Ted Sizer: HGSE Dean, founder of Annenberg Institute


Ted Sizer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theodore Ryland Sizer (June 23, 1932 – October 21, 2009) was a leader of educational reform in the United States, the founder (and eventually President Emeritus) of theEssential school movement and was known for challenging longstanding practices and assumptions about the functioning of American secondary schools. Beginning in the late 1970s, he had worked with hundreds of high schools, studying the development and design of the American educational system, leading to his major work Horace's Compromise in 1984. In the same year, he founded the Coalition of Essential Schools based on the principles espoused in Horace's Compromise.[1]
Sizer was born in New Haven, Connecticut to Theodore Sizer (1892–1967), an art history professor at Yale University. He received his B.A. in English from Yale in 1953 and subsequently served in the Army as an artillery officer. He later described his experience leading soldiers in a democratic and egalitarian fashion as a formative influence on his ideas about education. After teaching in high schools, he earned his masters and doctorate in education from Harvard University in 1957 and 1961, respectively. He was a faculty member and later dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a position he held during the 1969 Harvard student strike. While dean, he reorganized the school into seven departments, expanding the resources available for research (particularly in the area of urban education), while expanding minority enrollment.[2]
Sizer left Harvard to serve as headmaster of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts from 1972 to 1981, leaving to lead a study of American high schools sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the National Association of Independent Schools. From 1983 to 1997, Sizer worked at Brown University as a professor and chair of the education department,[3] and in 1993, he became the Founding Director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.[1]
During his years at Brown, he produced most of his books, including Horace's Compromise. In it, he examined[4] the fundamental compromise at the heart of allegedly successful American high schools. He suggested that the students agree to generally behave in exchange for the schools agreeing not to push them too hard or challenge them too severely. Thus, he widened the scope of schools that were failing to do their best to educate children far beyond the traditionally criticized poor and urban schools and challenged the conceptions of what could be considered a successful school. The ideas explored in his Horace Trilogy supply much of the foundation of the Coalition of Essential Schools.
After retiring from Brown, Professor Sizer took a one-year position during the 1998–99 school year as co-principal (with his wife Nancy Sizer) of the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School, of which he was a Trustee Emeritus and helped to found.[5] Their book, Keeping School was based upon this experience. From 1997 through 2006, returned to theHarvard Graduate School of Education as a visiting professor, co-teaching a course on redesigning the American secondary school with his wife,[6] while he continued to work on the issues of integrating the multiple services that low socio-economic status families need in poor communitities.
His wife, Nancy Faust Sizer, whom he married in 1955, was also an educator, and they had four children. He died at age 77 on October 21, 2009, at his home in Harvard, Massachusetts, due to colon cancer.

[edit]Works

  • Secondary Schools at the Turn of the Century (1964)
  • Places for Learning, Places for Joy (1973)
  • Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School (1984)
  • Horace's School: Redesigning the American High School (1992)
  • Horace's Hope: What Works for the American High School (1997)
  • The Students Are Watching: Schools and the Moral Contract (1999, co-authored with Nancy Sizer)
  • "Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools" (2003, co-authored with Deborah Meier & Nancy Sizer)
  • The Red Pencil: Convictions From Experience in Education (2004)

[edit]References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ted Sizer
  1. ^ a b "Theodore R. Sizer".
  2. ^ "Theodore Ryland Sizer, born 1932. Dean, 1964-1972".
  3. ^ "Ted Sizer: A Vision for Education".
  4. ^ "Who the Heck is Ted Sizer".
  5. ^ "Profile of the Parker School".
  6. ^ "Harvard Graduate School of Education Obituary".

Kindofabigdeal: Mind Shift HOW WE WILL LEARN by KQED

Launched in 2010 by KQED and NPR, MindShift explores the future of learning in all its dimensions, covering cultural and technology trends, innovations in education, groundbreaking research, education policy, and more. The editor is Tina Barseghian. Get in touch by sending an email to MindShift [at] KQED [dot] org.

 http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/

Recent articles:

Empowering Kids Online: An Important Strategy to Keep Them Safe, 

Let the Games Begin: Students and Teachers Dive Into SimCityEDU, MIT Unleashes New Online Game for Math and Science

Meet Audry Watters, Hack Education blog

What a rad chick:
HomeAbout Audrey Watters
“It’s a long story,” I often say. You can catch snippets of it, if you pay attention. I’ve got a CV if you’re the type that cares about that sort of thing. There's a bunch of buttons to your right that you can click on for other social signals.
I’m a lit geek and a beer snob. I love tattoos and technology. I loathe mushy foods and romantic comedies. I’m not ashamed to admit I like ABBA and dislike Tolkien. I am somewhat ashamed to admit I’ve not finished Ulysses. I pick fights on the Internet. I’m a high school dropout and a PhD dropout.  I have a Master's degree in Folklore and was once considered the academic expert on political pie-throwing. I was (I am?) a widow.  I'm a mom.  I have a cold hard stare that I like to imagine is much like Paddington Bear’s and a smirk much like the Cheshire Cat’s.
I currently travel as much as I possibly can. “Home,” at least according to my driver’s license, is Eugene, Oregon.
Way back in junior high, I took an aptitude test that gave me a single career option: freelance writer.  I remember feeling rather panicky at the time, wondering how the hell I’d manage to pull it off. But now I do.
My stories have appeared on NPR/KQED's education technology blog MindShift, in the data section of O’Reilly Radar, on Inside Higher Ed, in The School Library Journal, on ReadWriteWeb, and in the Edutopia's blog (among other places).
And of course, I write on my blog Hack Education.
In my spare time, I read, rabble-rouse, drink beer, and prepare for the zombie apocalypse. Because you never know…
About Hack EducationI created Hack Education in June 2010 shortly after I became a technology journalist. No surprise, I was frustrated by the lack of coverage of education technology -- by both technology and education publications. I did my day job (the freelance writing I get paid for) but devoted as much attention as possible to Hack Education, trying to create the sort of blog that (admittedly) I'd want to read: one that's smart and snarky, one that's free of advertising and investor influence (See:  Disclosures), one that's tracking new technologies but not just because of some hyperbolic "revolution."  Hack Education isn't just about how ed-tech changes "the system." It is about the future of learning.  (Yes, there's a distinction there.)
"Hack Education" can mean a lot of things: To break in and break down. To cut to the core.  To chop roughly.  To be mediocre (okay, let's ignore that definition.)  To pull systems apart.  To "MacGyver" things back together. To re-code. To rebuild.
This isn't something that just technologists should do. Nor is this just a concern for teachers and administrators and parents and students. We all need to hack our own education.
About the Gargoyle
See: "Apples and Demons, Revisited."  Gargoyle drawing by Dan DePaolo.
Updated February 2012

Completely missed the point

I've lost all faith in HP helping EDU after I read this:
Source: http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Teaching-Learning-amp-Technology/bg-p/148
Video for the NOT Flipped Classroom
by  on 07-16-2012 11:24 PMTweet this!jv-portrait-v2_200.jpg
There are many ways to “bring an expert” to your class. Here’s another great (and free!) approach…
The debate about Khan Academy is very interesting to follow. People from the Learning Sciences will be quick to point out that content (in any form – video, books, etc) by itself is only PART of the learning experience, especially for novices. You can learn ABOUT something from a video, but what you really learn depends on how much you already know (or think you know). In some cases, watching a video is “dangerous” because now you think you’re smart. For deeper learning, the video is only part of the experience.
Some things are easy to learn from a video – learning “about” something (declarative knowledge) and learning how to do something (procedural knowledge), are generally well covered using “explanatory videos”. But there’s more we (and our students) need to know. Conceptual understanding and a host of “higher order thinking” skills often referred to in one of many lists of “21st century skills” (http://www.p21.org/ has a nice list – we’ll ignore the fact that these skills have been relevant for a much longer time than simply the last 12 years).
I really like how many educators are using video to supplement the learning experiences students are having, and I like how video allows students to explore almost ANY topic on the planet. However, what novices need in order to reach mastery is that “something else”, which is usually the human interaction (mentors, facilitators, expert guides) that provides a safe place to ask important questions, and then the opportunity to put what they THINK they know into practice.
So in the end, the key is to design the “complete learning experience” to maximize the impact.



One very specific type of video being produced for learning has been designed by a team at MIT under the Blossoms project (http://blossoms.mit.edu/). These math and science videos are meant to be used by high school teachers (or other in-person facilitators), and they feature experts talking about their topics.

As described by the Blossoms team, “Every lesson is a complete resource that includes video segments, a teacher’s guide, downloadable hand-outs and a list of additional online resources relevant to the topic. We carefully craft each BLOSSOMS lesson to make your classroom come alive. Each 50-minute lesson builds on math and science fundamentals by relating abstract concepts to the real world. The lessons intersperse video instruction with planned exercises that engage students in problem solving and critical thinking, helping students build the kind of gut knowledge that comes from hands-on experience…”
In my view, here’s the magic of Blossoms: The experts work with the Blossoms team to create carefully designed videos that are meant to be watched in short “chunks” (unlike many of the other “open education” recorded lectures I’ve seen). The chunks lead to an activity (discussion, experiment, etc). The teacher plays a chunk, then stops the video so the students can respond – then they watch the next chunk. It’s a great example of video purposefully designed to be integrated into a more complete learning experience.
So whether or not you’re “flipping” your classroom with pre-recorded explanations, consider using (or creating) videos that are integrated into your classroom’s face-time...69i46457E88B749E93E






Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.Global Education Program Manager
Sustainability & Social Innovation
Hewlett-PackardSustainability & Social InnovationHewlett-Packardwww.hp.com/go/socialinnovation Follow me on Twitter @jgvanides


what an Idiot.
signed,
Nathan

EDSOURCE.ORG: Engaging California on Key Education Challenges. with John FENSTERWALD

Came across the below interview on KQED radio today and it led me to a great website, Edsource.org. 


Source:http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201208171630/a

As school children across California strap on their backpacks for another year, education officials in Sacramento are finalizing Common Core standards. Every state in the nation will be rolling out a version of these in 2014. Early in the process, California ambitiously decided to give its students a higher math standard. But now state officials are backing away from that idea.
RACHAEL MYROW: As school children across California strap on their backpacks for another year, education officials in Sacramento are finalizing Common Core standards. Every state in the nation will be rolling out a version of these in 2014. Early in the process, California ambitiously decided to give its students a higher math standard. But now state officials are backing away from that idea. John Fensterwald is here to explan why. He edits EdSource Today, an education news website. Thank you for joining us.
JOHN FENSTERWALD: Thank you.
MYROW: So for those of us who aren't parents or teachers, can you explain to us what Common Core standards are?
FENSTERWALD: It's been a goal for many people in Congress, and educators to have national standards for decades. It became more acute, I think the need with No Child Left Behind, as states began to lower their standards to avoid penalties. The Obama administration encouraged this, so two national organizations -- the National Governor's Association and chief education officers of the states -- created these Common Core standards in English language arts and math. Forty-five states have adopted them.
MYROW: Forty-five states have adopted them. I guess there's no such thing as an ideal set of standards, but what do folks around the world of education think about these standards?
FENSTERWALD: In Common Core, particularly in math, the creators looked around and took out what's the best practices and the best concepts that they've learned over the years, and placed it. It's really not rigorous or not, it's a different approach. It really stressed the conceptual knowledge of math. "Fewer standards and deeper" is the common phrase.
MYROW: Can you give us an example of how the Common Core standards will be different from the kinds of math standards that have governed California classrooms up until now?
FENSTERWALD: There will be fewer standards, and you will dwell at earlier grades on issues such as fractions and proportions, and much longer times so you have a fuller understanding. Students will be asked to explain their knowledge in ways that they couldn't in multiple ways in word problems and in modeling and in timelines, and in feedback to their teachers and their peers to show they really understand the concepts. So by the time they get to higher math, there won't be the missing elements we find now in California schools.
MYROW: So these Common Core conversations have been going on for a number of years now. In fact, it was back during the Schwarzenegger administration that some folks suggested the idea, California should push ahead of the rest of the nation and require algebra I for every eighth grader. Why did that seem like a good idea at the time?
FENSTERWALD: Well, those who had been pushing -- and it had sort of been state policy for about a decade -- have looked around and they said, well, some of the Asian nations that are competitive in technology ... Singapore, Korea ... they teach algebra at a younger age, so we should do that too if we want more scientists and engineers. It also became an equity issue. If poor kids and minority kids can take algebra too, just as students in wealthy districts. So that was the theory behind the push. Also, you were penalized as a district, in fact, if you didn't on your API scores. If you didn't offer algebra there was a slight penalty, so that was another impetus for more districts to do it. And in fact, that has happened over the past decade. Some people would say it's one of the great triumphs of California, the number of students who have taken algebra in eighth grade increased from about one-third to about two-thirds, and the rates of proficiency didn't drop, in fact they slightly increased.
MYROW: It seems like a good idea.
FENSTERWALD: There's always a but, and the but here is that still, about 50 percent of students aren't proficient as measured by their California standards test. And so the odds that if you have to repeat algebra in ninth grade, the odds that you will actually learn algebra decreases every year that you've taken it. If you've taken it in ninth grade, it's like one out of six students will become proficient the second time around.
MYROW: And so what are education officials talking about doing now?
FENSTERWALD: And so what happened was too years ago, when California adopted the Common Core standards, we've had this war, this dispute, of those that feel you should not enforce algebra in eighth grade and those who feel it's best. For eighth grade they adopted both, Common Core eighth grade standards and California algebra standards for eighth grade. So it's kind of a mess -- everyone knew it's kind of a mess and nobody had time to fix it. So here, two years later we're looking for a potential solution to that. And there's a bill which would authorize the state school board to go back and change the standards to sort of make sense of this mess. But the focus of this bill is a clear indication that if a state board's going to go back and do that, it should adopt the Common Core eighth grade which is really pre-algebra and not algebra.

Don't forget the social paradigms that S.K.R. talked about on TED, we are not Asian and not Finland, teach like it.

Charles Leadbeater: Education Innovation in the Slums

When the population booms in the new cities of the world we will have more students coming out of slum towns like Monkey Hill in Rio.


Maton Geery (sp) settlement slum 25 minutes outside of New Deli set up by Sugata Mitra.  

Extrinsic learning in poor communities must have a quick payout, students don't have 4 years to wait to gain results because they need to feed their families today. 
Intrinsic learning stemming from a class which begins with a question.  Teaching math through dance, English through music, social science through PE.  

Leadbeater claims that in 2015 all students around the world will have access to school.



Daphne koller: What we're learning form online educaiton

http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2012-08-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Certificate programs from the best professors of America
15:00 --When 2% of 100 students get the same wrong answer it can be missed, when 2% of 100,000 students make the same mistake then we can target their errors.

16:40--Benjamin Bloom 1936 research on lecture based classroom vs. mastery based advancement vs. 1on1.  1on1 yielded 2 standard deviations above lecture based, mastery yielded 1 standard deviation greater. though we can't all receive 1on1 in america, Koller believes we can afford computers.

"College is a place where a professor's lecture notes go straight to the students' lecture notes, without passing through the brains of either"  -Mark Twain

"The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs iglighting" -Plutarch



Anything worth doing is worth doing, even badly.


Eleanor Duckworth argues that standardized testing is ruining our schools. We must memorize to do well on the tests, Memorization is boring, the leading cause for dropouts in Boston Unified is boredom.  A Chinese teacher focuses primarily on memorization and "laments" the fact that China is ranked so high on the international standardized tests.  Standing ovation.

Reccomended websites for educators by Harvard


Websites for Educators

This collection of links, chosen and maintained by Gutman Library Research Services staff, provides links to freely available sites of interest to educators. Click on a topic to view links to related websites. Please tell us about websites we should consider adding...

Adult Education and Literacy

The Arts

Bilingual Education / ESL

Boston Area Libraries (selected)

Charter Schools

Children's Literature

Colleges and Universities

Comparative/International Education

Counseling and Guidance

Curriculum Resources (K-12)

Distance Education

Early Childhood

Education Administration and Policy

Education Associations, Organizations, and Conferences

Conferences:

Education Journals (Open access)

Education Law

Education Libraries (Selected)

United States:

International:

Education Reform

Educational Technology


Employment Opportunities

ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)

  • ERIC (unrestricted access via the Education Resources Information Center)

Foreign Languages

Gifted and Talented

Grants and Financial Aid

Higher Education

History of Education

Home Schooling

K-12 Schools


Language Arts

Listservs

Massachusetts

Media

Music

Philosophy of Education

Prevention Science and Practice

Psychology

Reading

Reference Resources

Science & Mathematics

Social Studies/Social Sciences

Special Education

Statistical Data

Polls:

Teaching and Pedagogy

Testing, Assessment, Evaluation, and Standards

United States Government


Education books and resourses


The Ultimate Self-Education Reading List: A Bibliography for Lifelong Learning Enthusiasts

If you want to know more about self-education, your best bet is to start reading. Over the years, I’ve kept a list the best self-education books and blogs. Now I’m sharing them in the hopes that you’ll find something new and maybe add a suggestion or two of your own. Use these resources to evaluate your education, find the tools and resources you need, and learn effectively on your own.
If you know of a book or blog that should be added to the list, please leave a comment below. Note that the list is focused primarily on material that discusses adult / teen self-education or learning theories that apply to both children and adults. I left out many worthy homeschooling books because there are already many lists dedicated to that topic.

Theoretical Books on Self-Education
Theory-oriented books examine education as a whole and provide the foundation of understanding that self-education advocates share when they examine issues related to learning. If you’re still developing opinions about the nature of learning and the proper role of educational institutions, this is the place to start.

Deschooling Society (Ivan Illich) – A case for radical changes in the education system, including the disestablishment of traditionally structured schools and the development of more informal “learning webs.”

Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Paulo Freire) – An education critic argues against the theory of “banking,” claiming that a student is more than an empty vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge from a teacher.

Experience and Education (John Dewey) – Dewey contends that experience is vital to education.

How Children Learn (John Holt) – Early unschooling advocate John Holt argues that learning comes naturally and that the best education is often gained outside of the classroom.

How Children Fail (John Holt) – According to the author, “most children in school fail…in fact if not in name.” This book explores the reasons why.

Instead of Education (John Holt) – This self-education classic examines how people learn on their own, outside of traditional schools.

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (John Taylor Gatto) – A former New York State Teacher of the Year takes a look at the dark side of forced education.

A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling (John Taylor Gatto) – A look at some of the problems of compulsory schooling and what it takes for a person to become truly educated.

Practical Books on Self-Education
When you’re ready to embark on your own self-education journey, practical books can help. Whether you want to study the classics, quit school in order to pursue a passion, or publish a scholarly paper, experienced guides can walk you through the basics of learning independently.
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education (Grace Llewellyn) – Thousands of teenagers have turned to this unschooling classic in search of guidance. Former teacher Llewellyn’s advice is aimed at teenagers but is invaluable to anyone interested in self-education.

The Art of Learning (Josh Waitzkin) – A chess champion and martial arts master shares his insights on how to learn effectively.

Self-University (Charles D. Hayes) – An in-depth autodidactic guide to giving yourself an education in all of the major disciplines.

The Independent Scholar’s Handbook (Ronald Gross) – A practical guide for self-educated learners wanting to become recognized experts without connections to academic institutions.

The Well-Educated Mind (Susan Wise Bauer) – Step-by-step directions on how to give yourself a classical education.

Self-Education Idea Blogs
Four years ago I felt rather alone. Now, a small but growing army of self-education bloggers has begun to form. Find out more about lifelong learning from conscious drop-outs, former teachers, and learning-oriented psychologists.

The Feeling of Thinking – A Psychology Today blog by successful high school drop-out and author of Buccaneer-Scholar James Bach.

The Art of Self-Education – Lifelong learning enthusiast Race Bannon shares the self-education tips he picked up from experience with dozens of exciting careers.

Wide Awake Minds – Ryan McCarl, a graduate student studying education, blogs about his thoughts on teaching, learning, and self-education.

Freedom to Learn – A Psychology Today blog about the importance of play in learning from psychology professor Peter Gray.

Buccaneer Scholar – James Bach’s personal blog about his experiences with self-education.

LiteMind – A unique blog from Luciano Passuello examines the most effective ways to use your mind.

Self-Education Resource Blogs

 The internet is home to millions of educational resources, if you just know where to look. Resource blogs can help you find the best no-cost courses, websites, and learning materials.

ZaidLearn – Hundreds of lifelong learning resources, tools, and tips from e-learning manager Zaid Alsagoff.

Mission to Learn – Lifelong learning advocate Jeff Cobbs shares his education resource finds (Also, check out his packed learning resource newsletter).

Open Culture – A popular blog covering free, open-access learning material from editor Dan Colman.


From Amazon on Pedagogy  

Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World (4th Edition) by Joan Wink (Aug 7

Critical Pedagogy Primer (Peter Lang Primer) by Joe L. Kincheloe (Feb 6, 20

The Critical Pedagogy Reader: Second Edition by Antonia Darder, Marta P. Baltodano and Rodolfo D. Torres (Jul 20, 2008)

 

On Critical Pedagogy (Critical Pedagogy Today) by Henry A. Gir

 

 

 

 

 

 

























































Where Does Reform Start? Is it as Easy as it Looks? A illustrative Look at the Issue.

Here is a final project from my friend Ayelet that visualizes the blame game often played in the education system.
From Students, to teachers, to principals, to communities, to congress.  Where does the healing begin?
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news-impact/2012/01/lessons-learned-a326-final-project/

Blow it up.  I think we need to start from the outside in.  The only reason a public Education system is in place is to bestow the values of America on Americans.  Start at the values and work in.