Category Archives: Choices

Cell Phones in the Classroom?

November 15, 2009 – 8:57 pm

In a recent article in Principal Leadership, October 2009, the principal of a large high school discussed the use of cell phones at school.  She was using cell phones to text with her students as another way to increase communication.  She stated that texting helped student report things like fights and other personal issues that [...]

By Peter Wieczorek | Also posted in High schools, Personalized Educ, Technology | Comments (0)

New Center for Research on Digital Media and Learning

November 9, 2009 – 6:44 pm

There’s little doubt that the Internet will transform schooling (read choices) and how students learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. A newly-created Digital Media and Learning Research Hub at the University of California-Irvine will explore the impact of digital media on learning and its potential for transforming education.  The Center is funded by a $2.97 million grant from [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, Education Revolution, Lifelong learning, Online learning, Personalized Educ, Reform, Reports, Research, Technology | Comments (0)

Education Without Walls

September 2, 2009 – 8:46 pm

The 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 [...]

By Peter Wieczorek | Also posted in Alternatives, Ed Alt for Everyone | Comments (0)

School Choice Expanding Worldwide

July 16, 2009 – 8:35 pm

Since 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 [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, Charter schools, Magnet schools, Policy, Reform, Research, Vouchers | Comments (0)

Alternative Education: Standards, Descriptions, Action

March 8, 2009 – 6:18 pm

Several 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: [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, Assessment, Ed Alt for Everyone, Loflin, John, Nat. Alt Ed Assoc., Reports | Comments (0)

Valuable Resources on Alternative Education

February 26, 2009 – 5:01 pm

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 [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, High schools, Policy, Reform, Reports, Research, Students | Comments (0)

Range of Alternatives

January 11, 2009 – 1:01 pm

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 [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, MN Assoc. Alt Prog | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Federal Program Supports School Choice

December 6, 2008 – 5:21 pm

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 [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, Policy, Reports, U.S. Dept. of Educ., Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Learning Outside the Ivy Walls

October 12, 2008 – 1:42 pm

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 [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Reform, Students, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Choice of Education Is Advancing

September 26, 2008 – 11:53 am

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 [...]

By admin | Also posted in Alternatives, Reports | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

International Democratic Education Conference

September 12, 2008 – 10:22 am

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 [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Community schools, Democratic schools, IDEC, International Educ, Loflin, John, Reports, Small schools | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Democratic Education Resources and IDEC Conference

August 26, 2008 – 10:00 am

Dana Bennis has started a website specifically devoted to promoting democratic education  and can be reached personally at dana.bennis@yahoo.com. Dana has a long standing interest in democratic education having studied it in several countries and being part of a democratic school. He advocates giving students voice in decisions about their education and their school’s operation. You will [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Democratic schools, Reform, Research, Students | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

IALA Resources

July 31, 2008 – 7:42 pm

At the home page, people can subscribe to this monthly newsletter (if your received this in your email, you are already subscribed). If you wish to unsubscribe, send an email to Contact Us and you will be removed.
At the home page, you can search on the 100s of past notes and other resources at the [...]

By admin | Also posted in Alternatives, Ed Alt for Everyone, IALA, Intern. Ass. Lrng Alts, Reports, Research, Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments (0)

Online Learning: Growth and Evaluation

July 10, 2008 – 7:46 pm

In a certain to be much talked about book, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, and Michael B. Horn describe how a majority of students will use online learning within a decade. They suggest we must disrupt, that is change, thinking about [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, Charter schools, Online learning, Personalized Educ, Reports, Virtual schools | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Questions Raised about High Standards/Testing

June 22, 2008 – 12:55 pm

‘Restoring Value’ to the High School Diploma: The Rhetoric and Practice of Higher Standards, a new report raises serious questions about the standards and testing movement as a vehicle for reforming high schools. It starts, “Four themes emerge from the fray: that standards and rigor are too low; that the high school has lost its [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, High schools, Policy, Reform, Reports, Research | Comments (0)