Innovation in Education

Barnett Berry is founder and president of the Center for Teaching Quality, based in North Carolina—a nonprofit that seeks to dramatically improve student achievement nationwide by conducting timely research, crafting intelligent policy, and cultivating teacher leadership. A former high school teacher, Berry founded CTQ in 1999. Teachers College Press has published Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools—Now and in the Future by Berry and a large set of teacher contributors.

Ray Pecheone is the Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Assessment Learning and Equity (SCALE). He has worked in the area of assessment in several capacities. He co-founded the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), which is housed at the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). He co-developed one of the first performance assessments for principal licensure called, the Connecticut Administrator Test (CAT).

Katherine Merseth is Senior Lecturer and Director of Teacher Education Programs at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In the recently published book, Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools, Merseth and her co-authors raise provocative questions about the purpose of K–12 schooling in the twenty-first century and what it will take to enable all schools—whether charter or traditional—to successfully educate all students.

Williams Ayers and Ryan Alexander-Tanner visited Carnegie in spring 2010 as part of the Carnegie Chats series. They offered a vision of a collaborative classroom in which critical thought and alternative sources of knowledge are advocated and the ultimate goal is good citizenship in the form of an active and thoughtful individual.

Frederick M. (Rick) Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. In the recently published book, Education Unbound: The Promise and Practice of Greenfield Schooling, Hess introduces us to the concept of break-the-mold "greenfield schooling" and its potential to free-up schools to be more responsive to communities and kids.

Mimi Ito is a cultural anthropologist who studies new media use. She is the Research Director for the Digital Media and Learning Hub and a research scientist at the University of California, Irvine. She is developing a research area focused on interest-driven learning.

Ruth Deakin Crick is with the Graduate School of Education, the University of Bristol, UK. She has introduced the notion of the assessment of 'learning power' through seven dimensions. Crick and colleagues have implemented and tested this assessment internationally and in the U.S. in Chicago and San Diego.

Tom Vander Ark is head of Revolution Learning. He says that we are in a perfect storm of financial support, government awareness and the development of new tools to advance innovation in education.

Esther Wojcicki is chair of the Creative Commons Board of Directors, head of the Palo Alto High School Journalism Program, a consultant to Google, and an education blogger for the Huffington Post. She says that engaging students and empowering teachers is the key to needed innovation in American education.

Ethan Beard discusses the development of Facebook as a tool and its possible education applications.