21st Century Education Initiative - "You Should Care..."

"We want to hash this thing out, and we need help to do it," said Dave Chrismon, executive director of the Missoula Education Foundation. "You can’t do that behind closed doors – so we want to get that dialogue started as best we can, a civil dialogue that can set the tone."

His students use writeboard.com to discuss literature and share ideas and books.google.com to access libraries full of free, public-access digital documents and literature.

After mediocre ratings, experts say the U.S. must look to Asia and re-structure its education investments

Federal and state policymakers continue to embrace reforms that have little positive effect (if not downright negative effects) while ignoring reforms that make a difference. Buried within the PISA report is an analysis of educational systems that registered high test scores. Here are some of the less-reported findings:·

The film is hitting a nerve among parents across the country who are worried about the levels of stress that their children are experiencing, beginning even in elementary school. What can schools — and parents — do to turn down the heat?

"If your blood is not boiling by the end of this film, then there is no blood pumping through your heart." Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll on education found that 68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what’s wrong with the U.S. education system _ more than teachers, school administrators, the government or teachers unions.

How useful are the views of public school students about their teachers?

What drew me to it is that it is a bold experiment and it becomes clearer every day that if we are going to save public education in the United States, we need to embrace bold experiments.

Few things in our world are helped by looking through an either/or lens. Reality, in my experience at least, is far too ambiguous to be seen as all one color or another. Unfortunately, many "school reformers"–often with little teacher consultation–come across as having just that sort of view, offering a short, simplistic list of "answers" (merit pay, charter schools, ending tenure, standardized testing) to the challenges facing our schools.