The New York Times
5 December 2017
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Too often people use standardized test scores as the only measure of how good a school system is. A new measure looks at the growth and proficiency of the students as a measure of performance and may be more accurate in comparing public schools across the USA.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/a-by-the-e-book-education-for-5-a-month
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
22 May 2013
Text / 1500-3000 Words
For-profit companies are making good private schools available even to Africa’s poor. They can do it – and can do it on an enormous scale – by hiring neighborhood residents to teach, and scripting out every word of every lesson on an e-reader.
http://www.pulitzer.org/files/2012/public_service/assault09.pdf
Kristen A. Graham
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network)
1 April 2011
Text / 800-1500 Words
Palm Beach County, Florida has many of the same social problems that Philadelphia has, including “gangs, drugs, and poverty.” However, their school system has managed to keep students safe by employing “safe-school case managers” who build relationships with students, and they offer a youth court that is a system run by students who peer-review cases of unrest. The initiatives in this county has prevented school violence from happening without metal detectors and just two police officers.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/a_new_model_of_school_reform
Jeremy Adam Smith
Greater Good Magazine
21 May 2014
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is transforming educational systems in Oakland by forming mentor relationships between adults and students. Unlike other models, though, the adults are the ones held accountable.
https://medium.com/bright/a-peek-into-silicon-valley-s-latest-bet-altschool-abf6c6973ecd
Mary Jo Madda
Bright Magazine
1 July 2015
Multi-Media / Under 800 Words
AltSchools use a completely different education system - interconnecting technology and hands on experiments - to help students achieve a higher degree of learning. Students are grouped into small, personalized cohorts so they can be both mentors and mentees for their fellow peers, creating a collaborative learning space for all.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/474/back-to-school
Ira Glass
This American Life
14 September 2012
Podcast / Over 15 Minutes
As kids and teachers head back to school, we wanted to turn away from questions about politics and unions and money and all the regular school stuff people argue about, and turn to something more optimistic — an emerging theory about what to teach kids.
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/big-ideas-in-social-change-2014
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
11 December 2014
Text / 1500-3000 Words
A overview of 2014's Fixes columns - connecting the dots between 60 or so ways that people are trying to change the world.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/coming-together-to-give-schools-a-boost
David Bornstein
The New York Times
7 March 2011
Text / 800-1500 Words
A 2006 report noted that Ohio and Kentucky were lagging behind other states in college attainment rates - community leaders were concerned about remaining competitive in a global economy. A group of leaders in the Cincinnati area are improving school systems by using data for progress, not punishment.
http://seattletimes.com/html/education/2024894748_edlabsmallclassesxml.html
John Higgins
The Seattle Times
28 October 2014
Text / 800-1500 Words
Research in the U.S. suggests that a small class size is not enough but in combination with teacher training it leads to a change in achievement.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/projects/2013/native-american-education/running-in-place.html
Lesli A. Maxwell
Megan Garner
Swikar Patel
Education Week
4 December 2013
Text / Over 3000 Words
Native American student graduation rates are much lower than that of any other demographic. The Red Cloud school teaches students on a reservation in South Dakota about the Lakota history to empower the kids and encourage resilience.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/01/busted_unions_and_broken_promi.html
Daniel Simmons-Ritchie
PennLive
12 January 2015
Text / 800-1500 Words
York schools are considering changing public schools into charter schools, following the example of New Orleans and Michigan, in order to help their crumbling school system. The privatization of these schools can help the facilities become more financially stable, in turn preventing school closures and instability for their students.
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