21st Century Scholar

by David Dwyer If you have followed the blog this week, you’ll know that I’ve described the Millennial end-users who fill our schools today; confronted their context of global uncertainty; and projected learning goals for them that commission after commission have stated will stand them in good stead in the decades ahead. How must schools [...]

by David Dwyer For the past three days, I’ve shared views and data about the Millennials. They are the end users of our schools; they, not the institution of schooling should be our primary concern. While ambitious, I noted that only a small percentage of Millennials seem to have amassed the skills and knowledge that [...]

by David Dwyer I’ve shared two views of the millennial students who fill our classrooms: one portrayed them as optimistic, ambitious, and civil minded; the other showed a more somber side, an academic record that shows them floundering in and dropping out of our high schools. Why the discrepancy? First, a growing number of our [...]

by David Dwyer Yesterday, I shared a portrait of the Millennial generation, a group that has high expectations for themselves and for whom we might hold high expectations as well. The issue today is that there is a troubling discrepancy between that “next great generation” image and the Millennial’s track record in education thus far. [...]

by David Dwyer, Ph.D. Research Professor & Katzman-Ernst Chair in Educational Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Innovation Dr. Tierney asked that I do a guest spot for CHEPA’s blog and I jumped at the chance to share some ideas – passions, really – and hopefully hear back from CHEPA’s community. I’ve entitled my blog series: End-User Design, [...]

Last week, the President and Secretary of Education announced a plan to accelerate reform and innovation. President Obama stated that “[t]his competition will not be based on politics or ideology or the preferences of a particular interest group. Instead, it will be based on a simple principle: whether a state is ready to do what [...]

Public school systems are notoriously lame and unimaginative. Think of the connotations that arise in most when considering NCLB. The law supports a focus on academic achievement and high-stakes testing. It does not prescribe a lot. Yet, states and districts have, in general, focused on prefabricated, uniform curriculums and high-stakes testing, while sweeping over the [...]

Any child of the 80′s knows the Smurfs, small, blue mythical creatures with an outlandish male to female ratio. Episodes followed similar plot arcs: Gargamel, an evil, often bungling wizard, tried to capture and destroy the Smurfs. The Smurfs inevitably thwarted the plot, either purposefully or accidentally, and prevailed. Exchange Gargamel with every reform maker [...]

Timing may not be everything, but it sure makes a difference.  Carl Schramm wrote this book in 2006.  I suspect – hope – that he would write a more reasoned book given the problems the economy currently faces. This is less a book than a cheerleading manual for entrepreneurialism.  He starts right off claiming that [...]