The Global Search for Education: Change Leader
Oct25

The Global Search for Education: Change Leader

 “The way to improve the quality of teaching is through teamwork in the schools, and then surround it with better teacher pre-service, better attraction of the profession, and better professional development.” — Michael Fullan  Michael Fullan has been working to identify the right drivers for whole system education reform.  His paper, “Choosing the Wrong Drivers for Whole System Reform,” has...

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The Global Search for Education: More From India
Oct04

The Global Search for Education: More From India

 “The challenges India faces are also an opportunity to move away from the two centuries oldmodel of schooling.”   Photo courtesy of  Murali Srinivasan.  Is there a future for a US – India partnership in education? In his remarks at the recent Brookings Institute conference in Washington, Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns commented, “We are counting on India’s rise, not just as an economic...

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Bad Education System — What’s the Real Cost?
Sep15

Bad Education System — What’s the Real Cost?

Investment in education is investment in people and in a nation’s future.  And it is also about money! “The cost to individuals and society of young people leaving school without a qualification keeps rising,” stated OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría in connection with the OECD’s annual Education at a Glance report. According to this report, the global economic crisis has proved much tougher for people...

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The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System
Sep13

The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System

 “70% of the variation in student achievement is accounted for by factors outside of the control of schools.” —  Charles Ungerleider  Professor Charles Ungerleider tells me he wrote his book, Failing Our Kids — How we are Ruining Our Public Schools (McClelland & Stewart, 2004), after he completed a term as Deputy Minister of Education for British Columbia.  For 40 years he had observed the Canadian...

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The Global Search for Education: More Focus on Change
Aug16

The Global Search for Education: More Focus on Change

 Early Steps to School Success, Save the Children US Programs  photo: Rick D’Elia  “I saw crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children alike.”  — President Barack Obama, 2008 Change is painful.  Change takes time.  Change is trial and error, but isn’t change ultimately brought about by leadership which has the ability to rally all the policy makers around the...

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