Middle College National Consortium

This is a really great informative NED Talk video about how the teenage brain works. 

In innovative urban schools, educators work together to find solutions to the perennial problem of getting struggling students to do homework.

The truth about how to create sustainable conditions for powerful teaching and learning is bred in the bones of schools rather than the brains of researchers or policy-makers. Motivated by this belief, new and restructuring schools that aim to incorporate the CES Common Principles forge connections with other Coalition schools. They rely on each other for support, mutual learning, and perspective.

How can all staff help students become better writers? (It may take a while to load but well worth the wait)

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing to inspire millions. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, the book becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. The narrator's relationship

Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas--business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others--struggle to make their ideas "stick." Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? Educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and

Lesson study is a professional development strategy that developed in Japan. Teachers study a lesson by collaboratively researching a topic and writing a research lesson. 

a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes.

This excerpt from an interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, PLP founder, captures critical points for PD online. "Will and I agreed that we would only work with teams of school-based educators because the research made it clear that it was collaborative teams within in a school, working together, that really brought about sustainable improvement. That would give us what we needed to anchor the virtual experience in a local context. We also wanted participants to experience a global community of practice-to be able to have conversations with people very different than themselves, with fresh perspectives. Our thinking was that if we put teams of educators who had different ideologies, different geography, different purposes and challenges, all together in the same space, then they could each bring what they did well to the table and people could learn from that. Ultimately that would mean public, private, Catholic, and other kinds of schools; educators teaching well-to-do, middle-class, and poor kids; educators in different states and nations, at different grade levels, and in different content areas and roles. What ultimately grew out of our brainstorming was a three-pronged model of professional development that emphasizes (1) local learning communities at the school/district level; (2) an online community of practice that's both global and deep; and (3) a third prong that is more personal-the idea of a personal learning network that each educator develops as a mega-resource for ideas and information about their particular interests and areas of practice. (These three prongs are described in depth in a new book, The Connected Educator, where PLP community leader Lani Ritter Hall and I tell the story of the evolution of our model and the very solid research base behind it.)

"Ineffective use of technology happens because even when given the opportunity- some over burdened teachers shy away from working hard enough to understand how emerging tools can be used for powerful learning. Ineffective use of technology is a teacher problem, a PD problem, a leadership problem, a time problem, a systemic problem, a culture problem - not a computer problem."

Henry Ford Early College's first graduating class.

Announcements about students from Greer Middle College Charter High School.  Scholarship winners, pageant winners, blood drive, and participation in the MCNC Student Conference in California.

Peeragogy seminar all about creating student-directed learning online

By David T. Conley, prepared for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by EPIC (Educational Policy Improvement Center), March 2007. Includes four in comprehensive definition of college readinessGoal is to provide a standard,operational definition of college readiness. (PDF)