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 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Charles Borst PHOTO INTERN Paula Ospina SENIOR ONLINE NEWS PRODUCER Michael Bock EDITOR'S NOTE BY ELIZABETH RICH Who's Shaking Up the Schoolhouse? W 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 DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION Jo Arnone ASSOCIATE ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Joslyn Nedeau Readers may make up to five print copies of this publication at no cost for personal, noncommercial use, provided that each includes a full citation of the source. Visit www.edweek.org/go/copies for information about additional print photocopies. ADVERTISING: For information about Education Week's print/online advertising, content marketing services, lead generation, and/or custom live events, please contact Managing Director of Advertising Ben Delaney-Winn at bdelaneywinn@epe.org. Copyright © 2017 by Editorial Projects in Education Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder. EDUCATION WEEK (ISSN 0277-4232) is published 37 times per year: weekly except 11/22, 12/6, 12/20, 12/27/2017, and 1/3, 1/31, 3/14, 4/4, 6/27, 7/4, 7/11, 7/25, 8/1, 8/8, and 8/15/2018 by Editorial Projects in Education Inc., offices located at 6935 Arlington Rd., Suite 100, Bethesda, MD 20814-5287; (301) 280-3100. Subscriptions: U.S.: $129 for one year (37 issues). Canada: $197. Foreign: $237. Orders must be paid in U.S. dollars. Periodicals postage paid at Bethesda, Md., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EDUCATION WEEK, PO Box 3005, Langhorne, PA 19047. Vol. 37, Issue 16. Education Week is a registered trademark of Editorial Projects in Education Inc. Copyright © 2017 by Editorial Projects in Education Inc. All rights reserved. 10 Big Ideas / www.edweek.org/go/bigideas | 1