Are unconventional learning environments serving special populations?
The pandemic created further opportunity and accelerated a movement toward nontraditional learning environments, such as independent microschools, homeschool cooperatives, and hybrid or virtual schools. Though nationally representative research on this movement is scarce, research reports and media accounts suggest that the number of these learning environments operating outside of public schools is continuing to grow. […]
Intergenerational learning: Proven benefits for both elders and youth
Inevitable demographic shifts are about to create a fast-growing population of skilled older workers: in a decade, adults over age 65 will outnumber children under age 18. At the same time, advances in public health and medicine make it likely that more of those adults will live longer and stay healthy long enough to work […]
Bargaining for the ‘common good’ meets parent pushback in Oakland
Last spring, three weeks before the end of the school year, Oakland teachers walked off their jobs, causing the cancellation of eight days of instruction. The Oakland Education Association charged that the school district was not bargaining in good faith, but both sides had already agreed to the same pay and benefits package that the […]
What will teachers’ union militancy produce? And will it last?
Unionized teachers in Fresno – California’s fourth largest district – are threatening to strike. In addition to pushing for increased pay and better benefits for staff, the Fresno Teachers Association is asking for additional student supports, particularly for homeless families. But those ideas go beyond the teachers contract and shouldn’t be a part of bargaining, […]
Near-peer mentors: Learner guides model success, improve outcomes for younger students
In the U.S. and around the world, young people in the wake of the pandemic are struggling with depression, anxiety, stress and other mental health challenges, and schools are often unable to find enough counselors and support staff. But recent graduates and other young adult mentors trained to coach students may be able to provide […]
Peer pressure, for a purpose: Cooperative learning in Brazil
An unconventional approach Professor Manoel Andrade Neto anxiously scanned the list of students admitted to Brazil’s Federal University of Ceará. He hoped that one student, Toinho, had been prepared enough to qualify. He turned to the last page of the list, where the lowest scorers would appear. Toinho had prepared for the high-stakes exam in […]
How state leaders can stand up for the Covid generation of high schoolers
CRPE director Robin Lake and Travis Pillow, Director of Thought Leadership for Step Up for Students (formerly a senior innovation fellow with CRPE), contributed an essay to this year’s edition of NASBE’s State Education Standard, “Engaging All Students.” With billions of dollars in lost economic activity and untold squandered human potential, COVID-19 threatens to leave an […]
Study: How districts are responding to AI and what it means for the new school year
This piece was originally published in The 74. Districts are responding in divergent ways to artificial intelligence’s potential to reshape teaching and learning, and most have refrained from defining a districtwide stance for schools to navigate AI, according to a review by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University. By searching for district communications […]
New report: How the pandemic battered student engagement, attendance
Students are heading back to school this year under a cloud of discouraging test score declines in reading and math, an alarming widening of race- and income-based achievement gaps, and a sluggish pace of academic recovery. We at the Center on Reinventing Public Education are tracking and reporting on test scores, but we’re also keenly […]
Beyond test scores: Broader academic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on American students
Recent state and national achievement exam results, as well as academic progress reports, have underscored how the Covid-19 pandemic and related school closures had a large, negative impact on students’ reading and math development. But there has been less research conducted on how the pandemic affected other academic measures beyond standardized testing, such as attendance, engagement […]
