Erika’s weekend picks for Oct. 10 and 11
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Parents
How public school educators built a radically innovative school
What would a school look like if it was designed, from the ground up, by the students in its classrooms? That was the question a team of educators in rural Edgecombe County started asking themselves two years ago. The schools in the county’s Northside district have long struggled with low student performance, attendance, graduation rates,
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Modern teachers shouldn’t waste time lecturing students
Ask students what year Columbus sailed the ocean blue and they’ll likely respond with “1492!” Schools have been drilling such facts into children’s brains since the dawn of public education. In past decades, long lectures and rote learning were necessary evils. Information had to flow in one direction only — from all-knowing teachers to students
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A Better Way to Teach the Gifted—and Everyone Else
For many gifted students, the school day is a snooze-fest. Seven in 10 public school teachers agree that “too often, the brightest students are bored and under-challenged in school,” according to a 2008 study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
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This Is What It Really Looks Like to Transform a School
After nearly two decades in education, I’m still not certain what the term “reform” actually means. The concept itself is elusive, concurrently everywhere and nowhere. We were promised tremendous “reform” when charter school operators and Silicon Valley took over in recent years with a largely philanthropic mandate for change. Even as a longtime proponent of
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What’s The Next Big Idea? Microschool Networks
Have a good learning idea? Try it with six kids tomorrow, plan an after-school event for next week or advertise a week long summer school opportunity. If that works, launch a small school for 15 students in the fall.
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Let The Student Become The Master
Imagine if aspiring surgeons could coast through medical school by simply showing up to class and watching the clock tick away. Or if mechanics could receive their certifications by just observing, not repairing, cars.
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What Is a Micro School? And Where Can You Find One?
Micro schools—private schools with sometimes as few as a half dozen students—are popping up in places from Silicon Valley to Washington, D.C. And along the way, they’ve been generating excitement inside school choice circles and tech and business publications like Wired and Fast Company. Some experts predict micro schools have the potential to not only revive
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Open a Micro-School: Here’s How
It’s getting easier to open a really cool school. A new wave of tiny schools are creating options for students, parents, and educators. Micro-schools vary in size, approach, and governance.
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The Micro-School Opportunity
Small innovative schools opened in months rather than years of planning could prove to be an important K-12 innovation strategy. For decades, quality school developers have used the 100 students per grade rule of thumb resulting in schools of 400-600 students. For a number of reasons, new schools have become more difficult and expensive to
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