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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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...

"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!

How to Get (everyone) to Sesame Street

Sesame Street was created to help prepare young children, especially children from low-income areas, for school. The show would help low SES students catch-up by giving them access to basic literacy and math skills. Or so it was intended. What actually ended up happening was something referred to by Attewell & Battle (1999) as the “Sesame Street Effect.” Low-income students did improve academically as a result of watching the program. Their rate of improvement, however, was significantly less than their higher SES peers. Thus instead of “catching-up,” lower SES students were left further behind. A technology intended to be an equalizer, ended up increasing the achievement gap. “The Sesame Street Effect” is in on the forefront of my mind when it comes to technological innovation in education. The problem was not the technology. Sesame Street was a brilliant concept that really did help kids learn. The issue was that higher SES and lower SES children engaged with the...

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