Teachers have a history of being underappreciated and overworked. Teaching in and beyond the pandemic has been particularly thankless and unsustainable, as schools respond to the unfinished learning needs of their kids while curricula became a political football. Teacher job satisfaction hit an all-time low last year. Unsurprisingly, teachers flocked to virtual schools during the […]
Improving Teacher Morale in Virtual Schools Read More »
Amanda Pelukas joined Plymouth-Canton Community Schools (P-CCS) in Michigan to transform P-CCS’ Virtual Academy. “COVID remote learning,” as Pelukas described it, needed to improve. Instead of solving the problem on their own, Pelukas and her team joined a network of peers facing similar challenges called Strategy Lab. Months later, Pelukas and the P-CCS virtual team
Learning Alongside Others Sparks Plymouth-Canton’s Virtual Redesign Read More »
For decades, quantitative, randomized control trials (RCTs) have been considered the gold standard of education research. The What Works Clearinghouse even prioritizes studies that randomly assign participants to conditions and show statistical significance. However, at last month’s American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Annual Meeting in Chicago, we sought out sessions from a growing cadre of
The Future of Education Research and Measurement Read More »
How do you unite a diverse set of organizations that believe in the same cause but haven’t worked collectively yet? And how do you ensure meaningful change and impact results from bringing the leaders of these organizations together? This is exactly the challenge the organizers of the Educating All Learners Alliance (EALA) faced in launching
Using Design Thinking to Solve System Challenges Read More »
It’s easy to conjure a mental image of a science fiction-inspired dystopian future when we hear cautionary tales from the classroom about ChatGPT completing homework assignments, anecdotes of the chatbot fooling a human into bypassing bot controls in its stead by claiming to be a person with a visual impairment, or even an admission from
The “Soft Skills” Students Need in an AI-Filled World Read More »
Recently, districts from across the U.S. converged at Dell’s Innovation Summit to tackle problems of practice around innovating in schools, including: designing innovative learning models, implementing new structures of high school through a conference-style approach, and creatively leveraging human capital. For one district, Newport News Public Schools, the challenge was clear — how could they
Innovating While Leading Schools is Hard – Lessons from Using ChatGPT Read More »
Creativity is the competence to leverage self-interests, motivation, imagination, and prior knowledge in flexible ways1 to generate, evaluate, or improve ideas; imagine new ways of solving problems;2 forge new connections — across content and people;3 create new understanding; or communicate thinking through writing, drawing, voice, music, or any other means of expression.4 At The Learning
Investigating Creativity in the Classroom: Research Tools for Teachers and Leaders Read More »
While artificial intelligence (AI) has been present in schools for years through adaptive learning and feedback tools, this new wave of generative AI tools, headlined by ChatGPT, feels different due to their ability to make unique, sophisticated responses and answer a wide range of prompts that can do the heavy lifting of critical thinking instead
Generative AI in Schools: Leaders Ask for Guidance Read More »
Technology has a knack for raising alarms in education: the advent of tools like the radio, calculators, television, and smartboards have all caused a stir. OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, has introduced us to the latest hyped technology, AI. While history warns us to be cautious and bearish about new technology in classrooms, conversations
AI’s Role in the Future of Innovation in Education Read More »
With support from the Walton Family Foundation, The Learning Accelerator (TLA) is exploring ways to support State Education Agencies (SEAs) in developing and strengthening virtual and hybrid learning models as part of a broader student-centered approach. Through this partnership, we have engaged SEA leaders from eight states — representing a diversity of geographies, political landscapes,
Perception, Exclusion, and Quality: Virtual Course Access Challenges for State Leaders Read More »
