Education Week - January 10, 2018 - 1

10
BIG
Ideas
PRESIDENT & CEO

Michele J. Givens
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER

Scott Montgomery
MANAGING EDITOR

Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

Stacey Decker
EXECUTIVE PROJECT EDITOR

Elizabeth Rich
DEPUTY PROJECT EDITORS

Mary Hendrie, Kate Stoltzfus
CONTRIBUTING PROJECT EDITOR

Karen Diegmueller
STAFF WRITERS

Evie Blad
Ben Herold
Liana Loewus
Stephen Sawchuk
Sarah D. Sparks
Lisa Stark
Kate Stoltzfus
Francisco Vara-Orta
Madeline Will
COMMENTARY ASSISTANT

Hannah Sarisohn
CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Laura Baker
ART DIRECTOR

Gina Tomko
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR, PROJECT LEAD

Vanessa Solis
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Charles Borst
PHOTO INTERN

Paula Ospina
SENIOR ONLINE NEWS PRODUCER

Michael Bock

EDITOR'S NOTE

BY ELIZABETH RICH

Who's Shaking Up the Schoolhouse?

elcome to Education Week's
inaugural issue of "10 Big Ideas
in Education." Part opinion
writing, part conversation,
and part journalism analysis,
this special report explores game-changing
disruptions to the field of education that have
the potential to shake up the schoolhouse and
the classroom.
There is an impressive cohort behind these
ideas: researchers, educators, scientists, and
advocates-some of whom might be well
known to readers, others less familiar. They all
have this in common: They are on the hunt to
solve some of schooling's biggest challenges.
And most school districts today face a number
of them-some as old as public schooling
itself; others presenting a new and growing
sense of urgency.
In Big Idea No. 1, best-selling authors
(and brothers) Chip and Dan Heath argue
that "peak moments" capture "delight,"
offering "a different kind of learning that
sticks with students and motivates them to
succeed." Educators have the power to create
these moments, which are key to student
engagement, the Heaths explain.
You will also read about two difficult issues
that are taking a heavy toll on schooling:
student homelessness and the opioid epidemic.
Both present a grave threat to the well-being
of young people and their families. While many
school districts-both large and small-are
struggling with how to manage these crises,
two Big Idea authors are finding powerful
ways to fight them. In Big Idea No. 6, educator
Kerry Wrenick writes about her "strategic and
intentional partnership" that helped reduce
student homelessness in her former district by
25 percent. In Big Idea No. 8, Todd Hembree,
attorney general of the Cherokee Nation, details

the effect opioid addiction has had on his
community and the steps it has taken to stem
the flow of these drugs. "We realize that to
successfully battle the opioid epidemic we must
fight it at its source," he writes.
Assessing students, engaging parents,
teaching civics in a politically charged climate,
diversifying the nation's corps of educators,
and preparing for the inevitability of artificial
intelligence are just a few of the other Big Ideas
you'll find discussed inside this special issue.
When we began this project last summer,
we wanted to explore the kinds of innovations
that could make a difference to those on the
frontlines of K-12 education, but we also
wanted to get a sense from educators about
how they hear about trends they consider
worth pursuing in their classrooms.
This fall, the Education Week Research
Center surveyed a nationally representative
sample of more than 500 teachers to find out
not only where they hear about new ideas,
but also if their field of practice, instructional
grade level, or district size has any bearing on
how they learn about them. We also learned
that a teacher's number of years in the
profession can determine how likely he or she
is to use social media as a trusted source for
learning about trends. You'll find these survey
findings inside this report, too.
We hope you'll spend time with all these
Big Ideas to determine if they could have an
impact on the work that you do. Presented
in no particular order, they are meant to stir
conversation or prompt you to think about
your work in a new way. We hope that you'll
find reading the report as interesting as we
did putting it together. And let us know what
you think about any of it by tweeting your
comments using #K12BigIdeas. We look
forward to hearing from you. n

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