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When thinking about quality, there are several entities that can help you navigate the education research space. For example, the Institute of Education Sciences embarked on a mission with the Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) to build a body of research that education practitioners can apply with confidence. The IES approach and use of Practice Guides was largely inspired by the medical profession, where the research basis for interventions is extremely rigorous and results in carefully crafted recommendations. The Pensarus network is comprised of a number of researcher and practitioner experts who have helped to build and disseminate the WWC body of research. And, despite incredible access achieved via the information era, we find numerous schools mis-using educational practices and mis-applying educational research. That is in addition to

Dear Shahid, you wrote: “This summer, I studied urban ethnography. My cohort analysis focused on how inner city youth used time. I find in my research that every identified variable was relative: economics, resources, environment, even intelligence. However, regardless of zip code and titles, everyone is given 24 hours per day. My question how and why do people choose to utilize “their” time differently and its impact? From your perspective, how does the use of time impact a person’s achievement?” My thoughts: It seems natural that a number of variables would be associated with use of time (as time becomes allocated to any number of life moments/projects), but that doesn’t necessarily define causality and I’m still not sure how you are measuring, “use of time?” Is it time on task? Is it structured vs. unstructured time? There are many ways to quantify use of time, and t

It’s an active Summer 2013. I am delayed in sharing educational updates, but at least wanted to highlight some very important reading. So here are three of the most relevant issues that I am tracking as we move into the next school year. 1. Teacher Prep Review 2013 Report A colleague I appreciate and respect headed up this project. And, it harkens back to my earlier blog on the Marc Tucker/Linda Hamilton book, Surpassing Shanghai, which all of my parent-readers should have covered by now. We need to look at our teacher prep programs if we are serious about improving education. I know I went to a great school (#19 at the time), yet I still felt short-changed in a number of classes, and incidentally, they declined to participate in this evaluation, the merits of which can certainly be debated but at least it is a first step toward needed revamping of our teacher training. As stated o

It is with mixed feelings of sadness and hope that Pensarus offers this posting. The thoughtless bombing during the Boston marathon has irrevocably changed the lives of many, and it has ended the lives of a few. One such victim,8-year old Martin Richard, had been a student of our friend and colleague at the Neighborhood House Charter School. It recently came to light that 29-year old Krystle Campbell was the daughter of Harvard employees. As our world gets smaller, we mourn with China over the passing of a Boston University student. As Pensarus was originally founded by two graduates of Harvard College, we have many many ties to and fond memories of Boston. We send love and support to the people who have been impacted by this occurance, we honor the deceased, and we also work to the future–one marathoner toured the city, yesterday, determined not to let a terrorist move alter her p

Some highlights from the Howard (MS)2 Global Education Conference: – The Gates Foundation representative, Allyson Knox, who threw away her script and opted to instead tell several heartwarming stories of how technology advanced students’ abilities to perform–both social/emotionally AND academically. – Montgomery County presented their 2.0 curriculum designed to prepare students for the 21st Century. It fosters higher-order thinking and is housed in a web-based application that helps teachers develop their comfort with standards-based instruction according to this innovative curriculum. The platform looks great, is reportedly very stable (built in Sharepoint) and Pearson is apprarently leveraging the MoCo product to develop its own platform for curricular alignment and standards-based instruction. They will be looking for pilot-sites, and this may be an opportunity