Let’s Get to Work: A Response to Robert Pondiscio
“Any group that only associates with like-minded people is susceptible to becoming extreme, inflexible, self-righteous, and losing its ability to see its own weaknesses.” This is the organizing idea in Robert Pondiscio’s Gadfly blog from May 25th, “The Left’s drive to push conservatives out of education reform.” At NewSchools, we actually agree with this […]
Exciting New Evidence about the Promise of Personalized Learning
The number of schools designed for personalized learning is growing rapidly. At NewSchools, we’re helping teams of educators launch many such schools through our Catapult program. Why did we decide to focus here? One reason is early evidence of the positive effects personalized learning has on students. What do we know so far? The RAND […]
Dissatisfied Yet Optimistic: Moving Faster toward New School Models
Today, Diane Tavenner, Aylon Samouha, Jeff Wetzler and I released a paper called Dissatisfied Yet Optimistic: Moving Faster toward New School Models. Each of us has been working from different vantage points for a number of years to redesign schools for personalized learning by rethinking time, talent, and technology. Several months ago, we decided to […]
Dissatisfied Yet Optimistic: Moving Faster Toward New School Models (FINAL)
American young people deserve a better model of schooling. Creating it requires us to rethink the way we design and operate schools. Including updates from their draft version in May 2014, this paper by Stacey Childress, Aylon Samouha, Diane Tavenner, and Jeff Wetzler, lays out a vision for the future of school, a theory of change for getting there, and an invitation to collaborate.
Announcing Summit 2015 Closing Speaker: Ben Jealous
NewSchools Summit 2015 is just a couple of days away! I’ve been to many Summits over the years, but this is my first since I joined the organization as CEO last summer. I am really looking forward to it. Over the last few years, the NewSchools team has tried to identify big issues that many […]
Three Tips for Picking a Personalized Learning Framework
Teams of educators all over the country are launching new schools and redesigning existing ones, and they are eager to build on the early lessons of the pioneers who have been at it for a few years. This is great – if everyone treats designing and implementing personalized learning as an invention challenge, the state […]
Trip Notes: SXSWedu 2015
Last week I was in Austin for SXSWedu, which I’ve attended every year since its launch. I thought I’d share some excerpts from my trip notes: Shark tank has jumped the shark at South-By. Several sessions used the popular television show for inspiration. Here’s a rundown on three of them: Teachers could pitch their classroom […]
Announcing Summit 2015 Opening Speaker: Brené Brown
We are honored to announce that Brené Brown will join us as the opening plenary speaker at Summit 2015 on May 6. Brené has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Her research has helped thousands of leaders learn how to turn difficult situations into opportunities for connection and growth. Her keynote will […]
New Talent to Support Our Strategy
A couple of weeks ago we shared an infographic about our strategic direction over the next few years. New folks are joining the team with the background and skills we need to invest in and support entrepreneurs in our priority areas. Here’s an up to date look at new members of our innovative schools and […]
NewSchools’ Strategy at a Glance
Over the past month, we have been sharing a couple of the pillars of our strategy going forward. The infographic below captures our vision, rationale and approach in a more visual way. We’re excited to share it, and even more excited about the work ahead. A quick note: in addition to these strategic focus areas, […]