The Allentown Center City Initiative Education Subcommittee has been studying the challenges and triumphs of education in Allentown with an eye to how education can contribute to dynamic, prosperous, and safe neighborhoods. While the number and breadth of existing education improvement activities are truly meritorious, we believe that only a public education system that prepares …
I ran across this interesting video today. In it Pierce Cook talks about how different technologies throughout the years were touted as the key to revolutionizing education. However, none did. In some cases newer technologies were less effective for learning. Why? The key is how technology or anything else engages the minds of students to …
Education is something we all know is very important for our future. However, talk of constructive steps tends to glaze over because of the complexity of the issues and variety of perspectives and interests. I cannot count how many times educators have expressed concern to me about how any changes might affect them, and very …
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has been one of the most active in calling public attention to the new global economy and how it changes just about everything. He recently held his New World Conference in San Francisco. At the conference, both business leaders and pioneering education change agents made strong statements that the …
What is the role of public education in the U.S. today? This seems like a simple, straightforward question. However, I sense that a lack of consensus on the answer is one thing making progress on how to improve education so elusive. Clearly, we cannot focus the needed energy on education transformation until we have a …
One thing that few seem to realize is that our economy and thus our society is undergoing a permanent change. Normally, after a deep recession one expects to see a strong period of growth as previous economic activity returns to normal. That has not been happening. The fact is that a combination of automation and …
The Chronicle of Higher Education had an interesting article recently reporting results of two surveys. One survey conducted by Gallup in partnership with the Lumina Foundation indicated that only 11 percent of business leaders strongly agree that today’s graduates have the skills and competencies that their businesses need. In contrast, another Gallup survey of college …
Columnist Tom Friedman had a very interesting message today about what Google looks for in a prospective hire. According to the guy in charge of hiring, Google pays little attention to degrees, grades, and current expertise. Instead, the company looks for candidates who can learn new things as needed, think, and lead within the context …
The video below talks about a research study based on using rigorous project based learning in a high school government class. The results show not only much deeper learning taking place but keeping formerly disconnected students engaged. The video notes that one student who formally dropped out of high school continued to attend only this …
A new study by Stanford University shows that student centered learning approaches effectively close the gap in achievement by disadvantaged students. https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/news/articles/1137 Dozier-Libbey Medical High School