My adrenaline was still surging after joining thousands in my town demonstrating against the lay-offs of some of our best teachers at last Thursday’s Day of Action to Defend Public Education . My spirits took a dive, however, when I opened my Sunday New York Times a mere three days later, and was reminded of another lay-off controversy turned lay-off melee in Central Falls, RI, where 93 high school teachers and staff were fired en masse by... 

Editor’s Note: Guest blogger Kevin D. Washburn, Ed.D., is the Executive Director of Clerestory Learning , and co-founder/ owner of Make Way for Books among many other things. He recently attended the Learning and the Brain conference in San Francisco where there was a fascinating confluence of thinkers, researchers, educators and learners. This is his report. Guest blogger Kevin Washburn reports from the Learning and the Brain conference... 

Editor’s note: Anne O’Brien is our guest blogger today. She is a project director at the Learning First Alliance, a Teach for America alumna, and a former public school teacher in the greater New Orleans area. Guest blogger Anne O'Brien describes why the methods for evaluating schools should be revised to a more accurate and nuanced system. adequate yearly progress, evaluating schools, school improvement 5 off No Off read more... 

It is Thursday March 4th, “Day of Action to Defend Public Education” here in California and in states across the country. I’m making my way through the crowd of thousands in the massive square in front of City Hall in San Francisco. Editorial Director, David Markus, gives a first-hand account of March 4th's “Day of Action to Defend Public Education” #march4 “day of action” PTA California  Read More →

Much big news in the education world of late. While fifteen Race to the Top finalists were just announced, both higher ed and K-12 educators across California and other cities are protesting layoffs, fee hikes, cuts, and the re-segregation of schools in March 4 Strike and Day of Action To Defend Public Education . Meanwhile, many teachers continue to be cut, with more to come. It’s a rough time for teachers, to say the least. Which is why... 

Results from what has to be one of the largest surveys of American teachers ever undertaken were released Wednesday. Teacher opinions on everything from merit pay to principal support to professional development revealed some surprising trends. The survey was sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Scholastic. Here is a link to the findings . 40,000 Teachers, Views on Education Reform, education reform, Gates  Read More →

Editor’s Note: Don’t miss David’s dispatch from Day 1. My second day at the CoSN Conference , also known as Consortium of School Networking, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in northwest Washington, D.C., was almost as enlightening as the first. Especially, when I discovered that the Shoreham Hotel is where the Beatles stayed at the height of their Beatlemania tour in 1964. David Markus, Edutopia's editorial director, reports on... 

Sunday, I camped out at the 9th Annual International Symposium of CoSN, also known as the Consortium of School Networking , in Washington, D.C., and learned a ton from an A-list of international education innovators. Listening to folks from Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, as well as some of our own American... 

Day 1 from the 9th Annual International Symposium of CoSN (Consortium of School Networking), in Washington, D.C. Editor’s Note: Don’t miss David’s dispatch on Day 2 . Sunday, I camped out at the 9th Annual International Symposium of CoSN, also known as the Consortium of School Networking , in Washington, D.C., and learned a ton from an A-list of international education innovators. Listening …  Read More →

Half a lifetime ago, I lived in Greece, on a small island not far from the coast of Turkey. In the process of furnishing a house on the cheap, I traveled a couple of times a year to coastal Turkish towns and bought old woven kilim rugs. It's time to redefine student excellence and dispel old myths about the perfect student. 5 off No Off read more  Read More →

As a youth, I remember feeling cheated out of rich content in my education when I listened to my mother in times of sorrow or tenderness, lovingly recite entire poems and passages from books she studied in high school. Memorization has long been consider an insult to critical thinking, but it may be a necessary step in acquiring long-term learning. 5 off No Off read more  Read More →

George Lucas, visionary and founder of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, is being honored today by Common Sense Media, the nation’s leading nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving families’ experiences with media and entertainment. George Lucas receives Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation in Entertainment and Education from Common Sense Media. George Lucas, education, 21st century learning 5 off No Off read more  Read More →

Nicholas Provenzano ( @TheNerdyTeacher on Twitter) has been an active participant in the regular Tuesday morning #edchat, where forward-thinking educators from around the world connect and discuss different issues of the day. His passion for teaching (and learning!) positively emanates from his tweets and blog The Nerdy Teacher . Here’s his redux of this week’s edchat. –Betty Ray, Community Manager ( @EdutopiaBetty ) and Elana... 

A classroom of students is the collective product of all of the educators, support staff, paraprofessionals, classmates, parents, and living conditions that have accumulated to that point. A compensation system leveraged on student performance needs to be sophisticated, appropriate, and most importantly, fair. 5 off No Off read more  Read More →

A classroom of students is the collective product of all of the educators, support staff, paraprofessionals, classmates, parents, and living conditions that have accumulated to that point. A compensation system leveraged on student performance needs to be sophisticated, appropriate, and most importantly, fair. 5 off No Off read more  Read More →