News Features & Releases

Fischer Commentary Featured in American Psychologist

2009-11-06T20:37:39Z

Professor Kurt Fischer and doctoral students Zachery Stein, Ed.M.'06, and Katie Heikkinen, Ed.M.'07, were featured in the October 2009 issue of American Psychologist criticizing the journal 's lead article for its too narrow assessment of adolescents' developing abilities.

Fischer, Stein, and Heikkinen's commentary, "Narrow Assessments Misrepresent Development and Misguide Policy," explored how intellectual and psychosocial functioning develop along learning pathways that extend well into adulthood.

The article which prompted the response, "Are Adolescents Less Mature than Adults?" maintained that the law is at odds with developmental science in treating adolescent abilities as developing in the same way for cognitive and social abilities, particularly with regard to access to abortion and the juvenile death penalty for murder. The authors concluded from a research study that adolescents exhibit adult levels of cognitive capability much earlier than they do for emotional or social capability. In turn, according to the authors, adolescents possess the necessary skills to make an informed choice about terminating a pregnancy but are still less mature than adults in ways that mitigate criminal responsibility.

But this could not be farther from the truth, according to Fischer, Stein, and Heikkinen. People continue to develop much later than the authors of the initial article acknowledge, through adolescence well into adulthood. Moreover, the authors "oversimplified development by dividing it into two categories," Fischer said, and then used a narrow set of tasks to measure "capabilities and contexts" in the two categories. Their narrow choices biased the results to fit their hypothesis, failing to assess the full range of capabilities.

Fischer was invited to comment on the initial article by American Psychologist editors and he asked Stein and Heikkinen to join in the response. "This information is so relevant to legal policies around young people's responsibilities for crimes," Fischer added. "Unfortunately the authors chose narrow measures that do not represent the true range of cognitive and social capacities, and thus biased the results to support what they predicted. Developing capacities do not fit neatly into legal categories the way that the authors claim."

Instructional Leadership Strand Prepares Teachers for Additional Roles

2009-10-28T19:41:29Z

By Jill Anderson

For over 150 years, the teaching career has remained largely the same, with one teacher assigned to a set of courses and a class of students for the duration of the year. Today, however, more and more teachers are taking on new roles within their districts as teacher leaders, curriculum developers, mentors, and coaches.

This year the Ed School is piloting a new program under Learning and Teaching dubbed the Instructional Leadership (IL) strand -- a one-year master's program specifically aimed at those teachers who want to stay involved in teaching, while taking on leadership roles in their schools or districts. IL is designed for individuals who have taught a minimum of three years in K-12 classrooms, but also seek to increase their influence in instruction and curriculum outside the classroom. Each teacher will be grounded in a subject area - science, mathematics, social studies, or English Language Arts at the elementary or secondary level.

"The goal is to provide teachers with avenues for growth without totally leaving the classroom," says Senior Lecturer Katherine Boles, director of the Learning and Teaching Program and IL. "Through the IL strand we will prepare teachers for roles in addition to classroom teaching."

Due to the pressures of high-stakes testing and No Child Left Behind, schools today need experts in subjects like math and English, who can help other teachers to improve their work. Boles and Professor Susan Moore Johnson realized schools were in dire need of guidance and instruction on such positions and served on an HGSE committee that explored ways to support experienced teachers through degree programs and professional development.

"Although there are efforts to create teams of teachers to improve teaching and learning in schools, only recently has there been a broad effort to appoint expert teachers as instructional coaches or teacher leaders," Johnson says. Yet, for many school districts, this process remains largely unstructured and with few professional requirements. More often than not, teachers are selected for these positions by what Johnson describes as "happenstance" rather than a deliberate process.

Many teachers find themselves being asked to assume these roles that include, for example, running a new teacher induction program, convening professional development with teachers, advising on technology, or consulting with teachers on assisting and evaluating teachers in need of improvement. As Boles and Johnson point out - all of these positions require additional expertise.

"There are many proposals for various teachers as leaders in their districts, but there really hasn't been an extensive preparation program that ensures they are grounded in a particular subject. These graduates will also have a specialty beyond that," Johnson says. "We have built elements into this program that are valuable to teachers but also to the schools and districts where they work."

"IL's unique curriculum, with its emphasis on organizational leadership and adult development, is vital for teachers who take on these leadership roles working with and advising colleagues," Boles says. Additionally, all students must undertake advanced study in their particular subject area. An internship component that focuses on leadership specialization at a school, district, or organization provides relevant work experience for the candidates.

This year there are eight students enrolled in the pilot program. The students say they are excited to be part of this trial run, especially something with a focus on instructional leadership, which they found particularly attractive for their careers.

"The Instructional Leadership strand of the Learning and Teaching Program allows me to explore in greater depth the complex interactions between the teacher, student, and subject matter," says master's candidate Therese Arsenault. "Foundation courses in organizational change, adult development, and advanced methods in teaching science provide varied lenses to view the role of instructional leader. An internship in a leadership capacity gives me the opportunity to apply theory to practice and to shape my purposes and philosophies. Monthly meetings with cohort peers provide an opportunity to share, question, and explore current instructional leadership topics. Overall, the program is broadening my understanding and opening up possibilities."

"In Singapore, the demand on school leaders to be effective instructional leaders is very high -- schools have the autonomy to explore innovative teaching approaches, and tailor curriculum to meet the needs of students," says master's student Haslinda Zamani. "The primary reason behind my coming to HGSE is so that I can improve my capacity as an instructional leader. I was thrilled that HGSE introduced Instructional Leadership as a pilot program. I felt confident that the learning offered by the Instructional Leadership pilot program would be rigorous and stimulating, and that it would enable me to return to Singapore a better school leader."

Next year the program hopes to attract and enroll between 20 and 25 students. Candidates must have at least three years of teaching experience and demonstrate a dedication to teaching and learning. Additionally, candidates must show an interest in continuing their involvement with classroom instruction while also working in the larger school environment. Graduates of the program will be well suited for part-time teaching in their respective subject, while also serving in specialized roles.

"If a district is looking for an experienced teacher, who is also an expert in data analysis, and how assessment data can inform instruction in school, then we will have those experts," Johnson says. "We expect our graduates to be in great demand."

A sampling of the students in the Instructional Leadership strand:

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Spence Discusses Ed.L.D. at HAA Meeting

2009-10-27T20:05:50Z

By Mary Tamer

In a passionate speech before 400 gathered Harvard alumni, Professor Harry Spence talked at length about the school's new Doctor of Education Leadership Program, calling it "a groundbreaking move" that represents a quantum change in the training of future school and institutional leaders.

Spence's remarks, delivered October 22 at the annual fall awards ceremony of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA), comes one month after the announcement of the Ed School's first new degree initiative in 73 years, a practice-based doctoral program that will bring together faculty from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Business School to work with 25 candidates who will earn an Ed.L.D. in three years' time.

As Spence explained, the new degree is a unique and needed response to address the nation's troubled K-12 system of public education, one that lags behind international peers when comparing graduation rates as well as test scores in math and other subject areas. Utilizing charts and slides, Spence peppered his speech with facts and figures, noting that since the 1970s, "we've seen a vast increase in expenditures for strikingly little gain" in the area of education.

"This is our aspirational goal," said Spence, the former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS) and codirector of the new degree program. "We believe that any organization, in order to move, needs a North Star. Ours is the transformation of American K-12 education. That is an audacious goal, but it is one the nation has to hold."

Spence also spoke on the genesis of this initiative, noting that it was conceived by Dean Kathleen McCartney after former Harvard President Lawrence Summers had posed the question, "What would you do if you could?"

"This was her response," said Spence. "She speaks of the important merging of practice, policy, and research. And I share that view, that this nexus of policy, practice, and research is centrally important to the school."

Set to launch in August 2010, Spence said it is the hope that the 25 candidates admitted will remain as a strong, deeply connected cohort "who will affect change in a range of environments and across all boundaries" in the years ahead.

Seated among the HAA audience during Spence's speech was Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary at the Department of Education and a 1985 graduate of Harvard College, who told an anecdote of his 10th Harvard reunion when he encountered a classmate who had achieved success in the corporate world but was dismayed that Jennings, a fellow Ivy League graduate, had spent the past decade as a teacher. It is crucial, he said, to change this perspective.

"Teachers have made enormous sacrifices to go into this profession," said Jennings, who added that he was making $31,000 at the time as a history teacher and is "the only senior official in the Department of Education with significant classroom experience." Jennings asked Spence to allow practicing teachers to be a part of the new program, which he called "outstanding."

"We are rooting for you and for this program to succeed," said Teresita Alvarez Bjelland, president of Harvard Alumni Association. "It is a wonderful program because it shows a way forward."

Merseth Honored by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers

2009-10-23T20:15:53Z

Senior Lecturer Katherine Merseth's recent book, Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools (published by the Harvard Education Press), cowritten with HGSE doctoral students Kristy Cooper, John Roberts, Mara Casey Tieken, Jon Valant, and Chris Wynne was honored this week for Excellence in Advancing Knowledge from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). The NACSA Awards for Excellence program celebrates individuals and organizations that advance the authorizing profession in three fields: advancing knowledge, improving policy, and improving practice.

"My doctoral colleagues and I are very honored to receive this award from NACSA," Merseth said. "We are pleased that our findings about what makes these urban charter schools successful and the challenges that remain have the potential to inform the work of many who seek to improve on educational outcomes for children."

NACSA noted that the book was unique because of its independent qualitative study that closely examines the culture, norms, and values of highly successful charter schools. The book offers an unprecedented look into the inner workings of successful urban charter schools by profiling five high-performing urban charter schools serving predominately low-income, minority youth in Massachusetts. The authors conducted interviews, focus groups, data analysis, and classroom observation over two years demonstrating that these schools excel along the organizational dimensions of structure, systems, human-resource strategies, culture, and clarity of mission.

NACSA is a professional membership organization that supports the work of charter school authorizers, provide information and services to authorizers across the country, and support school system leaders interested in applying best practices from charter schools in their own systems.

For more information on Inside Urban Charter Schools, visit http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/leadership/LP333.html and http://www.gse.harvard.edu/blog/news_features_releases/2009/01/inside-urban-charter-schools.html.

Dean Theodore Sizer, 1932-2009

2009-10-22T21:26:50Z

Former Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean Theodore Sizer will be remembered as many things during his remarkable 50-year career in education, among them - teacher, education reformer, leader, and mentor. Sizer, 77, died yesterday at his Harvard, Mass. home.

"Ted's contributions to education are numerous and far-reaching," said Dean Kathleen McCartney in a statement to the Ed School community. "As a member of the HGSE faculty, as dean, and as a visionary in education, Ted made an enduring impact through his teaching and scholarship, but also his unsurpassed wisdom and insight. We extend our deepest sympathies to his wife, Nancy, his four children, and all of Ted's family and friends."

In 1964, at only 31-years-old, Sizer, M.A.T.'57, was named dean. A 1964 HGSE Bulletin introduced Sizer to the Harvard community as "an energetic man with a ready smile" who would oversee 80 faculty and 750 students.

"Everyone knew him as the 'boy dean' because when he was elected dean, he was very young, which was very unusual," said Professor Patricia Alberg Graham, a former dean of the Ed School. Graham noted that because of his age, Sizer was full of promise. "He came from a wonderful academic family, he was intelligent, and a very warm person." Graham remarked it was those very qualities about Sizer that would go on to attract many bright, young people to the Ed School.

Born into a family of educators in Connecticut, Sizer began his career in education as an English and mathematics teacher at the Roxbury Latin School in Boston. Teaching would always remain an important part of Sizer's work, as well as a factor in his guidance to others seeking education careers.

"It was Ted Sizer, who convinced me to begin my career as a teacher and was very supportive during the various stages of my career as an educator," said Professor Thomas Payzant, whom Sizer also persuaded to apply to the M.A.T. program. "He was delighted to know when I became a member of the HGSE faculty in the fall of 2006 and I am so grateful for what he did to get me launched in 1962. I am glad he started me on the road less traveled. He indeed did make all the difference."

Liz Whisnant, now principal of the Horace Mann Elementary School in Washington, D.C., began teaching in part because of advice given to her by Sizer, who said that if she wanted to reform education, she should first start by being a teacher.

Following his initial years of teaching, Sizer went back to school, earning a master's in teaching at the Ed School. After graduation, he earned a position on the faculty as an assistant professor, eventually becoming director of the Master of Arts in Teaching Program. By 31, he had earned his doctorate, published two books, and had been named dean.

During his eight years as dean, Sizer recruited many talented scholars to HGSE, oversaw the development of diverse student populations, and presided over the completion of Larsen Hall and Gutman Library. He also played a vital role in expanding the school's activities in developmental psychology and public policy in education.

"He was an incredible connector," recalled Professor Howard Gardner. "He knew everybody, was on good terms with people, and helped the career development of many people. There were hundreds, or thousands, of people who went through his shop. He had a human influence on many people."

Gardner was just one of the many people that Sizer influenced. In fact, Gardner said Project Zero would not exist without Sizer. "I owe much of my professional identity to Sizer's interest in arts and humanities," he said.

"I can think of no other individual who has touched the lives of so many though his teaching, writing, and leadership," said Senior Lecturer Kay Merseth. "My professional and personal life has been immeasurably enriched by his presence."

Upon leaving the Ed School in 1972, in what many considered a surprising move, Sizer went on to head Phillips Academy in Andover. Sizer told The Harvard Crimson he was eager "to return to teaching and secondary education, particularly given the stresses and changes afoot within the schools." At Phillips Academy, he made many significant changes including turning the historically all-boys school into a co-educational institution.

After nine years at the academy, Sizer reportedly found himself reflecting on how good education ideas never pan out in practice. He returned to higher education at Brown University as a professor and where he founded two instrumental organizations, both with missions close to Sizer: the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the Coalition for Essential Schools. The coalition aimed to put his research into actual schools and resulted in three well-known books, Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School, Horace's School: Redesigning the American High School, and Horace's Hope: What Works for the American High School.

Through the books and coalition, Sizer established nine common principles -- many still used today -- for school reform projects, including learning to use one's mind well, personalization, student-as-worker/teacher-as-coach, demonstration of mastery, a tone of decency and trust, commitment to the entire school, and democracy and equity. Additionally, the coalition has grown to roughly 600 schools today.

"We owe a debt to Ted and Nancy Sizer," Wood Smethurst, Ed.D.'70, founder and headmaster of Ben Franklin Academy in Atlanta, Ga., a coalition member, told Ed. magazine. "His hope, and ours, is [for schools to be able] to express more of our individuality and ideas."

By the 1990s, Sizer had earned the moniker of "America's most famous educational reformer" by Teacher Magazine. Although retirement beckoned, Sizer clearly felt a need to continue his lifelong work in education. In 1997, he returned to HGSE where he remained a visiting professor and lecturer until 2006.

Undoubtedly, Sizer's five decades in education leave a legacy that stretches far beyond HGSE's history to the indelible mark on educators and children in the world. "Sizer is the end of the twentieth century continuation of progressive education in America," Gardner said.

Related coverage:

Theodore R. Sizer, Education Innovator, Is Dead at 77 - New York Times
Theodore R. SIzer, 77; Educator, Author Worked to Improve Public Schools - Washington Post
Theodore Sizer, Educational Reformer, Dead at 77 - NPR
In Memoriam: Theodore Ryland Sizer - The Coalition for Essential Schools
The Forum Mourns the Loss of Convener and Mentor Ted Sizer - The Forum for Education and Democracy
Andover Mourns Loss of Ted Sizer, Legendary Educator and Headmaster - Phillips Andover Academy
A Tribute to Ted Sizer - John Merrow, LearningMatters
Sizer's Legacy Seen in Push to Revamp High Schools - Ed Week

The Silk Road Project Focuses on Passion-Driven Education During Harvard Residency

2009-10-20T17:20:59Z

Three-day series of events includes Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma concert and award ceremony, music workshop, presentations, and roundtable discussions from October 20 to 22, 2009

This week the Harvard Graduate School of Education, with support from the Office for the Arts at Harvard, will present a Silk Road Project residency with acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Silk Road Ensemble musicians. The series of workshops, panels and discussions will culminate in a performance open to the Harvard community and the general public, and the presentation of the inaugural Harvard Graduate School of Education Thelma E. Goldberg Arts in Education Award to Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, a nonprofit artistic, cultural, and educational organization founded in 1998 by Ma to promote innovation and learning through the arts.

"I am honored that our work is being celebrated with this award, which recognizes the arts as essential to mainstream education," commented Yo-Yo Ma, artistic director of the Silk Road Project. "One of our principal goals at the project is to promote learning that is driven by passion as opposed to learning simply to meet requirements. Our colleagues at Harvard have been voices of inspiration and valued counsels for our educational work, and I am looking forward to engaging with them deeply this week about innovative ways to bring about and support this kind of integrated learning."

Several events during the residency are open to the Harvard community and the general public, with limited seating. On Tuesday, October 20, Yo-Yo Ma will lead a discussion about the Silk Road Project's multiyear, multidisciplinary educational initiative Silk Road Connect, which inspires passion-driven learning in middle school classrooms, using music, the arts, and the dye indigo as models of connected study. That evening, Ma and a member of the Silk Road Ensemble will conduct a Creating a Life with Music Workshop with Harvard undergraduates. On Thursday, October 22, members of the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma will perform a concert with student musicians at an award ceremony in Memorial Church.

"I am thrilled to welcome Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble back to the Harvard campus," said Harvard President Drew Faust. "With its mission to promote learning through the arts, the Silk Road Ensemble embodies an approach to cultural exchange and interdisciplinary engagement that we hope to see more of on our campus."

Throughout the three-day residency, Harvard faculty, students, educators, and Silk Road Project leaders will address the topic of "Inspiring Passion-Driven Learning" from a variety of perspectives. Presenters include Ron Berger, longtime public school teacher and author; Harvard professors Homi Bhabha, director of the Humanities Center; Shigehisa Kuriyama from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Jal Mehta from the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Parimal Patil from the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies; David Perkins, a founding member of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Steven Seidel, former director of Project Zero and director of the Arts in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; and Diana Soresen, Dean of Arts and Humanities; Harvard Teaching Fellow Christine Barrett; and Silk Road Ensemble teaching artists. These roundtable discussions are open to arts education faculty and students by invitation.

The October 2009 residency builds on a series of discussions held in February 2009 with Project Zero and Harvard University faculty, including Steven Seidel, Howard Gardner, Dudley Herschbach, Veronica Boix-Mansilla, and Meira Levinson. At that time, Yo-Yo Ma presented a concept for making interdisciplinary connections, which resulted in the program Silk Road Connect, currently being piloted by the Silk Road Project in five New York City middle schools.

"Our explorations at Harvard last winter proved indispensable as we introduced Silk Road Connect to schools in New York this fall," said Laura Freid, chief executive officer and executive director of the Silk Road Project. "And now that we're working with students and teachers directly on this initiative, we are eager to continue the conversation with our partners at Project Zero and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. At the same time, we're pleased to use this opportunity to share a music workshop and performance with the Harvard community."

The October 2009 residency is part of a multiyear affiliation initiated in 2005 between the Silk Road Project and Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Since then, annual residencies have resulted in intensive artistic and intellectual collaborations. Silk Road Ensemble members have performed, interacted with students, conducted workshops, shared works in progress and composed new works. The Silk Road Project has worked with Harvard faculty to facilitate multicultural engagement in the arts, literature, history and music of the Silk Road region, giving rise to cross-disciplinary undergraduate coursework.

RESIDENCY EVENTS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
The following events are open to the Harvard community and the general public; however, seating is limited.

Inspiring Passion-Driven Learning: Silk Road Connect
Conversation led by Yo-Yo Ma
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 2-4 PM in Askwith Hall (Doors open at 1:45 PM)

This interactive session will present the Silk Road Project's educational initiative Silk Road Connect and review its early stages of implementation in New York City public schools. Yo-Yo Ma will lead a discussion about passion-driven education and program's vision.

Inspiring Passion-Driven Learning: Creating a Life with Music Workshop
Performance workshop led by Yo-Yo Ma
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 7:30-9:30 PM in Askwith Hall (Doors open at 7 PM)

With members of the Silk Road Ensemble, Yo-Yo Ma will lead a performance workshop for Harvard student musicians, exploring musical intersections and addressing what it means to be a musician in today's global culture.

Inspiring Passion-Driven Learning: The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma
Concert and award presentation
Thursday, October 22, 2009 6-7:30 PM in Memorial Church (Doors open at 5:30 PM)

The residency's culminating event will feature a concert by the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma and selected Harvard student musicians. The Thelma E. Goldberg Arts in Education Award will be presented to Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project for their contributions to education and the arts.

About the Silk Road Project
The Silk Road Project is a not-for-profit artistic, cultural and educational organization with a vision of connecting the world's neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiences around the globe. Founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998 as a catalyst to promote innovation and learning through the arts, the Silk Road Project takes inspiration from the historic Silk Road trading route as a modern metaphor for multicultural and interdisciplinary exchange. Under the artistic direction of Ma and the leadership of CEO and Executive Director Laura Freid, the Silk Road Project presents performances by the Silk Road Ensemble, engages in cross-cultural exchanges and residencies, leads workshops for students, and partners with leading cultural institutions to create educational materials and programs. Developing new music is a central mission of the Silk Road Project, which has been involved in commissioning and performing more than 60 new musical and multimedia works from composers and arrangers from around the world.

About Yo-Yo Ma
The many-faceted career of cellist Yo-Yo Ma is testament to his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as a soloist with orchestras worldwide and his recital and chamber music activities. His discography encompasses more than 75 albums, including 16 Grammy award winners. One of Ma's goals is the investigation of music as a means of communication and a vehicle for the migration of ideas; in 1998 he established the Silk Road Project to promote the study of cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road trade routes. Ma was born in Paris to Chinese parents who later moved the family to New York. He began to study the cello at the age of four, attended the Juilliard School, and in 1976 graduated from Harvard University. He has received numerous awards, including the 1978 Avery Fisher Prize, the 1999 Glenn Gould Prize, the 2001 National Medal of Arts, the 2006 Sonning Prize, the 2006 Dan David Prize, and the 2008 World Economic Forum's Crystal Award. In 2006, he was designated a United Nations Messenger of Peace by then Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In 2007, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon extended his appointment. In January 2009, at the invitation of President-Elect Barack Obama, Ma played in the quartet performance of John Willliams' Air and Simple Gifts at the 56th Inaugural Ceremony.

About the Silk Road Ensemble
The Silk Road Ensemble is a collective of internationally renowned performers and composers from more than 20 countries. Each Ensemble member's career illustrates a unique response to what is one of the artistic challenges of our times: nourishing global connections while maintaining the integrity of art rooted in authentic tradition. Many of the musicians first came together under the artistic direction of Yo-Yo Ma at a workshop at Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts in 2000. Since then, in various configurations, Ensemble artists have collaborated on a diverse range of musical and multimedia projects, presenting innovative performances that spring from Eastern and Western traditions and contemporary musical crossroads. The Silk Road Ensemble has recorded five albums and performed to critical acclaim throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

About Silk Road Connect
Silk Road Connect is a multi-year, multidisciplinary educational program to inspire passion-driven learning by empowering middle school students and teachers to follow their interest from the familiar to the foreign and make connections across all courses of study and in their own lives. Approximately 500 students are currently involved in a pilot program in sixth-grade classes in five schools in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. Among many partners are local cultural institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History, the Manhattan School of Music, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and national organizations such as National Geographic's Genographic Project. The Silk Road Project is piloting Silk Road Connect by invitation from the New York City Department of Education as part of its Campaign for Middle School Success, which has a goal of reducing the achievement gap in the middle grades and improving student achievement so that all students are prepared to succeed in high school, graduate on time, and thrive in college and careers.

From Appian Way to Hollywood

2009-10-14T17:40:25Z

By Jill Anderson

Neal Baer, Ed.M.'79, has rubbed elbows with some of the biggest names in Hollywood over his 20-year career as a screenwriter and producer, but he has never forgotten where he comes from. He returned to the Ed School last week to discuss the power of storytelling and give advice to HGSE students eager to make their way in the television and movie industry.

Dean Kathleen McCartney introduced Baer to a crowd at the first Askwith Forum of the year, "Telling Tales: How Stories Can Make a Difference," calling him "an academic of the highest order." In addition to his degree from HGSE, Baer earned both his A.M. and M.D. from Harvard.

As an award-winning executive producer and writer of television shows Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, ER, and China Beach, Baer has made a career out of telling stories that also educate that public about health and social issues. "I don't pigeonhole what I do as entertainment or education writing, but storytelling," he said. "Health and policy issues must be explored on television."

And, contrary to what many some may believe, people do learn from television. In fact, at one point during ER's run, Baer studied, with the support of the Kaiser Foundation, audiences of the show. He discovered that, at the time, more than 50 percent of ER's viewers learned about health issues as a result of watching.

Baer has never shied away from the risky or controversial when writing his shows. And, whether he's writing about sexually transmitted diseases or other complex social issues of our time, or being the first writer to script the word "penis" in daytime television, Baer said he's been lucky to have been given complete freedom by the networks on which his shows appear. Granted, Baer conceded that a lot of discussion and research happens before an episode is actually created. And, in order to keep discussions about issues ongoing, Baer is relying on new media like Twitter and takepart.com.

Beyond the work on television, Baer has coordinated with many nonprofits to work on projects like "The House is Small but the Welcome is Big" - a photo and storytelling exhibit that portrays women and orphaned children living with HIV and AIDS in Africa -- and the documentaries ByKids: Mozambique and Home is Where You Find It, the latter of which explores Africa's AIDS orphans. "I think we are all wired to tell stories," he said.

The day following the Askwith Forum, Baer held a forum for students interested in working in the media industry. "I came to the Ed School because I thought I wanted to do educational policy," Baer said of his untraditional career trajectory. He loved his time at HGSE and noted that several of its faculty made a profound impact on his life. "It really comes down to the mentors I've had here."

When Baer was earning a master's in sociology at Harvard, he took a class about visual and media studies that changed his life. From that moment on, Baer did not look back from a career making stories. (He maintains that he earned his M.D. years later while writing for ER as a "backup plan" in case Hollywood did not pan out.) During the forum, Baer offered his frank advice on when to go to film school, when not to go to film school, where to consider taking courses, how to get a foot in the door in the industry, and the best city in which to live.

"He made some real useful points and practical tips," said Kathleen Kouril Grieser, a master's candidate in Technology, Innovation, and Education Program. Grieser appreciated Baer's advice on film school, as well as his directing students to websites like Harvardwood.com, a Harvard alumni networking site based in Hollywood. However, beyond Baer's helpfulness, Grieser remained thoroughly impressed with his bio. "He is obviously a genius," she said.

Baer's HGSE visit concluded with a lecture to students in Professor Joe Blatt's class, Growing up in a Media World, specifically a session focusing on the impact of globalization on media.

In his presentation, Baer emphasized that media doesn't always have to be done the "old way." And, although adults control media, with "new media there are ways to give children power." Although, as much as Baer applauds new media, he also questions the possible negative aspects of its ability to disengage people. "The challenge for you is to figure out, how do you maximize it?" he said.

Dede and Rose to Help Draft U.S. National Educational Technology Plan

2009-10-14T17:29:07Z

By Jill Anderson

Professor Chris Dede and Lecturer David Rose, Ed.D.'76, have been tapped to help draft the new National Educational Technology Plan under the U.S. Department of Education. They will coordinate with a team of 14 people -- educators, state and district education technology leaders, policymakers, and researchers -- to create the plan.

"It feels good because too much decision-making in education is just year-to-year or month-to-month. Having a chance to step back and argue what a multiyear strategy should look like whether in educational technology or anywhere else is important," Dede said, noting that he was particularly thrilled that educators were invited to participate. "Technology is a catalyst that sits at the center of a lot of things like curriculum, testing, and professional development."

Rose added that he is delighted that his and Dede's work has been recognized on the national level and is enjoying the ongoing conversations about the draft.

The U.S. Department of Education is developing a new National Educational Technology Plan to provide a vision for how information and communication technologies can help transform American education. It will provide a set of concrete goals that can inform state and local educational technology plans as well as inspire research, development, and innovation. The plan offers a chance for the president and secretary of education to map out a strategy in education, Dede said. It focuses on four areas: learning, assessment, teaching, and productivity.

There have been three national educational technology plans, however, this will be the first plan since 2004. "The reports in the past have been uneven; some have been influential and some have had no impact," Rose said. "My role is to make sure the plan is conclusive of everybody. Universal design is clearly supposed to be a facet of this report. People with disabilities and English Language Learners were not visible in the previous plans and so this is gratifying to see someone in the working group is meant to be representing that issue."

The working group is mixture of people ranging from the technical side to teaching and learning. The group, which has been meeting since July, makes information regularly available on their website, edtechfuture.org,and also welcomes public suggestions. In fact, Technology, Innovation, and Education students were invited to post suggestions for Dede and Rose as part of an online discussion activity this summer.

"A number of reports for national technology are often dominated by people with an axe for technology, which is why it is great to hear student input at the Ed School," Rose said.

Putting together a long-range plan in technology is challenging seeing as though technology changes rapidly. But Dede and Rose don't seem concerned about this issue. "The wheels of education turn so slowly," Dede said. "I think we won't be seriously off target in a four year horizon - even if something new develops that we don't expect."

Workshop Teaches Students to Write Like an Educator

2009-10-14T17:18:29Z

By Jill Anderson

Although the school year just began, more than 40 students cheered each other on last month as they received certificates recognizing their hard work in the summer online workshop, Writing Like an Educator (WLE).

"This ceremony is to recognize the fine and important work you did this summer and the online community you created," said Jennifer Petrallia, assistant dean for master's studies, mentioning that she hoped to say "Hello" in the 26 different languages that the students represented.

For many international master's and doctoral students, coming to HGSE is their first experience at an American university. Several years ago, the Harvard Graduate School of Education began offering the online workshop, a collaborative venture supported by the Dean's Office, Academic Affairs, the Office of Student Affairs, Gutman Library Writing Services, and the Learning Technologies Center (LTC), to address student questions about American academic writing, and also to build a community among the incoming international students. Every year, WLE has grown in popularity, this year attracting 65 students to the workshop.

Designed primarily by Deborah Garson, head of research and instruction services at Gutman Library, and Kristin Lofblad, LTC's manager of instructional and research technology, WLE uses online learning best practices, which encourage students to work independently on online and offline writing-related activities, and to participate collaboratively in conversations about writing via online discussion boards facilitated by HGSE doctoral students. Each virtual session concludes with a self-check to assure nuanced understanding.

With the help of alum Radhika Rao, Ed.M.'05, Ed.D.'09, and doctoral students Yamila Hussein, Ed.M.'98; Karen Dunham, Ed.M.'05; and Liliana Garces, Ed.M.'06, the WLE participants explored the norms of American academic writing, typical HGSE writing assignments (i.e. literature reviews, research papers, memos), and APA style and formatting.

Garson says that the workshop made an enormous difference with international students who are "more confident" in their writing ability.

Already a month into their fall semester, many of the students who participated in the program are finding WLE helpful as they complete assignments. Says Oluwatoyin Adewumi, a master's candidate in the Technology, Innovation, and Education Program from Nigeria, "I like the fact that this [WLE] got us prepared for the types of papers we might be exposed to here."

Shan Xu, a Special Studies student from China, enjoyed the camaraderie that WLE provided. Xu liked being able to use the summer to get started with her one-year master's program. "It's already been helpful," she says, noting that comments on her early assignments had been marked "very good." "I think I was lucky to have this program."

Within Reach: Mark Hecker, Ed.M.'09

2009-10-07T16:02:14Z

By Jill Anderson

It was just last June when Mark Hecker, Ed.M.'09, stood before the HGSE community at convocation delivering the Student Speaker Address. In it Hecker urged his fellow graduates to "get to work," and in the short time since commencement, he has done just that.

Now living in Washington, D.C., Hecker is the founder and president of Reach Incorporated, a nonprofit organization focused on improving literacy skills by offering struggling adolescent readers an opportunity to tutor in high-need D.C. elementary schools. While still a year away from launching the pilot program of the nonprofit, Hecker spends his time designing the curriculum, networking, and fundraising. "I'm happy with how things are going, but there's still a long way to go," he says.

Reach, Inc., will train, supervise, and compensate high school students providing academic support services in elementary schools. Hecker believes that society has relatively low expectations for struggling teens. "In my work with teenagers, they tend to respond to the expectations that are given them," he says.

Hecker came to the Harvard Graduate School of Education with the goal of building a nonprofit organization. Prior to this, he worked as a social worker in Washington, D.C. where he earned the 2007 Social Worker of the Year award. Also a former teacher, Hecker focused on teens, and on working in communities and with youth facing incarceration. It was these experiences that inspired him to reach higher, specifically to train struggling adolescent readers.

"There are not a lot of good programs at the high school level," he says, noting the importance of treating teenagers as though they can help rather than like they need help. "This is a unique model where the teenagers are accountable for real outcomes that aren't all about them. They are social beings, so when we make it about other people, then you have a chance at making an actual change."

Hecker credits classes with Associate Professor Monica Higgins, Lecturer Lee Teitel, and Harvard Business School Professor Chris Stone as being influential to his nonprofit design. But, he says, it was his classmates that played the biggest role in helping him to formulate his nonprofit plan. In fact, Hecker advises the Ed School's current class to "soak up all the knowledge, but figure out who is doing what you are doing and find ways to make the connections."

Additionally, Hecker encourages students to network with people doing work that interests them outside of HGSE. "It's one thing to talk about it, but also one thing to talk about it with someone who's doing it," he says.

Hecker's blog is an important piece of the Reach, Inc.'s website where he candidly shares the trials and tribulations of getting a nonprofit off the ground. Hecker admits that he decided a blog would not only be a good way to keep people updated on the progress, but also to provide a forum for people interested in doing similar work. "I had no idea what I was getting into," he says of starting the nonprofit. "It can be hard to find role models of people who are starting out, so you are making it up as you go along."

New Study Shows Simplifying Financial Aid Process Improves College Access for Low-Income Students

2009-09-23T13:10:53Z

More low-income students would make it to college if changes were made to streamline the complicated financial aid process, according to a groundbreaking study released today by researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Stanford University School of Education, the University of Toronto, and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The new study, conducted by Stanford University Associate Professor Eric Bettinger, Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor Bridget Terry Long, and University of Toronto Associate Professor Philip Oreopoulos, tracked nearly 17,000 low-income individuals and determined that cumbersome financial aid forms and lack of information about higher education costs and financial aid prevented access to higher education.

At H&R Block offices during the 2008 tax season, the researchers invited individuals aged 17 to 30, who earned less than $45,000 annually in Ohio and North Carolina, to participate and randomly assigned them to one of three groups. For one group of participants, employees helped fill out the 102-question Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) that serves as the critical application and gatekeeper for federal aid, as well as most state and institutional aid.

In order to streamline the process, the researchers prepopulated the application with already-collected tax information and then helped participants answer remaining questions. This significantly reduced the FAFSA form completion time from 13 hours to less than 10 minutes. Participants were also given personalized information about their financial aid options. Following the application process, the researchers tracked the progress of participants who were given aid information alongside those participants who did not receive help to determine whether streamlining the application process and providing information increased college enrollment.

"Making college aid applications almost effortless to complete had an extremely powerful impact on the number of low-income students who made it to college," said Oreopoulos. "For high school seniors, just helping their parents fill out the financial aid form and apply increased college enrollment rates by 30 percent."

Other program outcomes included:

The program increased college enrollment by 20 percent for young adults already out of high school with particularly large results for those with annual incomes less than $22,000.
The program increased the percentage who received a federal grant by 33 percent for high school seniors with positive effects also for older adults.
The program increased FAFSA submissions by 39 percent for seniors in high school; 186 percent for independent students who had never been to college; and 58 percent for independent students who had previously attended college.
The program also resulted in FAFSA applications being filed significantly earlier than those in the control group: over one month earlier for high school students and almost three months earlier for independent students. This allowed students to maximize their state and institutional financial aid awards in additional to federal aid.

On the other hand, the researchers said that participants who were only given information about aid (without help with the FAFSA) did not have higher aid application submission rates than those who did not receive any help.

"This suggests that simply informing individuals about their aid eligibility does not appear to improve college access," said Bettinger, "The real barrier is the complexity in actually filling out the form and finding the time to complete it. We were able to provide individuals with accurate aid information and submit the form for them, which greatly increased their chances of accessing higher education."

Long said the study proves there are simple, efficient ways to streamline the FAFSA process that can increase its visibility and prevent the misinformation, missed deadlines, and complexity that block some students from going to college.

"In most cases, two-thirds of the FAFSA form can be completed using tax information, so in less than 10 minutes, we were able to address a major educational problem and had a substantial impact on aid applications and college enrollment," Long said. "The next step is to think beyond one company to how we can implement these lessons on a larger scale, perhaps in schools or with community organizations, and ideally by changing the aid application process at the federal level."

This research has informed deliberations of the U.S. Department of Education and the White House regarding simplifying the financial aid process. Just this summer, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced plans to streamline FAFSA and explore ways to transfer information directly from the Internal Revenue Service to an online financial aid application. The researchers note that such a change should substantially reduce the time necessary to complete the FAFSA form and improve the accuracy of the information submitted. Additional outreach and assistance, such as that provided to study participants, would also greatly improve the current system of financial aid.

The project was funded with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Kaufman Foundation, and the Institute of Education Sciences.

For more information on the program and research results, please see "The Role of Simplification and Information in College Decisions: Results from the H&R Block FAFSA Experiment," National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper at www.nber.org.

For more information, read "FAFSA Experiment Boosts College Going" at InsideHigherEd.com.

Quality of Early Child Care Plays Role in Later Reading, Math Achievement

2009-09-15T09:00:00Z

New findings coauthored by Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean Kathleen McCartney, published today in the September/October 2009 issue of Child Development, reveals the quality of early childcare may play a role in boosting reading and math achievement among low-income youth. The study, conducted by McCartney, Boston College Associate Professor Eric Dearing, and Samford University Professor Beck Taylor, looked at reading and math achievement of more than 1,300 children in middle childhood from economic backgrounds ranging from poor to affluent.

"We found that the effect of quality child care on fifth grade reading and math achievement varies by family income. Specifically, the effect of quality child care is larger for children from low-income families," McCartney said. "Thus, quality early care levels the academic playing field for children in poverty. These findings have important implications for antipoverty policy."

Using information from the longitudinal Study of Early Care and Youth Development, which was carried out under the auspices of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, they discovered that children who spent more time in high-quality (that is, above-average) child care in the first five years of their lives had better reading and math scores. This was especially true for low-income children; in fact, their scores were similar to those of affluent children, even after taking into account a variety of family factors, including parents' education and intelligence.

"In large part, our results can be explained by the fact that low-income children who attended higher-quality child care developed reading and math skills in early childhood that likely prepared them for later achievement in middle childhood," said Dearing, associate professor of applied developmental psychology at Boston College and the study's lead author. "These results give added credence to the central role that higher-quality child care should play in future discussions on antipoverty policy."

As a developmental psychologist, McCartney's research focuses on theoretical questions on early experience as well as policy questions on child care, early childhood education, and poverty. McCartney has held many prominent positions including principal investigator on the National Institute of Child Heath and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care & Youth Development, director of the University of New Hampshire Child Study & Development Center, and Fellow by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Educational Research Association.

Harvard University to Offer Groundbreaking Doctoral Program for Education Leaders

2009-09-15T09:00:00Z

Program to combine education, business, and public policy faculty with on-site practice in tuition-free doctoral program

Harvard University today announced the launch of a new, practice-based doctoral program to prepare graduates for senior leadership roles in school districts, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector.

The new tuition-free Doctor of Education Leadership Program (Ed.L.D.) will be taught by faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), the Harvard Business School (HBS), and the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). The program offers an unprecedented approach to preparing leaders equipped to transform the American education system in order to enable all students to succeed in a 21st-century world. The three-year program will begin in August 2010 and initially enroll 25 students per year.

"One of the core missions of Harvard's professional schools is to prepare leaders who can guide organizations in a rapidly changing environment. No sector has a greater need for such transformational leaders than public education," said Harvard President Drew Faust. "I am delighted that professors from three outstanding professional schools are combining their knowledge and experience to create this groundbreaking program."

Based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Ed.L.D. will be the first new degree offered in 74 years by the school. The degree is a practice-based doctorate designed to equip students with a deep understanding of learning and teaching as well as the management and leadership skills necessary to reshape the American education sector.

In the first two years of the program, students will participate in a new customized curriculum of classes, modules, and practice-based experiences. In the concluding year, students will enter a year-long residency in a partner education organization pursuing transformational change where they will receive hands-on training and lead a capstone project to complete the doctoral degree.

"Research clearly shows that no school improvement effort can succeed without effective leadership, and such leadership is needed at all levels - federal, state, district, and school - in our current systems and in the systems we will create in the future," said M. Christine DeVita, president of The Wallace Foundation, which provided a $10-million grant to support the effort. "The new Doctor of Education Leadership Program draws on what we've learned about effective leader preparation over the past decade. By providing fellowship support that will remove the barrier of cost and student debt, we hope to attract the most accomplished and promising future leaders to this innovative program and to these careers that are so important to our nation's future."

The program tethers academic preparation to real-world practice by partnering with the same types of organizations that graduates of the program will aspire to lead. These organizations include not only many of the leading urban school districts (e.g., Atlanta, Denver, New York City), but also some of the most noted organizations driving change in K-12 education (including Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, KIPP, and the National Center on Education and the Economy).

"Our goal is not to develop leaders for the system as it currently exists; rather, we aim to develop people who will lead system transformation," said Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean Kathleen McCartney. "We believe this new degree program will be a catalyst to drive that change. It will allow us to meet our goal of producing a new generation of education leaders, who will have a laser-like focus on student learning, and will know how to translate that into large-scale system change. They will be successful by altering education policy debates, forging powerful public-private partnerships, and restoring public confidence in our schools."

The Doctor of Education Leadership Program - which will be led by Harvard faculty Richard Elmore (HGSE), Harry Spence (HGSE/HKS), and Elizabeth City (HGSE) - is unique in its integrated curriculum in learning and instruction, management and leadership, and policy and politics. Students will learn with faculty from the three professional schools, including Stacey Childress (HBS), Marshall Ganz (HKS), Deborah Jewell-Sherman (HGSE), Robert Kegan (HGSE), Mark Moore (HKS/HGSE), and David Thomas (HBS).

"In creating this groundbreaking program, we are proud to bring together the strengths of our three great faculties with an array of exceptionally pioneering organizations," said Professor Robert Schwartz, academic dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "The Obama Administration and large private foundations are about to make unprecedented levels of investment in education reform. It is critical that states and districts, and the national organizations they count on for support, have access to a pipeline of leadership talent equipped with the knowledge and skills to ensure that these investments produce dramatic improvements in the performance of our schools."

For more information on the program and how to apply, visit www.gse.harvard.edu/admissions/connect/ and www.gse.harvard.edu/admissions/apply/.

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"Obama Effect" Strongly Influences Public Attitudes on Controversial Education Topics According to Survey Coauthored by Martin West

2009-08-31T16:40:03Z

Findings Show Research Evidence Can Be Equally Significant in Shaping Public Opinion

President Barack Obama has the potential to be an extremely influential opinionmaker on controversial education policy issues according to a new survey conducted by Harvard Graduate School of Education Assistant Professor Martin West, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Paul Peterson, and Harris School of Public Policy Professor William Howell. The findings are from the 2009 national survey on American attitudes about public education by Education Next and the Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) at Harvard University.

The survey's findings suggest that a well-publicized stance on an education issue taken by a popular president can shift the opinions of a substantial segment of the American public -- a surprising fact considering how stable aggregate public opinion on these issues has been over time.

The Education Next-PEPG findings also show that research evidence can exert a strong influence on public opinion -- in some cases as much as that of a popular president.

The 2009 survey was undertaken in March when President Obama's public approval ratings were above 60 percent, providing a unique opportunity to measure his impact. Several simple experiments were embedded in poll questions on merit pay, charter schools, and school vouchers. Recognizing that attitudes on education issues are remarkably constant over time, these experiments were designed to discover what kinds of factors change public opinion. Because the public pays little attention in general to policy issues, the experiments and the timing of the survey provided an avenue for assessing how people update their views when presented with new information. This dynamic view of public opinion recognizes the importance of understanding the various forces that can push it in one direction and another.

One randomly selected group of survey respondents was told the President's position before being asked for its own; another group was told about research on the reform's effects on student learning that coincided with the President's stated position. A final control group was asked its opinion without any special prompt.

The survey's findings show that the "Obama effect" can move overall public opinion by anywhere from 11 percentage points (in the case of charters) to 13 percentage points (in the case of merit pay). This responsiveness is not uniform, however. Presidential appeals are more persuasive to fellow partisans than to those who identify with the opposition party. Research has a comparable impact, ranging from 6 percentage points (in the case of merit pay) to 10 percentage points (in the case of vouchers) to 14 percentage points (in the case of charters). Research evidence appears particularly influential among Democrats and when the general public is undecided on an issue.

Charter Schools

According to the 2009 survey, 39 percent of Americans support charter schools and 17 percent oppose them. Forty-four percent, however, remain undecided. Again, these numbers are similar to those in 2007 and 2008.

When told of President Obama's pro-charter stance, however, support increased by 11 percentage points overall. Support increased among every subgroup polled -- African Americans, Hispanics, whites, public school teachers, Democrats, and Republicans.

With 44 percent of the public undecided about charter schools, research evidence appears as influential as President Obama in persuading the public. Support increased by 14 percentage points among those who were told of research showing that charters were raising test scores. Among African Americans, the percentage of those who completely support charter schools rose by 23 percentage points.

Merit Pay

When asked for an opinion straight out, 43 percent of Americans support the idea of basing a teacher's salary in part on his or her students' academic progress on state tests; 27 percent oppose the idea; 30 percent are undecided. These numbers remain relatively unchanged since 2007 when Education Next-PEPG first began undertaking its annual national survey.

When informed of President Obama's support for merit pay, public favor for the idea rose by 13 percent.
Support increased among African Americans by 23 percentage points (to 55 percent).
Support among Democrats increased by 15 percentage points (to 56 percent).
Among teachers, support rose 19 percentage points (to 31 percent).

Notably, every subgroup in the survey except for public school teachers increased their support of merit pay to a majority of at least 55 percent.

By comparison, policy research on this topic had a relatively modest impact. Support for merit pay climbed by just 6 percent when respondents were exposed to positive research evidence on the issue. Among African Americans, however, that support jumped 28 percentage points.

School Vouchers

When asked outright, 40 percent of the public support school vouchers; 34 percent do not; and 27 percent are undecided. However, public opinion can change depending on how the survey question is posed. When informed of the President's opposition to school vouchers, public support dropped to 24 percent.

African Americans show greater support for school vouchers (57 percent) than the population as a whole. However, their support dropped by 12 percentage points when told of the President's opposition.
Thirty percent of Democrats oppose school vouchers. After learning Obama's opinion, that number rose by 22 percentage points to 52 percent opposed.

When presented with research evidence that claims "students learn no more in private schools than in public schools," support for school vouchers dropped by 10 percentage points, an impact almost as large as the President's.

Other findings from the 2009 Education Next-PEPG National Education Survey, include:

The State of American Schools - When Americans learn the truth about the international standing of U.S. students (our 15-year-olds rank 24 out of 29 of the leading industrialized countries in math), the number who give their schools an "A" or "B" drops from 18 to 13 percent and those giving a "D" or "F" rises by 10 percent.
Graduation Rates - When asked to estimate the percent of ninth-graders who graduate within four years of entering ninth grade, Americans on average offer a pessimistic guess of 66 percent, 9 percent below the U.S. Department of Education's official national estimate.
National Standards - 72 percent of Americans support having the same set of educational standards and giving all students the same tests in math, science, and reading.
Teacher Pay - When told how much teachers in their state earn, the number of Americans who support pay increases for teachers drops 16 percentage points. With accurate information about salaries, the majority believe teacher pay shouldn't change.
Teacher Tenure - 51 percent of Americans support requiring teachers to demonstrate that their students are making adequate progress on state tests in order to receive tenure.
School Spending - Support for increased spending on schools drops 8 percentage points (from 46 to 38 percent) when Americans are told what is actually spent in their own district.
Virtual Schooling - 51 percent of Americans support the idea of high-schoolers taking some academic courses over the internet.
Single-Sex Schools - 45 percent of public school teachers support single-sex schooling; 28 percent neither oppose nor support it.
Mayoral Control - Americans remain divided on the issue with nearly equal support for (32 percent) and against (36 percent) mayors controlling public schools in their community.
Teacher Unions - As many or more Americans believe teacher unions are blocking school reform (31 percent) than believe they are helping it (28 percent).
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) - More Americans (49 percent) believe NCLB should be renewed with little or no change than believe the law should be done away with (20 percent).

Read "The Persuadable Public: Changing Minds about School Reform" and view the results of the 2009 Education Next-PEPG Survey of Public Opinion online at www.EducationNext.org.

The Education Next-PEPG survey was conducted by the polling firm Knowledge Networks between February 25 and March 13, 2009. The findings are based on a nationally representative stratified sample of U.S. adults (age 18 years and older) and oversamples of Hispanics, non-Hispanic blacks and public school teachers. The sample consists of 2,153 non-Hispanic whites, 434 non-Hispanic blacks, 481 Hispanics, and 183 members of other ethnic groups; 709 public school teachers and 948 residents of Florida; and 1,694 self-identified Democrats and 1,265 self-identified Republicans. With 3,200 total respondents, the margin of error for responses given by the full sample in the Education Next-PEPG survey is roughly 1 percentage point.

Education Next is a scholarly journal published by the Hoover Institution that is committed to looking at hard facts about school reform. Other sponsoring institutions are the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

The Future of Learning Explored at PPE Institute

2009-08-28T15:23:53Z

By Jill Anderson

What exactly will the future of learning look like? That was the question on the minds of the 150 participants of the first Future of Learning institute held in August.

"You are here [with] the existential question of what is the future of learning," said Professor Howard Gardner during the opening plenary session. Gardner noted that participants likely would not find an answer to the question, but would walk away from the institute with even better questions and fewer misconceptions. "When you leave here you can have better conversations with a brain expert," he said.

The Future of Learning institute - offered by PPE in collaboration with Project Zero and designed to help educators understand how globalization, the digital revolution, and advancement in mind/brain research are affecting learning today and in the future - grew out of the Project Zero Classroom and the Future of Learning initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The initiative began in 2007 when a group of HGSE faculty got together to examine the evolving nature of learning for the 21st century. This exploratory project combines research and discussion from across the HGSE faculty with an aim to create an environment that promotes broad thinking about the contemporary forces transforming lives and, consequently, what students should learn, how they might best do so, and what kinds of learning environments might optimize their development.

Veronica Boix-Mansilla, education chair of the Future of Learning institute and principal investigator for Project Zero, explained that the institute sought to build on the success of the Project Zero Classroom which for the last 14 years has helped pre-K-12 educators create powerful learning environments. It also aimed to capitalize on the expertise of HGSE faculty and like-minded colleagues at New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Southern California on matters of learning writ large.

"We thought it would make sense to focus our attention on learning and how it is being transformed," Boix-Mansilla said. "We felt confident that we had the expertise at the Ed School to create a quite innovative experience for educators. Rather than invite participants to an institute solely focused on 'take aways' for direct use in the classroom, we would invite participants to think with us about the future of learning. We strove for a profoundly intellectually respectful engagement with participants."

The institute revealed that HGSE educators aren't the only people contemplating what the future of education may bring. The broad group of participants represented 30 countries and a multitude of educational professions including teachers/professors, principals/assistant principals, directors, coordinators/curriculum directors, department chairs, consultants, university presidents, superintendents, and chief executive officers.

"I enjoyed the diverse group of participants," said Karen May, a teacher and administrator from the Taft School in Watertown, Conn., who added that she was particularly fascinated by how everyone seems to be struggling with similar issues in education. "This has been a fantastic experience that is tremendously engaging."

Sara Hughes, an administrator from the FourC Bilingual Academy in Bauru, Brazil, relished in the opportunity to be with like-minded educators. "Everyone knows [education] has to change," she said. "Everyone [here] really wants to find arguments and discussions to convince other people, who may not believe that."

The four-day program aimed to help participants envision new approaches to teaching and learning. The Future of Learning initiative is not only concerned about the achievement gap but with what Professor David Perkins called in his opening remarks of the institute a relevance gap. Participants were asked: what matters most for people to learn at the dawn on the 21st century? Who is the learner of the future? Where, how, when will he or she learn best? Participants were also offered opportunities to reflect, make connections to practice, and exchange ideas. Each day began with a plenary session which examined one of the main focus topics: globalization, digital revolutions, and the advancement of mind/brain research.

Following plenary sessions, participants selected interactive courses that examined themes of 21st century learning like "Teaching for the Future," "The New Museum Mindset: What We Can Learn about the Future of Learning from the Future (and Past) of Museums," and "Our Bodies, Our Minds, Our 'Selves': The Relevance of Social and Affective Neuroscience to Education." Each day concluded with a learning group focused on participants' specific areas of interest.

Boix-Mansilla noted that the unique program design encouraged making connections among attendees and considering the proactive change necessary for the future. "Back in the late '90s, books in education tended to express our profession's millennial anxiety. We realized that we were preparing students for a changing world but we didn't know what was to come," Boix-Mansilla said. "Now, we have a better sense of some of the challenges that this generation will have to tackle from navigating the consequences of globalization, to managing the digitalization of every day life, to engaging the ethical dilemmas presented by our growing understanding of human biology. We also recognize promising learning targets such as learning in diverse groups, expert thinking, complexity, synthesis, problem framing, and learning to make sense of the unknown. In a sense, we may be witnessing the emergence of a new paradigm for learning -- one that is adequately situated in our changing times."

Participants were eager to tackle those changes. "In our journey for lifetime learning, we need to prepare our students, staff, and selves for the future of learning," said Aalaa Eldeib, principal of the Toledo Islamic Academy in Sylvania, Ohio, who hoped that the combined efforts of the participants would lead to those efforts of change.

Toledo Islamic Academy Assistant Principal Muhammed Kabir agreed. "Everything is changing so fast and differently that you need to keep up with it," he said, noting that the institute was well worth attending.

By the end of the institute, as Gardner had alluded, the participants had not found an answer to the future of learning. "We don't know the answers," Hughes said, "but we have to get talking about this."