education

“Where I live, people don’t call the police.” There’s a palpable stillness in the room. Thirty-five pairs of adolescent eyes are fixed on Mariely[1] as she quietly, bravely describes witnessing a man get stabbed in front of her house, feeling unable to call the cops for help. Some students silently gesture with their pinkies outstretched […]

I recently met with a young Kenyan thespian traveling throughout the U.S. in search of a career in the arts.  As we reminisced about his college days, he expressed some regret that his education did not include classes that would have adequately prepared him for a successful career in his chosen profession, despite having attended […]

A new administration is at the vanguard of African leadership, prioritizing national development in a new model of partnership and possibility Sierra Leone has adopted a new strategy that is reforming its troubled past, piece by piece. Less than a year into his term, President Julius Maada Bio is leading his country in a novel […]

THE 2020 NORTH STAR This March will mark ten years since President Obama gave his first major speech about education. In this speech, President Obama referenced the North Star goal for his education policy: that by the year 2020 the United States would once again lead the world in terms of the proportion of young […]

Egypt begins its Year of Education with an ambitious initiative in partnership with Japan that could shift Egypt away from its test-centric education model. Yet, critics worry about the emphasis on conformity and group cohesion in the new curriculum.

BY DENNIS FUNES “Students like YOU end up working rather than going to college.” As a young male of color at a middle school in the Los Angeles School District, a teacher had already predicted my future, or so he thought. Fortunately, I had positive role models, such as my father and my Algebra teacher, […]

BY CHRIS GEARY As a former traditional public middle school math teacher and charter high school history teacher, it is clear that the question “are charter schools good or bad?” cannot be answered as simply as anyone would like. Before diving into the implications, it is worth defining what charter schools actually are. Essentially, a […]

BY ABEL MCDANIELS Last month, teachers from Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest school system, went on strike for nine days. Among their demands were community schools. A community school intentionally organizes school and community resources to support student success. These schools stay open well beyond 3pm, the typical end to a […]

BY STEVEN OLENDER Julian Castro championed an ambitious expansion of public education while announcing his 2020 presidential bid by advocating for universal Pre-K. His plan, “Pre-K for the USA,” is likely an extension of his Pre-K 4 SA program which works to make high-quality, full-day Pre-K available to all four-year-olds in San Antonio. Pre-K for […]

As the Syrian refugee crisis continues, reflecting on educational provision for refugee children in Jordan demands a move beyond the crisis approach.

Before 2015, charter schools[1] in Chile were able to select prospective students based on the socioeconomic status of their families, revealed through the ability to pay a copayment;[2] and on other requirements, such as personality tests, admissions tests, marriage certificates, baptism certificates and others[3], that allowed the schools to discriminate against children whose families could […]

Measuring impact of a long term systemic change project Isabel Opice Isabel Opice is a second year MPA/ID student at HKS. Prior to HKS, she worked as an Office Advisor in the Secretariat in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the everyday life in Brazil, I have seen stark social injustice: young homeless children on […]