By Jill AndersonSenior Lecturer Katherine Merseth knows the controversy that trails charter schools in America. Concerns about charter schools include them challenging the long-existing status quo (there are more than 4,000 in the U.S.); adding fuel to the debate of...
January 2009 Archives
Music to My EarsBy Ken Templeton, Ed.M.'08Sam turns the pages with skeptical distaste. "We're gonna read all this by the end of class?" Friday afternoon in May, senior English, reading T.S. Eliot: recipe for disinterest. We take turns, reading in...
By Professor Fernando Reimers, Ed.M.'84, Ed.D.'88Sixty years ago the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Framed by the Human Rights Commission chaired by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the declaration upheld that lasting global peace and...
Higher Education's RootsBy Lory HoughThe room looks like a field of bumper cars, clustered into eight hodgepodge groupings. Professor Julie Reuben isn't going to lecture today. Instead, she wants the 40 students to meet in small groups to discuss the...
5 Reasons to Know: Shimon Waronker, First-Year Doctoral StudentGangs controlled the hallways. The middle school had gone through six principals in two years, the last staying less than two months. Neighbors locked their doors as soon as the end-of-day bell...
By Lory HoughThere isn't a library in Siury Pulgar's hometown. There was, but that was 10 years ago, before a devastating flood and subsequent mudslides ripped through coastal Venezuela, burying much of Macuto, where Pulgar, Ed.M.'09, was living with her...
By Lory Hough On Deborah Jewell-Sherman's desk is a small box of plain stones that she got when she took over the reins as superintendent in Richmond, Va., back in 2002. They reminded her of the ones that David used...
The Harvard Graduate School of Education announced today that Professor Thomas Kane will serve as a deputy director of education for US Program at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Kane will remain Professor of Education and Economics and continue...
By Amanda DaggDid you know that acetylsalicylic acid is more commonly known as aspirin? That actress Kirsten Dunst shared her first onscreen kiss with Brad Pitt? That Houston's Major League Soccer team is called the Dynamo, which is also the...
By Marin JorgensenWhen Kazuko Narui, Ed.M.'93, was born, her parents chose a name for her that could have been hard to live up to. In her native Japanese, Kazuko means "child of peace." But, instead of being intimidated, Narui has...
By Samantha CleaverStudents at New Milford High School in New Milford, Conn., learn about the epic Battle of Salamis from a Greek messenger -- their teacher, Brock Putnam, Ed.M.'87. To get his students' attention, Putnam performs a speech from the...
By Amanda DaggJoan Becker's grandmother used to say, "You find what you look for" -- advice that has been driving Becker's career since 1983, when she helped launch the University of Massachusetts Boston's Urban Scholars Program. The program is dedicated...
A new study by alum Christine Greenhow finds social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have more educational potential than you might think.By Michael BlandingWhat is more important to a high school student than being popular? Anyone who's ever attended...
In recent years, strides have been made in early literacy, but this hasn't necessarily translated into better middle school readers. The time has come, say Ed School experts, to turn our attention to those who have been left behind.
As public schools struggle to meet standards and produce 21st century learners, and as many working parents continue to juggle complex afterschool care, more schools and districts are asking if six hours is enough. Goodbye, 2 p.m. school bell. Hello, longer day.
By Amanda Dagg Julie Krieger, Ed.M.'08, enthusiastically admits that "Green is [her] thing." It makes sense, then, that soon after graduating from the Teacher Education Program, she put her studies to work promoting environmental awareness and green practices in a...
With enrollment in rural schools on the rise, will education in small-town America finally get the attention it deserves?By Elaine McArdle Illustrations by Doug Boehm Doctoral candidate Sky Marietta, Ed.M.'08, was born and raised deep in the mountains of Kentucky...
By Jill AndersonProfessor Chris Dede was recently featured in a Science magazine article and podcast discussing immersive interfaces like River City and the Harvard Augmented Reality Project (HARP). The article, which Dede says is "about a set of opportunities that...
Researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and MIT have released the results of a groundbreaking study that suggests charter school students in Boston outperform their peers at other public schools in Boston. Results for pilot schools were less...
Recent Comments