The (Progressive) Schools Our Children Deserve – (Lecture Topic)

THE (PROGRESSIVE) SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE  Our knowledge of how children learn - and how schools can help -- has come a long way in the last few decades. Unfortunately, most schools have not: They're still more about memorizing facts and practicing isolated skills than understanding ideas from the inside out; they still exclude students from any meaningful decision-making role; ... Read More

Change by Decree (##)

AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL January 2013 Change by Decree By Alfie Kohn Everyone is opposed to making educators implement lousy ideas -- “lousy” being defined as something the speaker doesn’t like.  But it’s a lot more challenging to take a stand against -- and, if you’re in a position of relative power, to refuse to engage in -- the practice ... Read More

Do Tests Help Students Learn or Was a New Study Misreported? (##)

The relationship between educational policies and educational research is both fascinating and disturbing. Sometimes policy makers, including those who piously invoke the idea of “data-driven” practice, pursue initiatives that they favor regardless of the fact that there is no empirical support for them (e.g., high-stakes testing) or even when the research suggests the policy in . . . (Read More)