by Debbie Howard on September 3, 2010
The William J. Clinton Foundation Millennium Network was created to get people under the age of 45 involved in the work of the Clinton Foundation. The network focuses on many issues such as fighting climate change, furthering sustainable development, combating the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States and promoting economic development worldwide.
President Clinton spoke at an event in Chicago last year and when Randall Sampson of EdWorks, a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks, heard the president’s message, he was inspired to look for solutions to problems in education.
Since then, EdWorks has been partnering with Central High School, Detroit’s oldest high school, under the leadership of Principal McGhee, to change the approach to traditional education by empowering teachers and students to lead the high school transformation effort
Learn more about the transformation efforts in Detroit and the work being done by the Millennium Network.
Watch some of the EdWorks Small Learning Community redesign of Detroit’s University of Central High School in action.
Redesign of Detroit’s University of Central High School
by Jeanne Bernish on September 1, 2010
The National Journal Expert Education blog asks: “In education, how can and should technology be used to close the digital gap rather than exacerbate it? What can policymakers do to help advance the promise of technological benefits in the classroom?”
Chad Wick’s response: Tech Should Support Great Teaching states that “policymakers can achieve great gains in the advancement of the promise of technological benefits in the classroom simply by working to create a more easily accessible and affordable infrastructure for access,” and also points out that technology is most successful in the classroom when it it used to “capture and amplify great teaching.”
Read his full response, and the posts from other national thought leaders in education, at the National Journal Expert Education blog.
by Byron McCauley on August 26, 2010
A statewide effort looking at ways Ohio’s public schools can boost performance and cut costs is offering the public a chance to weigh in.
Ohio Smart Schools, a nonpartisan initiative of KnowledgeWorks subsidiary Ohio Education Matters, today launched a website that invites Ohioans to make suggestions for how the state’s education system and local school districts can accomplish the dual goals of increasing student performance and reducing costs.
As part of its research, Ohio Smart Schools is offering an online suggestion box for individuals to post their ideas. The website also allows users to rate ideas to identify those with the most promise. Researchers will review suggestions as they prepare budget recommendations as requested by Gov. Ted Strickland earlier this year.
“Ohioans have a long tradition of resourcefulness, and we believe their ideas can help us make better decisions about how to deploy our scarce education resources,” Benson said.
To read the press release visit: Ohio Smart Schools Initiative Seeks Ways To Improve Education Efficiency
To participate in the crowd-sourcing experience, visit the Ohio Smart Schools website at: http://www.ohiosmartschools.org/
by Byron McCauley on August 23, 2010
Dr. Monica Martinez, President of New Tech Network, was in New Zealand last week to participate in a symposium that looked at ways education is expected to change over the next decade. She shared elements of KnowledgeWorks’ 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning, to show how education is evolving into a world where learning is tailored to the needs of the individual student and brought to life by compelling, real-world experiences. The event was hosted by Learning Media, an educational services provider and publisher in New Zealand. New Zealand’s Education Minister, Anne Tolley, and Education Secretary Karen Sewell were also part of the symposium.
To hear a podcast of the program, which aired August 18, visit the Radio New Zealand Nine to Noon audio archive.
by Chad Wick on August 19, 2010
Regarding Stephanie Banchero’s Wall Street Journal article“Scores Stagnate at High Schools”, the sky is not falling, but we could use more innovative high school approaches.
While Center on Education Policy’s Jack Jennings sees high schools the “downfall of education reform,” I’ve seen what works: student-centered education approaches such as project-based learning, small schools and early college high schools.
Those high school models supported by our foundation, KnowledgeWorks, have succeeded in Ohio and throughout the U.S. in raising test scores and graduation rates — particularly in high-poverty, underserved communities. Between, 2002 and 2008, our high school transformation work helped 50,000 learners and 2,000 teachers in Ohio. No magic bullet here, just long-term commitment from a broad section of the community and a roadmap. Improved teacher performance, rigorous curriculum and instruction, aligned assessments, students in courses that interest them – all components of success within our models.
Our focus on small high schools (mentioned in the story) worked, and Early College High Schools (ECHS) created a college-going culture for many first-generation college aspirants. Nearly 80 percent of African-American students in transformed schools graduated in 2008 — a 29 percent increase since 2002. In our Early College High Schools – where three out of four students qualify for free or reduced meals at school — 91 percent graduate while 33 percent finish with both a high school diploma and two years of college credit or an associate degree.
These poor ACT scores are a wake-up call for us to rethink how we deliver high school education. Hard work, we know, but achievable.
Chad P. Wick
CEO
KnowledgeWorks
Cincinnati, Ohio
by Byron McCauley on August 13, 2010
KnowledgeWorks CEO Chad Wick and other National Journal Education Expert bloggers addressed whether or not last week’s USDOE Investing in Innovation (i3) awards invested enough in proposals that bring truly innovative practices to the education system. In “Future of education demands innovation,” Chad argues that the world of learning isn’t going to wait for us to define what education innovation looks like, and he refers to KnowledgeWorks’ ground-breaking 2006-2016 Map of Future Forces in Education and the 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning to highlight education trends.
Chad participates in this weekly conversation that includes three past and present secretaries of education, several members of Congress, and other national education thought leaders who debate the future of American education. The blog was named by the Washington Post as one of the “Best Education Blogs for 2010.”
by Byron McCauley on August 13, 2010
EdWorks, a subsidiary of Cincinnati-based KnowledgeWorks that specializes in high school transformation, has been asked by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners to help turn around historic Frederick Douglass Senior High School.
Frederick Douglass Senior High School, whose graduates include Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and entertainer Cab Calloway, was founded in 1883 as the Colored High and Training School and is the second-oldest historically integrated public high school in the United States.
For Judge Nathaniel R. Jones, a KnowledgeWorks board member who recently retired from his position as U.S. Circuit Judge for the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, being involved in the transformation of Douglass holds special meaning. In 1969, Jones became general counsel of the NAACP, a position previously held by Justice Marshall.
“I take great pride in being able to play a role in the resurgence of historic Douglass Senior High School,” Jones said. “We owe it to Justice Marshall who argued and won the historic case of Brown vs. Board of Education, and the other giants produced by Douglass to continue their legacy and produce learners who will make their own mark in the 21st century.”
Visit the KnowledgeWorks newsroom for full text of the press release.
by Jeanne Bernish on August 10, 2010
The Cincinnati Enquirer August 9, 2010 editorial: “CPS board, teacher union impasse must end,” credits Strive with trying to bring labor and management together in contract negotiations. Strive called for public support at the Cincinnati Public School board meeting Monday night.
“Strive is striving to be diplomatic and even-handed. In a letter on Friday, the organization urged public support for both CPS and CFT, and offered warm, encouraging words to both sides.”
In a follow-up article after the meeting, “Teachers union blames district for lack of contract,” the Enquirer stated that “at issue is education reform. The district wants more flexibility to move good teachers to low-performing schools and make other building-level changes to improve students’ academics. The union says it wants reform too, but wants teachers to have more of a say in those changes. It also takes issue with district-proposed changes that it says would gut teacher evaluation and training programs.”
by Byron McCauley on August 4, 2010
KnowledgeWorks CEO Chad Wick and other National Journal Education Expert bloggers this week are addressing concerns by a coalition of prominent civil rights groups that the Obama administration is pushing education policies that will exacerbate inequality.
In “Ed reform competition helps all,” Chad calls the president’s education reform “aggressive, forward-thinking and actually helps the most underserved schools and school districts, not hurt them.”
Chad participates in this weekly conversation that includes three past and present secretaries of education, several members of Congress, and other national education thought leaders who debate the future of American education. The blog was named by the Washington Post as one of the “Best Education Blogs for 2010.”
by Jeanne Bernish on August 3, 2010
A recent post on OregonLive.com, “Portland’s dropout epidemic: Cradle-to-career model offers a proven route for students,” writer Wim Wiewel, President of Portland State University, makes a case for a different approach to education that encompasses a continuum from birth to employment, or “cradle-to-career.”
In Cincinnati, the Strive Partnership has brought together more than 300 organizations to focus on education across a metro area that includes northern Kentucky. Since the partnership was founded four years ago, Strive reports that graduation rates at high schools in the urban district have increased by 11 percentage points to 83 percent. Last year, 92 percent of Cincinnati Public Schools students who took Ohio’s graduation exam passed the reading test, 85 percent passed math and 93 percent passed writing. And those are students in a district where more than two-thirds of its pupils live in poverty, a much higher rate than in Portland.
The article was written in response to “Dropouts in public schools in Portland an entrenched pattern,” which asks how “Portland residents have quietly tolerated the lifelong harm done to thousands of its young people each year,” with only 53 percent of Portland’s high school students graduating in four years – a rate 10 percentage points below New York City’s high school graduation rate.
