Innovation

edCircuit conducts a Skype interview with Michelle Herczog, president of the National Council for the Social Studies.  Herczog talks about the importance of this subject area, the latest NAEP results in social studies, and the C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards. 

by Issie LapowskiSO YOU’RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend’s neighbor’s sister. It’s prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools—with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning—just aren’t cutting it.At the same time, you’re thinking: this school is kind of weird.Read the rest of the story at Wired.

T he Foundation for Excellence in Education, also known as ExcelinEd, released its annual Digital Learning Report Card today. Digital Learning Now, an initiative of ExcelinEd, bases the report card on “Ten Elements of High-Quality Digital Learning” that identify specific policies and issues states need to pursue regarding digital learning. Included in these elements are student eligibility, student access, personalized learning, advancement, quality content and instruction, choice, assessment, funding and delivery. The Digital Learning Report Card examines what states are doing to advance digital learning by gauging 42 actionable metrics related to these elements.This 2014 report assigns a letter grade to each state based on those metrics. The states of Florida and Utah each received an “A” grade. Fifty percent of the states improved their grades overall, and nine states improved from their previous “F” grades. The report cites overall progress nationwide, but also acknowledges that states have been busy at work implementing the more than 400 digital learning laws enacted in the past four years.In addition to the grades, the report examines related issues such as data privacy, course access and E-rate, and summarizes major state policy initiatives related to digital learning.The Foundation for Excellence in Education was founded in 2009 by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. The Digital Learning Council, which created the Ten Elements cited above, was convened a year later and co-chaired by Jeb Bush and former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise.You can read the entire 2014 Digital Learning Report Card here.

by Mike Anderson

D r. Jenny Rankin illustrates why data used with high-stakes consequences should always be made “over-the-counter” (embedding guidance for users) to best ensure the data is understood, analyzed appropriately, and used effectively. Look for an upcoming op-ed from Dr. Rankin on edCircuit.

Districts rejuvenate specialized, themed programs to promote student success by Mackenzie Ryan A t Nashville’s Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School, a female student distressed by the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, wrote rap lyrics that became the song “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.”With the help of her teachers and classmates—and Pearl-Cohn’s recording studio—the student, Queen McElrath, starred in a music video that has since been viewed 124,000 times on the school’s YouTube channel. In a television-style interview with another student, McElrath says: “I decided to write this song so that we could unite, so that young people could have a voice.”Read the rest of the story at District Administration.

Sir Ken Robinson joins “CBS This Morning” to discuss his new book, “Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education.”

by Robert Morris

Lord James Knight, formerly the Minister for Education in England and current Managing Director of Online Learning at TSL Education, took time to answer questions about the state of online and blended learning in education across the globe. Lord Knight’s response to my last question about the future and expanse of online learning speaks,