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4 Ways to Improve Parent Involvement in K-12 Learning

By Matthew Lynch Students benefit when there are parent-school partnerships surrounding their school work. However, it is not always easy to promote such a culture of shared responsibility, especially given the great time demands placed on parents and teachers today. Schools may face difficulty in attaining an efficient collaborative framework among stakeholders, which include teachers, parents, students, the community, and the administration.  Trust between schools and parents, in particular, is vital for creating a healthy learning environment. So what can be done to foster stronger relationships between parents and teachers, administrators and whole schools? 1. Encourage collaboration. In general, parents …

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Social Constructivism in Education

According to the theory of social constructivism, social worlds develop out of individuals’ interactions with their culture and society. Knowledge evolves through the process of social negotiation and evaluation of the viability of individual understanding. Basically, every conversation or encounter between two or more people presents an opportunity for new knowledge to be obtained, or present knowledge expanded. The exchange of ideas that goes along with human contact is at play here. In order to apply social constructivism theories in the education arena, teachers and school leaders need to shift and reshape their perspectives. Both must move from being “people …

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3 Reasons Kids Should Spend More Time in School

In the past, I’ve advocated for K-12 schools to abandon the traditional summers-off school calendar and switch to a year-round one. There are many benefits to year-round schooling—including consistency, less time spent relearning material, and the implications that year-round schooling has for closing the achievement gap. But there’s another piece to the puzzle that deserves a closer look. Here are three reasons kids should spend more time in school. We have too much time off, anyway. Let’s look at where American schools rank right now when it comes to days in school versus time off. Thirty states require schools to …

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Why the K-12 Blame Game Benefits No One

By Matthew Lynch With skyrocketing costs, budget crises, inconsistent curricula, poor standardized testing scores, and poor morale among teachers, administrators, and students, the need for sustainable and pervasive educational change is greater now than ever before. The number of questions related to the quality of the U.S. educational system from multiple sectors of society is at an all-time high. Many American parents have seen reports that American schools rank well below schools in countries such as China and Japan, or have heard President Obama declare a “dropout crisis.” An abundance of news reports and discouraging case studies has created panic …

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Why The US Education System is Failing: Part IV

In thinking about the future of education in this great nation, we are inspired by innovation and simultaneously dejected by the slow implementation in many K-12 educational settings. While colleges and universities seem to implement new practices, policies and technologies at a fast pace, K-12 institutions are relatively sluggish. This is not only a disservice to students, but also problematic for the economy at large. Better access to top-notch education starts before Kindergarten – not after a high school diploma has been earned. In the final part of my series, I continue to examine the problems hindering the US education …

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Playing the Blame Game

With skyrocketing costs, budget crises, inconsistent curricula, poor standardized testing scores, and poor morale among teachers, administrators, and students, the need for sustainable and pervasive educational change is greater now than ever before. The numbers of questions related to the quality of the U.S. educational system from multiple sectors of society is at an all-time high. Many American parents have seen reports that American schools rank well below schools in countries such as China and Japan, or have heard President Obama declare a “dropout crisis” in the USA. An abundance of news reports and discouraging case studies has created panic …

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Designer Learning Experiences: Bridging the Gap for Low-Income and Minority Students

The number of minority students outweighs the number of white students—yet underrepresented minorities still often face a worse quality education than their white counterparts. It’s prime time to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population, and fortunately, as a society, we are actively looking for ways to do just that. As of 2014, minorities have been projected to be over 50 percent of the K-12 student population, according to the U.S. Education Department’s Nation Center for Education Statistics. In the fall of 2014, about 49.8 million students attended public elementary and secondary schools. Of these students, 35.1 million were …

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3 Questions We Should Ask About Preschool

President Obama has been vocal about his belief that a publicly-funded universal preschool initiative is necessary to give American children an academic advantage before ever setting foot in a Kindergarten classroom. A poll conducted by the bipartisan team of Hart Research and Public Opinion Strategies found that 70 percent of respondents were in full support of a universal preschool plan as long as it did not contribute to the national deficit. Sixty percent of the Republicans polled supported the plan, despite its close ties with the Democratic Chief. It is clear that average Americans, despite party affiliation, are supportive of …

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Why The US Education System is Failing: Part III

Public education in America is a paradox in the global perspective, a system that congratulates itself from within while failing to measure up to the achievements of other developed nations. It is not what is being taught in the American K-12 public school system that is so detrimental, either. It is more about what is missing. Larger cultural influences that focus on materialism and bottom lines undermine the public education of American K-12 students. Our students are prepped more for tangible results and less for a lifetime of learning. Part III of my series will continue to chronicle the problems …

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Wasted Data: Student Information Should be Shared

It’s no secret that technology implementation in P-12 schools comes with some serious red tape. While American colleges and universities tend to be at the forefront of innovative ways of learning, childhood education lags seriously behind. A recent PBS study found that while 90 percent of P-12 classrooms have at least one computer, only 35 percent have tablets or electronic readers. The amount of policy writing that goes into allowing “new” technology like tablets, let alone the budget for them, makes it prohibitive for most schools to implement the equipment in reasonable time frames. But what about technology that already …

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