A New Day for Learning

May 2, 2007 5:58 AM

I'll admit it--it has been a long time since I last contributed to this blog. A million post-Summit administrative details have diverted my energies. Still, the appearance in Edweek of two separate commentaries written by Summit speakers caught my attention. The first of these--"A New Day for Learning," written in part by George Lucas Education Foundation Executive Director Milton Chen--argues that outmoded classroom forms and schedules are hampering school improvement. You may remember that the Foundation's new COO, Cindy Johansen, presented at the Summit a brief video highlighting schools and programs that follow a more expansive model of learning

The commentary offers examples of schools that are already using community assets to: expand the learning day; create relevant, authentic, hands-on learning experiences for students both within and beyond schools; and foster greater student engagement in tasks relevant to 21st-century demands.

The authors claim that current, well-intentioned reform policies hinder these innovations, pushing us "even faster toward more of the same--more stringent requirements placed on students and teachers without changes to the dynamics of instruction, more resources deployed to those already having advantages, and more traditional in-school time." The price we pay for these policies, they suggest, is student apathy: "Half of our dropouts say they left because school no longer seemed relevant in their lives, not because the work was too difficult.

You can read the report that accompanies this commentary--"A New Day for Learning"--here