Mindworkers

Charlet T. Kerchner / MindWorkers

Exhibition Night at High Tech High

For an interesting evening, a feel-good experience, and a lesson in what schools can be, spend an evening looking at exhibits of student work at High Tech High in San Diego. I saw scores of well crafted examples of what high school students can do, some of which were highly sophisticated.  The HTH students were […]

The L.A. Compact: Increasing Civic Capacity

In a Huffington Post piece today, I lauded the new L.A. Compact as a sensible and hopeful way to engage the city in support of its schools.  The Compact is modeled after the Boston Compact, that drew together the business community, the schools, and the city government in that city for more than two decades. […]

New Pictures in The Gallery

In addition to occasional thoughts about education, I dabble in photography.  A few from 2009 are posted in the Gallery (see link above). Enjoy. FYI/ You will not find pictures of the kids, grandchildren, Christmas tree, or other family related photographs here.  It’s a photo gallery; not a public family album. Next up in gallery […]

Mel Smith

Mel Smith died this week at 97.  He was my surrogate father, the go-to elder in my life, the model of a public servant, and a Christian gentlemen.  His warm smile, ready handshake, and sunny disposition triumphed in a life that could have been surrendered to grousing about bureaucracy and personal tragedy. Mel passed out […]

‘Distrupting Class’, The Internet, and the End of Batch Processing

Disrupting Class is a most provocative book, in part for its bold prediction that by the end of the decade half of high school classes will be taught with via computers and smart software. If the authors are even half right, the change will be sweeping. But the book should not be read as a text […]

Flap of the Week: Close Schools, Fire Teachers

President Obama has joined the fray over firing teachers in an underperforming Rhode Island high school. It’s time to get beyond the controversy and start designing better teacher evaluation systems, tenure rules, and teacher professional development techniques.

About

Charles Taylor Kerchner is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Claremont Graduate University. My daily musings appear in the blog. The archives of my EdWeek blog are available via link under the 'On California' head. Some of my photography can be seen by clicking on 'Gallery.' And numerous links to academic work and other research and commentary can be found by clicking on 'Projects.'

Search

Subscribe to my Blog

Archives

Blogs I Read