Innovative educators know how to take teaching and learning to the next level
Today’s schools, educators, and district leaders strive to give students the best education possible. Doing that means being innovative.
But in today’s world of ever-changing technology tools, assessments, new instructional approaches, and calls for reform, what does it mean to be innovative?
This broad question, which is open to interpretation, leads many schools to revamp practices and policies to reflect a more modern approach to education.…Read More
The federal government should support, and even offer incentives to, states that move toward competency-based learning systems, Horn writes.
The opportunity to transform the nation’s education system from its factory-model roots to a student-centric version has never been greater.
Online education is growing rapidly in full-time virtual schools, and even more so in blended-learning environments. This is the future of our education system. Now, America must embrace this change to create alternative learning models that maximize every student’s learning potential and improve the outlook of the country’s global competitiveness.
Although this critical issue is a national challenge and opportunity, it does not mean the best way to drive innovative change in education is through the federal government. Most of the funding and decision-making around education in this country occur at the state and local levels. The federal government has limited ability to effect change. That said, what the federal government can do is create the conditions for the type of changes to emerge that put the focus on each individual student.…Read More
Educators are invited to share ideas for solving classroom challenges, with the chance to win grants to implement their ideas.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has partnered with the nation’s largest teachers union and its charitable foundation to launch a grant program encouraging public school educators to identify and solve K-12 education’s most pressing classroom challenges.
The new “Challenge to Innovate” (C2i) program leverages ED’s Open Innovation Portal to solicit ideas in a process known as “crowdsourcing,” in which officials tap the collective wisdom of a large group of people through the power of the internet.
“Smart innovation will help dramatically accelerate achievement and attainment,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “Without it, we will surely fall short of our goals to prepare all of America’s students for success in the global economy.”…Read More
A group of 45 Wisconsin superintendents hopes to transform their educational practices.
With support from all of its 45 superintendents, a Wisconsin regional service agency is determined to reinvent the very nature of public education so that all students are equipped with the 21st-century skills necessary to compete and succeed in a global workplace.
Among its many innovative strategies for transforming teaching and learning, the service agency is moving from age-based groups of students to progress-based groupings; dropping standardized practices in favor of customized learning plans; phasing out print textbooks in favor of dynamic digital resources; and shifting from teacher-led instruction to a blend of face-to-face and online approaches.
Southeastern Wisconsin’s Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) No. 1 is one of 12 state regional service agencies and covers 45 school districts encompassing about a third of the state’s student population. It includes Milwaukee Public Schools, the largest urban district in the state, as well as the smallest K-12 schools.…Read More
Today’s schools, educators, and district leaders strive to give students the best education possible. Doing that means being innovative.
