Education Without Walls by Peter Wieczorek

Online learningThe technology revolution has entered into every part of our lives, and now it seems that the implications for education are about to bring major changes to the way students and indeed all of us learn and gain information.   There are a multitude of options for students of all ages to gather and disseminate information on multiple platforms.  Many people have already discovered the multitude of useful websites providing information regarding distance learning.  The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning http://mediasite.ics.uwex.edu/mediasite5/Viewer/?peid=a863be1f5bc348bbb1c875366dafe581#  has a great presentation with many thought provoking ideas for educators.  Another intriguing site is ted.com TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.  TED’s world class presenters on video stretch users with valuable information on a wide variety of topics.

Posted on September 2, 2009 at 8:46 pm under Alternatives, Choices, Ed Alt for Everyone | Comments (0)

Building a Better Test? by Peter Wieczorek

Testing1After school budgets, testing remains one of the most controversial and talked about subjects among administrators, teachers, parents and students.  Edutopia has an interesting article along with several links regarding the future of standardized testing.  The article Reinventing the BIG test  http://www.edutopia.org/reinventing-big-test-the-challenge-of-authentic-assessment  gives examples of several promising alternative assessments to the standardized multiple choice tests that are so prevalent across the country.

Some say tests can’t assess important characteristics such as responsibility, autonomy, engagement, affiliation, hope and other aspects of major school outcomes. For a huge sample of tests see Compendium of Assessment and Research Tools and the newly developed Hope Survey (see products).

Posted on August 26, 2009 at 11:41 am under Alternatives, Articles, Reform, Survey | Comments (0)

School Choice Expanding Worldwide by Wayne Jennings

Choice1Since the early 1990s when the nation’s first charter school was opened in St. Paul, MN, the scope and availability of school-based options to parents has steadily expanded in the U.S. and abroad. No longer can traditional education be a public monopoly. Sponsored by the National Center on School Choice (NCSC), this 648 page ($115) Handbook of Research on School Choice  studies K-12 school choice. Coverage includes charters, vouchers, home schooling, magnet schools, cyber schools, and other forms of choice, with the ultimate goal of defining the current state of this evolving field of research, policy, and practice.

Posted on July 16, 2009 at 8:35 pm under Alternatives, Charter schools, Choices, Magnet schools, Policy, Reform, Research, Vouchers | Comments (0)

Technology’s Impact on Students by Peter Wieczorek

Several recent articles outline the uses of technology in the classroom and give readers lots to think about.  

The first article deals with the effects of technology on students throughout their education. Lenovo to Research Tech’s Effect on Learning: Global Education Research project will study how technology affects education in and after school, from kindergarten through higher education.
Technogy in class
Another article Google Wave has Great Potential for Education, a new online collaborative tool combines eMail, instant messaging, and file sharing in a dynamic environment and outlines how Google is moving further into communicating and collaborating on the web.

A recent US Dept. of Education report, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning finds that students learn more with online learning and even more with blended programs (both classroom and online) in elementary, secondary and higher education. The differences are not great but consistent and promising.

Cell phones appear to have considerable potential for learning. Early adopters combine the power of cell phones, social networks, websites and software. Student engagement and motivation increased. This early in the movement approach is generating excitment over the possiblities. Lift the Cell Phone Ban describes dealing with both the distraction factor and the interest.

Posted on June 9, 2009 at 7:13 am under Articles, Online learning, Reform, Reports, Research, Technology | Comments (0)

Welcome to New Website Editor by Peter Wieczorek

peterPeter Wieczorek will be editing the website. He is a life science teacher, advisor and board chair at Northwest Passage High School in Coon Rapids, MN.  Peter has spent the majority of his career working with youth in non-traditional/alternative settings.  In addition to working at NWPHS he lives in Clear Lake, WI with his wife, Renee and two sons, Isaac (12) and Noah (9).  He is excited to be joining IALA.

Posted on April 27, 2009 at 2:17 pm under IALA, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Alternative Education: Standards, Descriptions, Action by Wayne Jennings

Alt EdSeveral helpful documents are available for describing, implementing and evaluating alternative education programs. The first three refer to alternative education broadly, that is, providing a choice of programs for all students. The last one is more attuned to at-risk students.

Ray Morley and the Iowa Association of Alternative Education prepared a thoughtful document, Alternative Learning Environments: a Checklist of Quality Indicators. This offers a program the opportunity to examine its practices for their alignment with some of the best thinking about alternative education.

The Seattle Public Schools under the leadership of Elaine Packard adopted a well-worded document, Quality Indicators for Alternative Schools in the Seattle School District.

Member John Loflin wrote a valuable document which is part of our resource bank of materials. His Pseudo-Alternative School Checklist identifies numerous aspects of alternative education which are not truly “alternative” practices. It is a thoughtful and provocative document.

A Tennessee official has written what they describe as the first national framework of practices that are common to alternative education which have been adopted by the National Alternative Education Association. The framework covers 10 areas: Mission, Leadership, Climate, Staffing, Curriculum, Assessment, Planning, Parents, Collaboration, Program Evaluation.

Posted on March 8, 2009 at 6:18 pm under Alternatives, Assessment, Choices, Ed Alt for Everyone, Loflin, John, Nat. Alt Ed Assoc., Reports | Comments (0)

Valuable Resources on Alternative Education by Wayne Jennings

horn-of-plenty

Here are useful resources with links to other sites:

Brief descriptions in Summary of Educational Models include: Accelerated Schools, America’s Choice, Big Picture, Communities in Schools, EdVisions, Job Corps, Youth Build and 17 more.

The Alternative High School Initiative (AHSI) is a network of youth development organizations with over 258 sites nationwide for creating educational opportunities for young people for whom traditional school settings have not been successful. AHSI was launched in 2003 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Financing Alternative Education: Profiles and Policy by The National Youth Employment Coalition with the support of major foundations and the U.S Dept. of Labor recognizes that some of the most promising and innovative practices are taking place in our nation’s community-based and alternative education schools and programs serving youth between the ages of 16 and 24 and describes innovative practices and funding mechanisms.

Posted on February 26, 2009 at 5:01 pm under Alternatives, Choices, High schools, Policy, Reform, Reports, Research, Students | Comments (0)

Range of Alternatives by Wayne Jennings

We recently created the outline below showing the kinds of choices available to students in some parts of Minnesota. This may be similar to other states. By no means are all of these alternatives available to all students in all places but it represents a major shift in what parents had to choose from in 1970 which was almost nothing in the public sector. In that sense it represents major progress in the IALA mission of leading, promoting and supporting learning alternatives in education to better match needs of every child. Of course, much remains to be done to reach the policy that every state and the federal government provide a choice of different programs for each child.

Minnesota Options for Students

1. State approved alternative programs (SAAP)

  • Area learning centers (ALC)
  • Contract schools
  • Alternative programs

2. Charter schools

3. Online/distant learning schools

4. Traditional schools

5. Magnet schools

6. Post secondary enrollment options (early college enrollment)

7. Open enrollment

8. Nonpublic schools

9. Programmatic schools

  • Open education
  • Core knowledge
  • Subject: performing arts, science
  • Experiential and community based
  • Project based
  • Waldorf
  • Montessori

10. Recovery schools

11. Democratic schools

Posted on January 11, 2009 at 1:01 pm under Alternatives, Choices, MN Assoc. Alt Prog | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Homeschooling Sharp Increase by admin

homeschooling3The percentage of the school-age population that was home-schooled showed a significant increase from 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007 according to a U.S. Department of Education report. The number of home-schooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2007, up 36% since 2003. The report identified seven reasons parents give as their motivation for home-schooling their children.

Posted on January 8, 2009 at 12:14 pm under Alternatives, Homeschooling, Reports, Research, U.S. Dept. of Educ. | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Federal Program Supports School Choice by Wayne Jennings

The U. S. Department of Education’s Office of Voluntary Public School Choice program supports States and school districts in efforts to establish or expand a public school choice program. It supports efforts to establish or expand intradistrict, interdistrict, and open enrollment public school choice programs to provide parents, particularly parents whose children attend low-performing public schools, with expanded education options.

Building Choice.org supports the federal program with numerous and comprehensive “Tools” for communities to use beginning with the rationale and establishing a vision all the way to evaluating programs. Valuable resources, research and examples will help communities or schools at any stage in their program. Building Choice was developed for USDE by WestEd in collaboration with Edvance Research who also did a series on Innovation Guides.

Posted on December 6, 2008 at 5:21 pm under Alternatives, Choices, Policy, Reports, U.S. Dept. of Educ., Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Learning Outside the Ivy Walls by Wayne Jennings

Recently, I attended the Macalester College celebration and was struck by the number of community based and service learning opportunities touted as powerful for their students. In fact, there was little mention of conventional educational practices of courses, classes and lectures. Mentioned were international experiences with businesses, embassies, human rights, peace organizations, world hunger and local experiences with environment, law, government, education, community service, medical and many nonprofit groups. Students spoke of the life-changing influence of such experiences.

Of course, similar activities are available to K-12 schools but not used nearly to the extent possible by most school districts who have little recognition of the power of service, community based and experiential learning. The reluctance to adopt such practices has given rise to the need for alternatives and is a major factor in our calls for choice.

Posted on October 12, 2008 at 1:42 pm under Choices, Reform, Students, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

A Most Remarkable Book by Wayne Jennings

IALA promotes educational choices and there would not be the compelling call for change in district schools if they engaged students more. Here are my comments about an amazing book by an extraordinary teacher in a most democratic program.

If Holden Caulfield Were In My Classroom: Inspiring Love, Creativity and Intelligence in Middle School Students by Bernie Schein is one of the most astonishing books on teaching that I have seen in my 50 years of reading education books. This remarkable teacher of middle school students brought out the real feelings and emotions of students to create authentic people and in the process a classroom of vitality and greater learning. This book takes you inside the lives of adolescents, their fears, hopes, jealousies, dreams and inner selves. He also uses class meeting, trials and the core curriculum as a progressive educator. Every teacher at every level would gain from this engaging, readable book.
Posted on October 9, 2008 at 8:10 pm under Alternatives, Democratic schools, Personalized Educ, Private schools, Reform, Students | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Recalled for Revision by Wayne Jennings

We thought you might like this favorite piece from 1971 and consider its relevance for today.

Recalled for Revision
William C. Miller

Dear Parents of Our Graduates:

As you are aware, one of your offspring was graduated from our high school this June. Since that time, it has been brought to our attention that certain insufficiencies are present in our graduates, so we are recalling all students for further education.

We have learned that in the process of the instruction we forgot to install one or more of the following:

- At least one salable skill,
- A comprehensive and utilitarian set of values, and
- A readiness for and an understanding of the responsibilities of citizenship.

A recent consumer study consisting of a follow-up of our graduates has revealed that many of them have been released with defective parts. Racism and materialism are serious flaws and we have discovered they are a part of the makeup of almost all of our products. These defects have been determined to be of such magnitude that the model produced in June is considered highly dangerous and should be removed from circulation as a hazard to the nation.

Some of the equipment which was in the past classified as optional has been reclassified as standard and should be a part of every product of our school. Therefore, we plan to equip each graduate with:

- A desire to continue to learn,
- A dedication to solving problems of local, national and internation­al concern,
- Several productive ways to use leisure time,
- A commitment to the democratic way of life,
- Extensive contact with the world outside of school, and
- Experience in making decisions.

In addition, we found we had inadvertently removed from your child his interest, enthusiasm, motivation, trust and joy. We are sorry to report that these items have been mislaid and have not been turned in at the school Lost and Found Department. If you will inform us as to the value you place on these qualities, we will reimburse you promptly by check or cash.

As you can see, it is to your interest and vitally necessary for your safety and the welfare of all that graduates be returned so that these errors and oversights can be corrected. We admit that it would have been more effective and less costly to have produced the product correctly in the first place, but hope you will forgive our errors and continue to respect and support your public schools.
Sincerely,

P. Dantic

Principal

Posted on October 6, 2008 at 9:32 am under Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Choice of Education Is Advancing by admin

Peter Groff, chair of the Colorado Senate wants to see 100 new schools for students to choose from. The Initiative called Get Smart Schools will be launched shortly. Already two new schools will open next fall: Envision and Atlas. Chicago and New York are cited as having opened new schools (55 and 88 respectively) in the last few years. Florida has just passed a sweeping requirement that all districts must offer full time online learning programs for their K-12 students.

New schools have a better chance of reform or making changes. It’s been long noted how difficult it is to change existing schools in any substantive way. New schools offer an institutional bypass.

Posted on September 26, 2008 at 11:53 am under Alternatives, Choices, Reports | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

International Democratic Education Conference by Wayne Jennings

The International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) provides some of the most provocative and growing challenges to conventional education and probably some of the most extreme examples of choice. John Loflin has attended all of the recent conferences and filed comprehensive reports on their proceedings. The first conference was in 1993 and most recent was in Vancouver, Canada, August, 2008 and John did his usual thorough report. You can find his previous reports and other information on IDEC at the home website using IDEC as the search term.

Posted on September 12, 2008 at 10:22 am under Choices, Community schools, Democratic schools, IDEC, International Educ, Loflin, John, Reports, Small schools | Tagged , , | Comments (0)