholder groups—K-12 school district leaders, college and university leaders, aspiring young educators, and local workforce development leaders.

A theme has emerged from my professional life, one that echoes the dinner table conversations happening in my personal life: Society needs systematic work-to-learn pathways in addition to the current learn-to-work ecosystem. This is not an either/or. What we need is a systematic expansion of effort.

In a work-to-learn model, the traditional college sequence is flipped. Instead of starting with general education coursework or survey courses, the working learner is actively engaged in practicing the skills they are interested in acquiring. A workplace supervisor often helps him make connections between the coursework and the job. The learner’s attention is piqued. The learning is relevant. The learner gains confidence, and seeing their influence in the workplace (and paycheck) is satisfying. All of the ARCS model elements are easily achieved.

Learning On Purpose | What problem do you want to solve? [Weise]

On 05/12/2024, in Design Thinking, education, education reform, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, Learning Experience Design, motivation, project-based learning, real-world assignments, reinvent, society, student-related, teachers, United States, by Daniel Christian

Learning On Purpose | What problem do you want to solve? — from michelleweise.substack.com by Dr. Michelle R. Weise

I quickly decided to take a different tack with my students, and instead asked each of them, “What problem in the world do you think you want to solve? If you could go to a school of hunger, poverty, Alzheimer’s disease, mental health … what kind of school would you want to attend?” This is when they started nodding vigorously.

What each of them identified was a grand challenge, or what Stanford d.school Executive Director Sarah Stein Greenberg has called: purpose learning. In a great talk for Wired, Greenberg asks,

What if students declared missions not majors? Or even better, what if they applied to the School of Hunger or the School of Renewable Energy? These are real problems that society doesn’t have answers to yet. Wouldn’t that fuel their studies with some degree of urgency and meaning and real purpose that they don’t yet have today?

Learning Ecosystems

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