Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity in Education
Teach for America (TFA) has paved the way for quality education in the United States. Currently, TFA teachers are impacting more then 750,000 students in 2,600 schools. The woman behind the vision: Wendy Kopp. The idea for TFA was first proposed in Kopp’s undergraduate thesis for Princeton in 1989. TFA aims to “enlist, develop, and mobilize as […]
The Secret to School Transformation: Emotional Plumbing
Nestled inside a bamboo forest, Supo Elementary School was founded in 1917, and for decades was considered the best school in the lush rural outskirts of Chengdu, the mega-city capital of Sichuan province. That’s to say that rural children recited texts under their voices became coarse, and did test questions until their eyes squinted. In […]
It’s Time To Let Teenagers Sleep The Way They Want—And Start School Later
Over the last few weeks, millions of children across the Northern Hemisphere have headed back to school for the beginning of a new school year. Sadly, for many of them, the beginning of the school year also marks the beginning of a prolonged period of cumulative sleep deprivation that will progressively affect their physical and […]
Afghanistan: Bringing Girls (Back) to School
It’s education, not guns that transform a society, says Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, founder and executive director of the Afghan Institute of Learning, an Afghan women-led NGO. On November 4, 2015, Dr. Yacoobi received the 2015 WISE Prize for Education during the 7th World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar. Fondly known as Afghanistan’s mother of […]
The Xingwei Experiment
Xingwei College is a quiet and leafy campus near the bustle and gleam of Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. I visited the four-year private liberal arts college for a week in November, when its lawns glowed under the creamy sky of the Shanghai winter. A stream cut through the flat sprawling campus on its way to the […]
Innovative Solutions to Tackle the Main Challenges of Latin American Education
In this series of articles, Gabriel Sánchez Zinny explores some of the innovative solutions, as well as the major obstacles, that are redefining Latin American education. The School to Work Transition in Latin America Civil Society and the Skills Gap in Latin America How are Corporations Making a Difference in Providing Middle Skills? Three Ways Governments […]
The Pioneer Way: Emotional Scaffolding
Gao Yue is an eighteen-year old from Yinchuan, an oasis town of two million in the northwest deserts of China. He has a large build, and a soft pensive face. He likes to wear black clothes, which contrasts with his pale skin. He can sit hunched in a dark corner somewhere for hours, but when […]
Working Together to Improve Education
“The future success of the South African classroom lies in understanding the issues of interdependency and sustainability – and in having the courage to make innovations possible. This Review is a showcase of a section of the outstanding innovations in the South African Education sector.” (Professor Jonathan Jansen – writer of the Review’s foreword) South Africa spends […]
Giving Fresh Grads a Chance for a Good Life
Imagine trying to find a job as a recent college graduate in the Middle East. Not only would you be looking for a job in one of the most tumultuous regions in the world, in challenging economic times, you will also be competing with millions of other young people graduating from universities. At about 25%, the youth unemployment rate in […]
The Role of Cities: What Works in Scaling Up Innovations to Improve Education Outcomes?
The global education debate has rightly moved from questions of access to a focus on quality and the practical steps that can bring about improvement in learning outcomes. The new UN Sustainable Development Goals are all about quality. Improving learning outcomes is not an easy task. However recent development in several major cities give us […]