Features Education

Balloons, deflated balloons and rocks. These are the three types of people in an organization, says Joe Phillips. “Since the direction you’re always trying to go is up, you want people who are balloons,” he says. “You want employees who are aligned with the overall vision and actively working toward the upward push.” Deflated balloons, […]

In 1985, Jose Miguel Piquer helped make history: He was part of a team that sent the first email in Chile—between the University of Chile (where he was then a student) and the University of Santiago. The pithy but witty message? “If this arrives, let’s open a bottle of champagne.” It did in fact arrive, and […]

Built in 1769 of native stone and timber and set amidst the quintessential New England backdrop of craggy apple trees and rambling stone walls, the Dutch Colonial house was where poet Robert Frost lived for nearly a decade prior to the Great Depression—and where he penned one of his most famous works, “Stopping by Woods […]

On his first day of work, John Martin, the director of technology and innovation at the Inter-Lakes School District in New Hampshire, came out swinging—literally. Sledgehammer in hand, Martin (and his team) busted down the walls and gutted the technology department space previously described as “the rat’s maze.” The message he sent and the sign […]

You’re a single parent living in rural Georgia. Like many people in similar circumstances, you’re strapped for cash and a college degree is your ticket out of poverty. But driving an hour or two for classes several times a week? And paying for child care while you make the trips? Out of the question. Never […]

On a Wednesday morning in mid-September, a car carrying four high-school students pulls into the parking lot of a mall in Chesterfield, Missouri. Within a few minutes, three more cars arrive. There are 10 students in total, mostly juniors and seniors, all eager for the day ahead. Once inside the mall, they thread through the […]

In Florida, end-of-year grades can be just as nerve-wracking for schools as they are for the students. Each spring, districts throughout the state are given an accountability report, complete with letter grades for every school. Available to the public, these reports can make or break a system’s reputation—and future funding. So when Joe Amato arrived […]

Once a week beginning around 6 a.m., scales, chord progressions and simple ditties emanate from one of the music rooms at White Oak High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina. As Onslow County School District has a robust music program, this is to be expected. What isn’t expected, though, is that local students aren’t creating that […]

By any ethnic or socio-economic standard, California State University East Bay is among the most diverse campuses anywhere. The most in the Golden State, at least in 2015, according to The Chronicles of Higher Education’s Almanac. That’s as much a source of pride as it is a challenge, reminds Chief Information Officer Jake Hornsby, who […]

Budgets permitting, adopting a 1:1 policy seems like a no-brainer. Not only do such measures improve classroom engagement; they can have a democratizing effect by assuring that students from disparate socioeconomic backgrounds have the same personal devices as their classmates. There are caveats, of course. Laptops get lost. They break. Some might even be stolen. […]