Over the course of the past decade, we’ve been flooded with news and reports of the United States’ demise in terms of innovation and global competitiveness. Each one of these reports shares grim statistics about problems with U.S. education, including poor reading, science and math scores and low high school graduation rates as compared to [...]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category:
Is the Problem with the U.S. Education System Not Enough Play?
Engineering the Future
Across the country, scientists, educators and politicians alike are searching for the best ways to revitalize America’s commitment to innovation. One way engineers are seeking to nurture an interest in science, engineering and entrepreneurship among students is through Design Squad Nation, a new series on PBS. (Design Squad Nation is actually a redesign of a [...]
Teaching Children to be Innovative Requires the Both/And
Ever since Amy Chua published an excerpt from her new book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” in The Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, there has been much chatter among Western parents and Chinese parents alike about the best way to raise their kids. “What Chinese parents understand,” she said, “is that nothing [...]
How Might We Transform the World? Invest in Girls.
An adolescent girl stands at the threshold of adulthood. In that moment, much is decided. If she stays in school, remains healthy and gains real skills, she will marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and earn an income that she’ll invest back into her family. But if she follows the path laid down by [...]
Pledge to Improve U.S. Public Education
It’s been 27 years since the government released “A Nation at Risk,” the results of a two-year study that found that U.S. education was “being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity.” So surely, by now, we are all aware of the education deficit the United States faces. But, a new documentary that premiered last [...]
Education for All in Post-Katrina New Orleans
Last Friday, I wrote about the budding entrepreneurial spirit taking over New Orleans. Well, it looks like the entrepreneurs aren’t the only people trying to improve the city in five years since Hurricane Katrina. In fact, it appears that administrators in New Orleans’ public education system have used this time to build better schools. “I [...]
Is There Value in $578 Million School?
According to the Associated Press (AP), the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) laid off nearly 3,000 teachers in the past two years, cut the academic school year and various programs. “The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation’s lowest performing.” So why, then, did it just [...]
Teaching Creativity in America’s Schools
It’s been more than eight years since former President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) into law. Designed to help students improve their reading and math skills, NCLB requires states to set high standards and establish measurable goals for their students. Indeed, according to the National Assessment of Educational [...]
#WIF10: Wendy Kopp on Realizing Educational Opportunities for All
Twenty years ago, Princeton University senior Wendy Kopp challenged the stereotype that said all her generation wanted was to make money when she conceptualized Teach For America (TFA). “One day, I thought of this idea,” she said at the World Innovation Forum last month. “Why aren’t the real leaders in our generation being recruited as [...]
Miss Kookyi’s Book Club Ads Value to the Bus Ride for Students and the Driver
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Last fall, as Rosemary “Kookyi” Peterson considered leaving her long-time job driving an unruly school bus to Samoset Elementary school in Bradenton, Fla., she had an idea: Make the kids read while they ride the bus. What started as a simple way to [...]