Some Inspiration...

I had a few conversations with KIPP administrators this week and can't help but be inspired by their dedication and ingenuity. I know they are in the thick of preparing for the start of the school year, and thought I would share a little bit of their inspiration.

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"We are educating our children out of their creative potential"

I love this TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson--witty and insightful and on the too often neglected but oh so important topic of creativity and education. I watched it a few years ago, and stumbled across it again today in a fit of procrastination. Enjoy!

The Digital Divide: Not just Access but Usage

When I first learned about the digital divide the focus was on access---ensuring that low-income schools had the same access to computers and the internet as higher income schools. This access gap was real and the focus was justified. In 1998 the ratio of students to instructional computers connected to the internet was 17.2 in schools with greater than 50% minority students enrolled and 10.1 in low minority student schools—a very significant gap. But over the last 12 years, as the price of computing has fallen beyond anyone’s expectations and with federal programs like ERate, the in-school access divide has all but disappeared. A study by Gray and Lewis (2009) showed that high schools with student populations of more than 20 percent at or beneath the poverty level have just below the amount of access to online district resources (90 percent compared to 94 percent) of higher SES schools as well as access to course management and delivery software (58 percent compared to 59 per...

"I think we are in a street fight and most people in this room think we're in a college debate." Howard Fuller, NewSchool Venture Fund 2012 Summit

This discussion between Howard Fuller and Jonathan Schorr is from the opening session of this year's NewSchool Venture Fund Summit. It's inspiring and funny. If you don't have time to watch the whole video, check-out the below highlights: 6:50: Howard Fuller: "I think we are in a street fight and I think most people in this room think we're in a college debate. Our opponents are reading Saul Alinsky and we reading Steven Brill." 12:25: Howard Fuller: "There's a small group of people in the circle who are going to storm the bastille. There's another group of people around the circle of the people who are stroring the bastille who are going to hold the coats. They not storming the bastille but they are holding the coats. There's another group around them that are going to cheer for the coat holders; they're not holding the coats, they're not storming the bastille, but they are going to cheer. You feelin me? We got t...

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