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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
High schools that understand their mission to be the preparation of students who can be successful in any environment they choose after leaving high school--especially in pursuit of a college degree--also understand that they need data on how their alumni…
Terrific column by editorial page editor of The Detroit News Nolan Finley entitled Where's the damn money?. Finley writes: Pithy slogans won’t fill a single pothole. Nor will shirking from the reality that the state’s decades-long neglect of its infrastructure can…
Metro Minneapolis has built a diverse economy that is one of the wealthiest of any large metropolitan area in the country and has withstood deep national recessions. Median household income in the Twin Cities of $73,231 was the seventh highest…
Last week a friend forwarded me an article from Slate about the students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School who have emerged as new leaders of a pro-gun control movement. I had remarked that I was struck by their poise,…
Last week I heard a sad but important interview with Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City and now founder of The Eviction Lab, an effort to compile and analyze eviction data nationally.…