Category Archives: Reports

Provocative Conceptions About Learning

September 26, 2010 – 10:00 pm

TED brings the world’s leaders in various field: Sugata Mitra  invented the “hole in the wall” project with astonishing learning results, then continued the experiment around the world with the same impact. It can’t help but cause us to question conventional ideas about the ability of children to learn. His 17 minute talk at TED [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Personalized Educ, Policy, Research, Students, Technology, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Charter School Funding: Bugaboo Factor

September 26, 2010 – 8:37 pm

100s of charter school studies have assessed the viability of the movement particularly on student achievement as measured by standardized tests. One study shows charter schools students do better than comparison groups, another shows they are about the same, another shows charter school students do poorer than comparison groups. Two major criticisms of these studies [...]

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

Prologue to Revolution: Exciting Approach

August 4, 2010 – 10:37 am

“Prologue to Revolution,” a seven page report by Francis Duffy, lists four “industrial-age” paradigms hampering school change, describes why they persist in the face of evidence to the contrary, and asks about the reader’s beliefs as a road to action. This readable piece provides a compelling argument for school transformation and suggests avenues for its [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Policy, Reform, Research, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Ethics and Excellence in High School

May 14, 2010 – 8:11 am

  A report recently released outlines eight strengths of character that can helpboth students and schools achieve ethical and productive futures. http://www.cortland.edu/character/highschool/chapters/SnGReport.pdf

By admin | Also posted in Alt, Ed. Res. Org., Alternatives, Articles, At risk programs | Comments (0)

Graduation For All

January 13, 2010 – 4:11 pm

Here are a couple of very interesting and extensive articles on graduation rates and the need to promote graduation for all students.  The first article talks mostly about the graduation gap between the upper 2/3 of high school students and the lower 1/3, made up mostly of urban, low-income African American and Latino students.  The [...]

By admin | Also posted in Alternatives, Articles, At risk programs, Policy, Reform | 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, Choices, Education Revolution, Online learning, Personalized Educ, Reform, Research, Technology | Comments (0)

Technology’s Impact on Students

June 9, 2009 – 7:13 am

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. [...]

By admin | Also posted in Articles, Online learning, Reform, Research, Technology | 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 [...]

By Wayne Jennings | Also posted in Alternatives, Assessment, Choices, Ed Alt for Everyone, Loflin, John, Nat. Alt Ed Assoc. | 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 [...]

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

Homeschooling Sharp Increase

January 8, 2009 – 12:14 pm

The 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 [...]

By admin | Also posted in Alternatives, Homeschooling, Research, U.S. Dept. of Educ. | 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, Choices, Policy, U.S. Dept. of Educ., 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, Choices | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)