Relationships + meaningful work -> engagement -> learning
I’m pleased to refer our readers over to a recent opinion piece by journalism professors Andrea Gabor and Vera Haller at CUNY’s Baruch College in New York on what they learned during the spring’s quick pivot to remote learning. I was struck by what they found worked in remote education: They kept lectures to a […]
Remote Learning Projects at Out-of-School Programs
One thing we have learned as we’ve met with people across the state of Michigan about the need to reform education so that students are learning broad skills (we have adopted the 6Cs as the definition of those skills) is that some of the places naturally designed and driven to foster those skills are youth […]
Imagining, and Reimagining, Education
I’ve been writing recently about both my family’s experience with remote learning this spring, and what’s missing from our preparation for remote learning in the 2020-2021 school year. I hope I’ve made the point that remote learning deserves major investment and innovation, and currently we aren’t seeing that investment. Some districts are planning to open […]
Where is our national task force on remote learning?
This morning I woke up sure that my kids should go back to school when it reopens in just over a month. Knowing their school is planning outdoor classrooms helps diminish my fear somewhat, so that the risk we’d be knowingly undertaking might be worth the benefits: my kids need to be around other kids, […]
What are the first principles of quality remote learning during a pandemic?
It’s hard to sit down to write today about what would make for good remote learning, when my brain wanders to the question everyone is writing—and meme’ing—about, which is whether or not schools can safely reopen for in-person learning. The safety of students and staff is obviously paramount. But it would certainly be easier to […]
We won’t ever know how much the opportunity gap grew during covid because we don’t measure the right outcomes
Last week, I shared observations of my children and their learning during the surprise homeschooling months of the coronavirus pandemic. Now it’s time to overlay an important lens on that experience: my kids are living in almost the best version of what homeschooling during a pandemic can look like. My husband and I kept our […]
What did we learn about distance learning this spring?
It now seems certain that the coronavirus pandemic will be with us well into the 2020-2021 school year, or beyond. While some school districts are starting to release plans, many of these plans still feature large “wait and see” or “depending on directives from the health department” components. But it seems increasingly likely that distance […]
Let’s make rising income for all Michiganders a statewide priority
For the past year, Michigan Future has collaborated with a group of economic and community development leaders from around the state. Together, this collaborative released a “Rising Income for All” call to action on March 8, 2020, accompanied by the release of a website, risingincomeforall.org. In addition, we are sending this call to action to political […]
Report from “Outsmarting the Robots”: Part 2
Last week I wrote about “Outsmarting the Robots: Redesigning education from the classroom to the halls of Lansing,” an event we co-hosted in October with a number of great partners in Grand Rapids. (Click here for that part 1). Today I want to share a little more about the day. I already told you about […]
Report from “Outsmarting the Robots”: Part 1
On October 21, Michigan Future co-hosted a convening in downtown Grand Rapids for 60 community leaders called Outsmarting the Robots: Redesigning education from the classroom to the halls of Lansing. The goals of this half-day event were: To help catalyze a transformation in youth-serving organizations, including schools, in and around west Michigan, such that those […]