Over the last two months, for the @TeachLabPodcast, I've had a great series of conversations with teachers, school leaders, and researchers about Subtraction in Action: making schools simpler so we can focus on the most important things. Here's a bit of what we learned: 1/10 With @jal_mehta, we start by discussing how I used to drive my mom crazy around this time of year by jamming every light and ornament we owned on our Christmas Tree, and how schools a little too much like a overdecorated tree:

teachlabpodcast.com/episodes/intro… 2/10

We asked nearly 200 teachers to interview their (~4000) students about this past year and their hopes for next year. Then, we asked them what they planned to do differently next year as a result. This is some of what they said: 🧵 "All students were proud of something. I need to make more space for students to share what they are proud of."

We had over 150 teachers interview their students about pandemic learning and what should happen next year, and then report back. Here's what students said: 🧵 “We’re still doing school”

There has been lots of discussion about camera-required versus camera-optional in class, but I don't think I've seen an analysis yet that looks at how virtual backgrounds can be yet another marker of social status. 1/ #failuretodisrupt Paul Attewell proposed that the digital divide had two parts, access and usage, and even when we close gaps in access, there can still be differences in opportunities between more and less affluent students. People often hope edtech closes gaps, but it more often opens them 2/

I've got free #FailureToDisrupt online book talks every day this week. Check out failuretodisrupt.com for updates. Here's the week: Virtual book club starts this Monday 3pm ET w/ @audreywatters and @hypervisible discussing the Intro chapter, reg at failuretodisrupt.com/virtualbookclub. 1/4 On Tues (3:30pm ET), we'll look at how the history explored in #FailureToDisrupt helps us think through the current pandemic challenges with @thomasdaccord and my good friends at @EdTechTeacher21. Reg here: eventbrite.com/e/what-the-his… (all these reg's get you the video after) 2/4

Tomorrow is publication day for #FailureToDisrupt from @Harvard_Press! Find bookseller links and reviews at failuretodisrupt.com. You can also sign up to join our free 10-week book club, starting Sept 21 at 3pm ET, recorded or live. We have great guests including... Discussing the introduction and framing the conversation, we have @hypervisible and @audreywatters. Then Part I of the book addresses three "genres" of learning at scale... (Sign up at failuretodisrupt.com/virtualbookclub) #failuretodisrupt

EdTech history is so important, because some ideas repeat over and over. "Video lectures are the new textbook" 9/9/2020 from @mattyglesias in @voxdotcom & circa 1913 from Thomas Edison. But here's what's striking about this argument in the current moment... #failuretodisrupt The claim is that if we build really good online microeconomics courses, then everyone will use them and education will be better. That was the 2012 MOOC argument, one of the 3 big bets of MOOCs...#failuretodisrupt

Does anyone else think the new Taylor Swift album sounds a lot like the Indigo Girls? Very early 90s hanging out with girls at summer camp after the campers go to sleep... I think there are notes of Sarah McLachlan, too, on the breathy songs with the minimalist techno beats in the back. Seriously... we would rocked this hard in the 90s, by which I mean we would have played it while cuddling in an empty cabin on a night off.

We interviewed 40 teachers across the country in April and May understand their experiences of remote teaching. New Report: What's Lost, What's Left, What's Next: Lessons Learned from the Lived Experiences of Teachers during the 2020 Pandemic: edarxiv.org/8exp9/. 1/20 We heard three themes over and over. First, supporting student motivation at a distance is HARD. Second, teachers feel a deep sense of professional loss; like a surgeon injuring her fingers. Third, the intensification of social inequalities is hard to bear. 2/20

Educators, I have a question. To me, it seems obvious that standards-aligned, academic learning will be lower than typical next year. Hybrid learning, pandemic, recession, eviction--we'll all do our best, but these obstacles won't be fully overcome. How should we discuss this? To me, this prediction is about to become an obvious fact, and we should acknowledge it as such. How should we strategically, reduce curriculum? (To me, the answer is fewer topics, investigated more deeply). Let's plan now for a more realistic scope. But

*Imagining September*: Two New Reports with @jal_mehta on Using Participatory Design to Reopen Schools. #1: Principles & Design Elements for Ambitious Schools edarxiv.org/gqa2w #2: Guidance for Online Design w/ Students and Stakeholders edarxiv.org/ufr4q 1/x Reopening schools will be an all-hands effort requiring commitment and creativity from everyone in a school community: students, families, educators, school leaders, & more. Including these voices in planning will generate better ideas and more buy-in for reopening. 2/x

THIS. WHOLE. THREAD. From a HS English teacher, the best ed policy idea of the summer! *Have policymakers and school opening advocates open demonstration schools ASAP* Read Jen, then come back here.

https://twitter.com/JenRoberts1/status/1278115809382895616

1/ I take Jen Roberts thread as a bit of a dare, but I think policymakers should absolutely take her up on the challenge. We don't need any more policy guidance or white papers; we need functioning, operating schools that demonstrate these principles. 2/

New study in @PNASNews on MOOC persistence- 2.5 years, 3 institutions (@harvard, @mit, @stanford), 250 courses, over *250,000* participants. New insights on scale, global achievement gaps, open science, & personalization. A Thread 1/ pnas.org/content/early/… (@whynotyet, @emyeom) Five years ago, I met a postdoc at Harvard, @emyeom, interested in behavioral science. We decided to try out a planning prompt in a few MOOCs. The planning prompt is pretty straightforward-- in a precourse survey, we ask folks to think through how they will complete the course 2/

Over the last year, my colleagues at @mit_tsl have been building a suite of online resources about Becoming a More Equitable Educator. We have a MOOC, short classroom videos, readings, digital simulations, activities, podcast episodes and more. A Thread. edx.org/course/becomin… We are very fortunate to partner with the great @MilnerHRich from @vupeabody. His book Start Where You Are But Don't Stay There and his framing of Opportunity Centered Teaching are at the sweet spot between deeply researched and widely accessible. hepg.org/hep-home/books…

Do you love good educational science? Frustrated by p-hacking? Ready to read more null results? Behold: the new @AeraOpen Special Topic on Registered Reports! journals.sagepub.com/page/ero/colle… 1/20 Registered reports are a new publishing format where authors submit a "Phase I" manuscript for peer review. The Phase I manuscript includes a background section and study design, including pre-specified hypotheses and analysis plans. 2/

Weird fact about me: I used to run a search and rescue group, so I have some background in emergency management. Here's one useful thing that I learned that applies to the challenges schools are facing 1/

https://twitter.com/educationweek/status/1253805974714023940

In the 1970s, firefighters in California developed an emergency management system to battle giant wildfires that spread over multiple jurisdictions. It is now known as the incident command system, and it's used to manage all kinds of emergencies. 2/

Hi education reporter/researcher friends! I have a reminder for you: there are often big gaps between declared policy and what actually happens in schools. Here's one version of that reminder from our recent report on state guidance. edarxiv.org/437e2 1/5 Schools are "loosely coupled" systems... the military is a tightly coupled system--generals tell privates to cut their hair to a certain length and it generally happens. In schools, policy differences don't always lead to real changes in practice. Teachers have agency. 2/5

Some good ideas in this @nytimes editorial, but also a missing one: strategically reduce standards. Educational attainment is a combination of status marker and meaningful skill development...

nytimes.com/2020/04/16/opi… To some extent, the scope of standards is just to sort, rank, laud, and fail students. They are-to some extent-arbitrary, and there are responsible ways to reduce them. Our education systems can't do as much in a pandemic & global recession. We could try to do fewer things well.

This Thursday, 3pm ET

Webinar: Remote Learning Guidance from State Education Agencies: A First Look

Free Registration: mit.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

We'll discuss our study of guidance from all 50 states about remote learning during extended closures. Here's a preview 1/ We read the online guidance from all 50 state education agencies: web pages, sample schedules, video messages from commissioners, as much as we could find. We published a summary report at edarxiv.org/437e2 and our underlying data at bit.ly/StateEdCOVID 2/

NEW REPORT from @mit_tsl : Remote Learning Guidance from State Education Agencies in the #COVID19 Pandemic. We reviewed recommendations for schools from all 50 states. Here's what we found... tsl.mit.edu/covid19/ 1/ We published three things: 1) a report summarizing recommendations and findings: edarxiv.org/437e2/, 2) an open data set with all of our data: bit.ly/StateEdCOVID, and 3) a interactive map with links to guidance from all 50 states 2/

Massachusetts Dept of Ed has published a good set of recommendations for remote learning in #COVID19. Unions, school committees, supts, and charters signed on. It's got three big ideas... doe.mass.edu/sfs/emergencyp… 1/ #mapoli First, care for students. Prioritize keeping students fed and sheltered, supporting emotional needs and mental health, and attending to the most vulnerable students. 2/