Teacher Cooperatives in Education Next

Article • April 2009

Twenty years ago, when the late Albert Shanker, then president of the American Federation of Teachers, endorsed the notion of innovative schools operating outside conventional district bureaucracies, his aim was to put teachers at the helm. “If you want to hold teachers accountable,” he posited, “then teachers have to be able to run the school.” In the Spring 2009 Education Next, Beth Hawkins explores how some teachers are realizing his vision.

Video Introduction to Teacher Professional Partnerships

Video • March 2009

Podcast: Curtis Johnson and Michael Horn on ‘Disrupting Class’ and Higher Education

Video • August 2008

Podcast on the concept of disruptive innovation, and its application to US compulsory education. The second half considers Higher Education through the lens of disruptive innovation, and explains how radical developments such as iTunesU and OpenCourseWare may not be as disruptive as they first appear.

Rethinking the Student-Centered Classroom: Personalization and the Type II Application of Technology

Report • August 2008

Modern technologies, if applied properly, can personalize the process of learning without increasing labor costs. Before this can happen educators must understand there are distinct ways that technologies can be applied. “Type I” applications use technology to make traditional teaching more efficient; “Type II” makes possible teaching and learning in new and fundamentally different ways — allowing for personalization.

Students Respond to E|E’s “Other Half” Paper Assertions

Web Resource • August 2008

E|E asserts that student motivation is critically relevant to K-12 policy. The country has radically changed the assignment to its schools. A system earlier told to expand access to learning is now told it must ensure that students learn. But, what do young people think of E|E’s assertion? Here is an overview of five students’ responses.

Of Innovators and School Improvement

Report • July 2008

The assignment to K-12 has changed from “access” to “achievement.” Unfortunately, our schools were built to provide students the opportunity to learn, not to ensure that they did. If we insist that our schools do this different job we will have to create new school models that make that possible.

How a School Looks When Managed by a Teacher Partnership

Meeting Notes • June 2008

There’s growing interest in improving the “management of human capital” in K-12: teacher recruitment, retention, compensation, accountability, etc. Usually this suggests ‘better administration.’ Yet, these decisions might be better made by teachers running a professional partnership. This interview with teacher Carrie Bakken addresses how a partnership handles running a public school.

How the Idea of ‘Charter’ Schools Came About

Article • June 2008

This short memo explains the origins of the chartering idea. In the spring of 1988, a Citizens League committee began developing a program for chartering schools. Twenty years later that idea has become law in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

L. Scott Miller on the Achievement Gap and “Within-class” Disparities

Meeting Notes • March 2008

Notes from December 2007 conversations with L. Scott Miller about minority achievement in K12 and at the university levels. Scott argues that some of the greatest disparities in performance come “within-class,” and that greater focus placed on African American and Hispanic students among middle and professional classes.

Paul Grogan on How Foundations Can Leverage Change

Meeting Notes • March 2008

Notes from remarks by Paul Grogan, head in 20008 of the Boston Foundation, on the challenges of inner-city public education, and how foundations can leverage change. Early, Grogan worked for two mayors of Boston. He ran the national office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation in New York.