Bored out of Their Minds a LOOK at WHY STUDENTS GET INCREASINGLY BORED AS THEY GET OLDER — and WHY IT MATTERS

WINTER 2017

HARVARD ED. MAGAZINE

Bored Out of Their Minds A LOOK AT WHY STUDENTS GET INCREASINGLY BORED AS THEY GET OLDER — AND WHY IT MATTERS

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WINTER 2017

HARVARD ED. MAGAZINE Features ContentsWinter 2017

Bored Out of Their Minds A LOOK AT WHY STUDENTS GET INCREASINGLY BORED AS THEY GET OLDER — AND WHY IT MATTERS

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Editor in Chief Lory Hough [email protected]

Creative Director, Ed. Patrick Mitchell MODUS OPERANDI DESIGN WWW.MODUSOP.NET

Assistant Dean of Communications Michael Rodman 18 [email protected] Bored Out of Their Minds Contributing Writers Andrew Bauld, Ed.M.’16 A look at why students get increasingly bored as Zachary Jason they get older — and why it matters. Brendan Pelsue STORY BY ZACHARY JASON Illustrators Greg Clarke Todd Detwiler Ben Kirchner Riccardo Vecchio

Photographers Jill Anderson Jesse Burke Jonathan Kozowyk Tim Llewellyn Ekaterina Smirnova “ I think we’ll find it Copy Editors successful when we Marin Jorgensen are able to bring Abigail Mieko Vargus personalized learning 34 to any school that POSTMASTER wants to do it.” Send address changes to: Rethink the Gap 26 ADAM SELDOW, Harvard Graduate School of Education Do alternative gap-year programs have lessons for Office of Communications ED.M.’03, ED.M.’08, ED.D’10 13 Appian Way traditional high schools and colleges? No More Sink Cambridge, MA 02138 STORY BY BRENDAN PELSUE the Sub © 2017 by the President and Fellows of What if you brought in a Harvard College. Harvard Ed. magazine is NEWS + NOTES FROM APPIAN WAY published three times a year. musician or farmer instead Tagging kids content, p. 4 � Helping NASA and PBS create better Departments of a worksheet when a PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. curriculum for teachers, p. 8 � The Making of Lecturer Lee Teitel, teacher was out for the day? Ed.D.’88, p. 10 � CEPR’s Proving Ground gets data to districts faster, CONVO. — READER FEEDBACK 2 STORY BY LORY HOUGH 4 p. 12 � Study Skills: Lizzie Moore, p. 13 � Frisbee life skills, p. 14 � Kernel-sized lessons for social–emotional learning, p. 15 � On My GRAD. — ALUMNI NEWS + NOTES 43

Bookshelf with Assistant Professor Dana McCoy, p. 16 � AND MORE! CLARKE GREG TKTKTK TBB KOZOWYK; JONATHAN LLEWELLYN; TIM TOP: FROM CLOCKWISE, CAMPAIGN 49

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The piece by JESSICA LANDER, ED.M.’15, “Do the Right Thing. (But Past Tense 1 How?),” pulled in the most comments from our fall 2016 issue, most overwhelmingly positive, with accolades like “wonder- ful essay” and “what an article!” Another reader said he was “moved As readers of the magazine know, and inspired.” Anne Sturgis Watt acknowledged that solving ethical the school announced last summer dilemmas is one of the toughest aspects of teaching. “Sounds that it was starting a new center simple but it ain’t easy,” she wrote. Lori Damon added, “Current pub- focused on early childhood educa- of education have nonexistent or lic school policy for handling ‘problem’ students in the classroom is tion called the Saul Zaentz Early weak programs for the training of most often punitive, which exacerbates the situation and humiliates Childhood Education Initiative. teachers for these young children. the student. I applaud Ms. Lander for protecting her students from this Designed to get all kids kindergar- Our experience as educators should 2 outcome and instead treating problems as springboards for learning ten ready, the initiative includes, teach us that if a child does not get 3 and growing. The impact of her approach is positive and has lasting among other things, a large-scale a wholesome start educationally in effects on her students well beyond the classroom. The true violation study of 3-year-olds that will follow his first five years of life, the reme- here is that Ms. Lander stands alone. Public school policy on this topic for five years their development in dial programs introduced during the is shortsighted and needs to change.” relation to their preschool educa- later years will do little good. tion. Designed to be a go-to place “It is worth noting that when Think back on your time in school. Remember how excited you Reader JJ (JEN) JOHNSON, ED.M.’01, an author of young adult nov- for cutting-edge science about early the national director of Project felt in first grade when, using crayons and paper, you turned 2 els, wrote to tell us she read the story “Too Much on Their childhood practices and strategies, Head Start was chosen, a pediatri- your name into an alien and your creation was hung on the Plates” to her family, and they playfully found a way to re-jig- the initiative will also create profes- cian rather than an educator was ger the content. “I love this, especially the PDF part,” she wrote, sional learning opportunities for selected. It is also clear that some bulletin board outside the classroom. Flash forward to high referring to three things that DENISE POPE, ED.M.’89, author of Overloaded early childhood educators, as well of our most respected educators school when you constantly watched the clock, wondering and Underprepared, thinks are essential for the well-being of students: as a fellowship program for incom- are turning to private industry as a playtime, downtime, and family time. When Johnson read the piece ing Ed School master’s and Doctor source of creative American educa- when the dismissal bell was finally going to ring. How does to her family, “they voted for PDF to be PFD, as in ‘Personal Flotation of Education Leadership students. tional leadership.” this progression from bouncy 6-year-old to bored 16-year-old Device.’ Sharing!” Given the announcement of the happen in school? As Dean Jim Ryan noticed with his own kids new initiative, we found this letter CONNECT WITH ED. The short piece “Elephant, Love” from the summer 2016 issue from a 1967 issue of Ed. magazine when he asked each day how school was, the flat response — 3 continues to get shares and comments on Facebook. For reader interesting and, oddly, also very “boring” — increased as they got older. “Something about the Michelle DeGondea Amato, it even triggered a memory from timely. Written by RICHARD POLSKY, TWITTER.COM/HGSE HARVARDEDUCATION. contrast among my kids,” he wrote in his Education Week blog, childhood. “I must read this,” she wrote. “When I was a child, prob- M.A.T.’56, in response to two first- TUMBLR.COM ably about two or three, during the Christmas pageant at a New Jer- person essays in the magazine’s “finally snapped me out of my complacency about boredom.” sey mall, one year an attraction was riding a baby elephant. I, being a summer 1965 issue by student WHAT HE SAID He began to wonder if “boredom ought to be considered much well-loved grandchild, had the ‘opportunity’ to ride that baby elephant. teachers, the letter urges educators FACEBOOK.COM/ ISSUU.COM/HARVARD It impressed me and affected my relationship with elephants for the to focus more on children’s early HARVARDEDUCATION EDUCATION more seriously when thinking about ways to improve student If you want to know Dean rest of my life. I remember very little about those years, but I clearly years. As Polsky wrote: outcomes.” With this in mind, we decided to tackle the issue Ryan’s thoughts on all remember that elephant and especially her little eyes that looked like “Despite mounting evidence things education, as well as they were crying. Since learning about the emotional intelligence (much of it a result of work done YOUTUBE.COM/ MEDIUM.COM/ in our cover story, “Bored out of Their Minds.” I hope it gets HARVARDEDUCATION @HARVARDEDUCATION other important subjects of elephants and their family bonds, I am haunted by that ex- by the universities themselves) you thinking and keeps you, well, not bored. like baseball and running, perience. I hope that baby elephant has fared as well as I have to this that the first five years of a child’s follow him on Twitter point. He or she would be just a few years younger than me. Thanks life are educationally the most INSTAGRAM.COM/ LETTERS@GSE. READ DEAN RYAN’S BOREDOM PIECE AT @deanryan. for sharing.” important ones, many of our schools HARVARDEDUCATION HARVARD.EDU GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS

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Tagging Twilight Sparkle

( OR, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET NEWS + NOTES FROM APPIAN WAY A JOB WATCHING TV ALL DAY)

STORY BY LORY HOUGH

At first, the babysitter didn’t know what to make of her new boss spending hours obsessively analyzing cartoons all day. Things were especially questionable when TRACY ELIZABETH, ED.M.’10, ED.D.’17, watched the same episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic over and over and over again. “I spent more than five hours in a single afternoon watching Twilight Sparkle, the main unicorn pony, figure 4 out how to protect her friends from a 5 feared pony named Nightmare Moon,” Elizabeth says. The sitter, as it turns out, didn’t have anything to worry about: Elizabeth had just started her new job with Netflix as the lead content tagger for children’s media and had to spend hours watching kids’ shows and movies and then decide how to tag, or code, the content. “The tags help Netflix identify, in nu- anced detail, what content exists in the shows,” she says. “We then categorize the shows based on a combination of tags that they have in common” — tags like “goriness” and “smoking,” or, in the case of My Little Pony, possible warm- hearted themes of friendship. Netflix uses the tags to create the “because you watched... ” or “top picks for... ” categories on a subscriber’s main page. For adults looking to watch a new show or series, these recommendations can be fun, Elizabeth says. But for kids, detailed tagging has a second, more important function. “If Netflix suggests that a kid watch a high-violence show, that’s a problem,” she says. “We have to be a gatekeeper for what is fed into their queue.” (Al-

CREDIT HERE CREDIT HERE CREDIT though, Elizabeth adds, this has nothing

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to do with censorship or cyber parenting. It’s still up to parents and families to decide what content is most suitable.) “I always think of myself as a protector of children and that young viewers have a team watching out for them, not only for what they enjoy, but what’s developmentally appropriate.” That could be why the “violence” tag is probably considered the most when it comes to evaluating kids’ shows. (Some of the least used are “horror,” “political friction,” and “medical research,” she says.) “Not all kids’ shows contain violent themes, yet it is important for taggers to evaluate all shows to determine if violence does exist,” she says. “If there is violence, we measure the magnitude of the violent acts and the type BLOG of violence in that show. For example, there is a differ- WORTHY ence between a show like Word Party, which is edu- A sampling of Ed School cational in tone and contains no violence, to Dinotrux, blogs worth reading which has some high-energy action where an animat- ed machine may get banged up.” Elizabeth says there are less obvious tags used for kids’ shows, including “perilous situations” and “strong female lead” — the latter one of her favorites. “We use this to identify when a lead protagonist in It’s Ancient History the show is female. This lets us highlight shows that may appeal to youth who wish for strong women or girl role models in their lives,” she says. “I’m inspired by the HOW ONE ALUM’S EARLY INTEREST IN EARLY EGYPT ‘strong female lead’ tag because I can see a trend in the TURNED INTO A BOOK SERIES newer media content that is being produced for youth,” 6 tilting toward more female characters who are strong 7 leaders and who succeed at whatever they’re doing. STORY BY LORY HOUGH With all of this behind-the-scenes knowledge of Net- flix content, Elizabeth says it’s not uncommon for friends 1 with kids to ask her for show recommendations. hen your grandfather through a tree in the backyard of objects are real,” he says. “There’s glossary and in-depth curricu- “I can’t gush enough about how much I love Project W comes to your school in his grandparents’ farm and goes nothing by chance.” The names in lum guide, to teachers. He also Professor Tom Kane Mc2 for its girl empowerment and STEAM education. the first grade, after a trip back and meets King Tut,” Meyer particular have meaning. Horace, wrapped up the writing on his Connect to Kane’s blogs for EducationNext Also, as a huge Beatles fan, I adore Beat Bugs for to Egypt, and shows your class the says, describing what would be- the series’ main character, for ex- second book in the series — some- and Brookings. families with kids who are into music,” she says. “And, dried-up face of an unwrapped come the plot of his first book in ample, was named, in part, after a thing that consumed far fewer educationnext.org/author/tkane/ while it’s made for adults, Stranger Things is an addict- mummy, it’s not surprising that the series, The Secret of the Scarab stuffed animal that Meyer lugged hours this time around. brookings.edu/experts/thomas-j-kane/ ing blast from the past. It stars a cast of tweens whose an interest in all-things Tut and Beetle. “When we got out of the around as a kid. “The first book took five years characters deftly model problem-solving and conflict- tomb would develop. cab, she turned to me and said, “When I started working on to write, the second, five months,” resolution skills while eerie supernatural events increas- For BILL MEYER, ED.M.’04, this ‘Don’t tell anyone else about this the story, I asked my mom about he says. With round one, “I had ingly complicate their lives.” meant leading his third-grade class idea. It’s good.’ It was really funny it. She said yes, it was Horace the to learn how to write. I gave it to 2 Elizabeth acknowledges that she could talk about her two years later in a demo mum- because she was worried that the Hippo. Horace is also an Egyptian people to read. I thought I was go- new job endlessly. “Can you tell I love Netflix content? mification of dolls. After college, cab driver was going to steal the god and one of the most famous ing to have to self-publish, then Associate Professor Karen Brennan It’s the only job in the world where when I clock off, he started teaching high school idea as well.” residents in Niles, Michigan,” the an agent saw it and said, “Don’t Check out Brennan’s ScratchEd blog page, I still tune in.” history, including sections on An- At the time, Meyer was get- real-life town where the book is self publish.” Then it took a year which includes Scratch projects she’s created cient Egypt. More recently, Meyer ting his Ph.D. at New York Uni- set. That famous resident, Hor- to get it picked up and 18 months and studios she’s curated. started writing about that time versity and teaching, so he had no ace Dodge, was married to Anna of back and forth and reworking,” scratch.mit.edu/users/karenb/ WISE WORDS period with Horace j. Edwards and extra time to take a writing class Dodge, the name Meyer used for he says. “It was exciting, but it was the Time Keepers, his middle school or find other writers to workshop the protagonist’s best friend. Mr. definitely baptism by fire.” adventure series set partially along his manuscript. Instead, he had Petrie, the teacher in the book, is the Nile. This April, the second to dig in, rely on friends to give based on the famous Egyptologist 3 “ It’s like drinking book in the series comes out. feedback, and lean heavily on his Flinders Petrie. Dean James Ryan He remembers the first time he strength: knowing the history of This fall, Meyer continued from a hose.” shared the idea for the book series that time and place. with the book tour for the first TO ACCESS THE TEACHING GUIDE, TIMELINE, AND GLOSSARY: HORACE- From his Education Week blog, Making with his wife. They were in a New “So much of the inspiration for book, which included classroom Eric Shed, director of the Harvard Teacher Fellows ANDTHETIMEKEEPERS.COM the Case, Ryan asks what he considers to Program, addressing how unprepared new York City taxicab. this story is based on historical visits where he read chapters to be the key questions at the heart of current TO READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE education debates. teachers often feel once they leave college and start “I told her that I had this facts. The characters, the places, students and offered related book SECRET OF THE SCARAB BEETLE: to teach in an actual classroom. (chalkbeat) idea for a kid who time travels the names, and even many of the content that he created, like a HORACEANDTHETIMEKEEPERS.COM hgse.me/JamesRyanBlog

Illustration by Greg Clarke

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Mission Control, This Is Your Teacher Speaking

NASA AND PBS PARTNER WITH THOSE ON THE FRONT LINE OF TEACHING TO MAKE SCIENCE CURRICULUM MORE USEFUL

STORY BY ANDREW BAULD, ED.M.’16

s odd as it sounds, the out the rest of the school year. 650 applications. A panel of judg- A students in Jenny Kost- The teaching tools and resources, es selected candidates through a ka’s high school physics which will eventually be offered blind admission process. Those class were expecting an out-of- free to anyone, are focused on selected were noted for their will- this-world announcement from STEM topics in Earth, space, and ingness to innovate in the class- their teacher when they started physical sciences. room and their enthusiasm for school this part September. And From the beginning, teach- digital resources, says Denise Ol- they were almost right. er involvement was critical to son, senior marketing manager “The first day, students came WGBH’s proposal to NASA in de- for education at WGBH, all traits up to say they were really excited,” veloping the curriculum. Kostka that Kostka possessed. 8 KOSTKA, ED.M.’15, says. “They saw says she is excited to be part of “What stood out for us about 9 the word NASA on the school’s the adviser team because they Jenny was the fact that she teach- web page and thought I might be can help shape material so that es astronomy and is already famil- going to Mars.” While their teach- it’s actually useful for teachers. iar with NASA resources, as well er won’t be traveling to a distant “Sometimes you see resourc- as her educational technology planet any time soon, Kostka will es meant for teachers and think, background,” Olson says. be bringing outer space to her stu- I can’t really see teachers using Before this project, Kostka had dents, thanks to a new partnership this,” Kostka says. “Lots of times already begun to use more tech- between NASA and WGBH, Bos- teachers want to make something nology and digital resources in her ton’s PBS station. their own; they don’t want a full classrooms. But she credits her Kostka was selected as one of a lesson plan. I don’t expect to see time as a member of the Technolo- team of 50 K–12 teachers to serve full, scripted lesson plans [from gy, Innovation, and Education co- as advisers for a project called NASA]. This curriculum will be hort in driving her thinking about Bringing the Universe to America’s much more flexible, which a lot of how to make those resources more Classrooms, which will provide ac- teachers will appreciate.” creative and student driven. cess to all of NASA’s available on- Kostka has been teaching as- “The classes I focused on [at line data, ranging from interstellar tronomy and physics for more Harvard] were about using things measurements of electromagne- than a decade, but her passion more creatively in the classroom tism to 3-D models of the Cassini for science goes beyond the lab and getting students to create us- spacecraft, including new curricu- or the classroom. ing digital media,” Kostka says. lum material that Kostka and the “It makes you look at the world “I’ll try and make that a priority other teacher advisers are helping in a different way if you really un- to make these [NASA] resources to develop. derstand how things work,” she a vehicle for creation for students Kostka had a chance at the end says. “If you’re driving down the and not just a digital worksheet.” of last school year to look at ex- highway, and you think the pave- amples of what the project had al- ment is wet on a hot sunny day, ANDREW BAULD, ED.M.’16, IS A WRITER Jenny Kotska, a physics and CURRENTLY LIVING IN CHICAGO. astronomy teacher at South ready created. This fall she served you know why. It jumps out at you Shore Charter Public School on teacher focus groups while also in everyday life all the time.” in Norwell, Massachusetts, is bringing NASA resources designing and piloting new cur- This enthusiasm for science to her classroom. riculum in her classroom, which was just one of the qualities that TO LEARN MORE: WGBHTEACHERADVI-

CREDIT HERE CREDIT HERE CREDIT she will continue doing through- made Kostka stand out in a pool of SORS.ORG/TEACHER-ADVISORS.HTML

Photograph by Jesse Burke

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THIS PAST FALL, THREE NEW FACULTY MEMBERS AND ONE VISITING PROFESSOR THE MAKING OF JOINED THE SCHOOL

Lecturer Lee Teitel Emmerich Davies Escobar, assistant professor, specializes in education policy and politics, the political economy of development, and the politics of service provision, with a regional focus on South Asia. Davies Escobar joined the Ed School from the Ph.D. program in political science at the University of Pennsylva- It’s clear, looking back at the career of LEE TEITEL, nia. He will be teaching two courses in the spring: The Politics of ED.D.’88, that Teitel has never shied away from Education in the Developing World and Comparative Education challenges. As a kid, when his teacher was out and International Development. sick, he took over the lectures in his classroom. Years later, when he became restless in college, , senior lecturer, served for the past he turned to carpentry, his ancestors’ trade. And IRVIN SCOTT, ED.M.’07, ED.D.’11 when he started teaching in higher ed, he took on five years as the deputy director for K–12 education at the Bill a tough subject that many academics steer clear and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior, he was an English teacher of: racism and other forms of oppression. for 11 years, a principal, an assistant superintendent, and the chief academic officer for Boston Public Schools. Scott is leading the yearlong course School Leadership: Seminar and Practicum 1953 1962 1964 the “richness of differ- 1976 1988 2014 for School Developers. I was a big reader as ence” changed my life. I began my career I got offered an ap- I was lying on the floor a kid but not much teaching high school pointment to teach of Gutman lobby for of a talker. The whole 1970 industrial arts and school principals at a die-in protest for Bertrand Schneider, assistant professor, was recently a postdoc- family remembers At Harvard College, then shifted to Rox- the University of Mas- the nonindictment of toral researcher at Stanford Graduate School of Education. His 10 the first time I spoke my roommates were bury Community Col- sachusetts–Boston. I the police officer who research interests include the development of new and original 11 at the dinner table. I black, and when we lege in Boston, where I lived out my biggest shot Michael Brown interfaces for collaborative learning in formal and informal learn- corrected a historical would go to meals started the state’s first fear about teach- in Ferguson. When a ing environments like maker spaces. Schneider is teaching Multi- fact about Andrew separately, I’d sit at computer-assisted ing about race. Even doctoral student with modal Learning Analytics. Jackson. Everyone the white tables, they drafting program. We though I knew it was 1999 2011 a megaphone asked stopped talking and at the black ones. developed partner- important, I was afraid I got invited to teach In my third year of what each of us can looked at me. When we went to the ships with computer to and didn’t really a course (part time) directing the School and will do, I thought Claudia Costin joins the Ed School as a visiting professor of dining hall together, companies and design know how. I touched in organizational Leadership Program, about what I know practice for the academic year. She previously served as the se- we’d create a new firms, which provided on it lightly and start- leadership at HGSE. I brainstormed with best — leadership nior director for education at the World Bank Group. Prior, Costin space — our own jobs for the mostly ed dancing away when Excited, humbled, and students about what and school improve- was the secretary of education for the city of Rio de Janeiro. This My sixth-grade table, to which an as- black and Latino stu- the doctoral cohort — nervous, I decided to they would need to be ment — and resolved fall, she taught two courses: Education in Global Cities: Trans- teacher, Mr. Becker, sortment of students, dents at the school. about half students of stay true to my new transformative leaders to work on getting forming Education in New York, Rio de Janeiro, and Shanghai and I was born in Brooklyn who gave us weekly white and black, would In the early 1980s, I color, many with years commitment to teach around equity and more and better qual- to children of Eastern lectures on history, had eventually drift. started my doctoral of anti-bias experi- about race and built diversity. We identified ity integrated schools. International Organizations and Education for Development: The European immigrants. to be out on medical work and my interest ence — stopped me. in a case about the a set of competen- The following spring, Role of the World Bank. My father learned leave. He asked me to 1974 in these partnerships They pushed me to history of student cies and designed I piloted a course, The English in elementary give the lecture on the I was restless at became the subject of teach about race, and protests about race programming. Two Promise of Integrated school; my mother was origins of World War I. Harvard, not sure what my dissertation and I stumbled through it at the Ed School and years later, the Dean’s Schools. A year later, the first in her family I loved it. I was only 11. I wanted to do. I had scholarship. with plenty of amazing how the school had Advisory Committee we launched Reimag- to go to college. Both a strong hands-on support from them, responded (or not). I on Equity and Diversity ining Integration: The earned advanced 1967 side that wasn’t being and lots of humility. was glad to teach the adapted the compe- Diverse and Equitable degrees and became I went to a “deseg- nurtured. I almost case, although I real- tencies and made Schools Project. public school teachers regated” public high dropped out to work ized doing so might be them schoolwide. in New York City. Their school, but the school as a carpenter, the seen as a bit edgy for clear message to me: itself was deeply trade of my immigrant a new adjunct faculty Being a teacher is the divided. I didn’t realize grandfather and the member. I was relieved best way to contribute how much I was in a avocation of my father. to be asked to return to the world. bubble of whiteness to teach the next until I joined a commu- semester. nity center in another part of Brooklyn that was consciously, racially, and economi- cally mixed. Being in a place that emphasized TEITEL: JANET STEARNS JANET TEITEL: ANDERSON ANDERSON JILL JILL UNIVERISTY; UNIVERSITY; STANFORD ANDERSON; JILL ESCOBAR; DAVIES EMMERICH FACULTY:

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CONNECTIONS MATTER STUDY SKILLS

hen current doctoral student TYLER THIGPEN W started his residency at Transcend, a national nonprofit dedicated to accelerating innovation Lizzie Moore, in how we define “school,” he knew there were other Ed School students and graduates involved. He didn’t quite Ed.M. realize the extent, however, until they all got together for a retreat last summer. Yes, Lizzie Moore owns overalls and can drive a “We were at the retreat, and I thought, wow, we’re tractor. (The compost spreader is her favor- only 11 teammates strong and four of us are Ed School ite.) And yes, with the rise of CSAs and glossy folks,” Thigpen says. “And not just Ed School, but all magazines like Modern Farmer, she admits Ed.L.D.” And the four, including JENN CHARLOT, ED.L.D.’15, there’s a hip factor to farming these days. BRITTANY ERICKSON, ED.L.D.’16, and CHRISTINE ORTIZ, But none of these are the reasons she left the ED.L.D.’17, are working together in ways that are very classroom to start her very own farm on seven 21st century. acres in Napa, California. “We’re living what we consider to be the future of “I always loved the outdoors,” says Moore, work, with individuals all over,” Thigpen says. There’s no a student in the Specialized Studies Program physical office space. Teammates are in San Francisco; Dear Data. I Need You. who is here learning about place-based food Madison, Wisconsin; Orlando, Florida; New York City; Faster. entrepreneurship programs. “I always wanted Chicago; and Denver. Thigpen is back home in Atlanta. to teach outdoors.” With BOCA Farm, that’s ex- He says the work they do is also very transparent and actly what she’s doing. After getting the farm involves lots of check-ins using Google docs, Slack, and up and running, she circled back to her former social media. Their org chart is flexible. school, Blue Oak Elementary, also in Napa, and “Most individuals in the organization have the same as more and more districts of all sizes started collecting data to created a partnership that brings students into title of partner with no levels,” he says. Some workers evaluate what programs and interventions were working for their stu- the fields for extended periods. take on managerial duties for accountability, yes, but dents and which weren’t, it became clear to the team at the Center for “Most of the time, there are one-off field mainly for mentoring and coaching, “to push and sup- Education Policy Research (cepr) that this information was helpful trips where students learn for a day where food port” one another. They also have a fun way of signing comes from,” she says. “That’s the drive-by only if educators had a way to interpret it — and in a timely way. So last approach, where you don’t get the emotional off at the end of the week. year, cepr created Proving Ground, a five-year project geared toward 12 “Every Friday at 5 p.m., we hop on a Slack channel and practical aspects. You don’t see what hap- 13 to give shout-outs to one another in alignment with our helping districts eliminate the need to hire research firms to conduct pens when it rains or there’s frost.” core values,” he says. “The process arose organically costly and time-consuming evaluations of their initiatives. Instead, at BOCA, fourth- and fifth-grade from people feeling sort of goofy at the end of the week “It started as an idea on how to get data back in a much shorter cycle. students and teachers spend a full 10 school — I guess I’m done now — and so now we have a way of It usually takes years,” says Bi Vuong, the project’s director. “We want- days per semester at the farm, fully participat- connecting to bookend the week.” ed to get data back faster, including analysis, so that districts could ing in the farm’s operation. For Moore, this This way of working, he says, is in line with how means putting her teacher’s hat back on. make managerial decisions and make changes in practice with their “I help teachers develop ideas and goals, Transcend thinks schools should operate: believing that curriculum. It’s great that there’s data analysis, but if it comes after I’ve genuine connections are at the heart of the work. which is a highlight — teaching based on “You see this emphasis in relationships in all of our already submitted my budget, that’s not helpful.” what’s in season! I also instruct students. The interactions, internally and externally. From the culture What’s unique about the project is that while districts will be able farm classroom is full of surprises: cherry to- of our Slack channel to email to phone calls to retreats to learn from analysis of their specific data, they will also benefit from matoes that taste like candy, a jackrabbit that to our goals,” he says. “In fact, I’m currently working on the combined data created by all 13 districts involved in the project. suddenly pops out from behind a squash vine, a volunteer crop from the prior season.” strategic community development for the organization, “Most school districts are smaller than 30,000 kids,” Vuong says. Her favorite part of these days, she says, is which I’m very much suited for as a trained pastor. They “We’re able to use data from the larger network of 230,000 kids. Es- put me in this role partly for that reason.” LH realizing how the simplest activities can spark pecially for a 5,000-student district, they’d never be able to effectively questions and creativity. test if something works. That’s even true for a 50,000-student district. “I’ll never forget when a group of students They need that larger sample size.” spent almost half a day digging a hole. They wondered why the consistency and color of the WISE For the first year of the project, the districts are focusing on the WORDS impact of two education software programs — Achieve 3000 and st soil changed as they dug and why the moisture content was higher deeper down. They strove Math. In February, districts provided their data to cepr and, by May, to identify all sorts of bugs and roots,” she received back analysis that looked at, among other things, whether says. “They brought their questions back to the software made an impact and for which students and how the pro- the classroom, where they researched and “ We are living in gram’s impact in one district compared with the impact felt at other recorded their findings. Back at the farm, the districts using the same program. There were also actionable reports kids felt a newfound sense of connection to a revolution in districts could begin using right away to develop future plans. LH the site, and their next round of questioning became more sophisticated: What would hap- biology now.” pen if we used the deeper soils to germinate seeds? What is the mineral content of the Professor Jack Shonkoff on advances in neurosci- deepest soil? How do farmers test their soil? ence, which tell us even more about how the link I asked myself: Who knew that a shovel could be such a powerful learning tool?” LH between environment, behavior, and brain activity TO LEARN MORE, INCLUDING WAYS TO JOIN THE PROJECT: affects academic achievement. (Newsweek) PROVINGGROUND.CEPR.HARVARD.EDU

Illustration by Greg Clarke Photograph by Jonathan Kozowyk

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SIMPLE ACTIVITIES SCHOOLS CAN USE TO HELP STUDENTS DEVELOP NONACADEMIC SKILLS

ou know how important it is for kids to develop life skills like managing emotions or learning to make better decisions — skills that are Y actually as important as doing well on an academic test. The problem is, you don’t know where to start. Or maybe you did start by buying some expensive prepackaged program that just isn’t working for your school’s particular needs. Now what? Associate Professor Stephanie Jones and her team at Easel Lab’s SEL Analysis Project came up with an idea called “kernel of practice” — evidence-based strategies and activities that educators can easily use with their students that are free and flexible. (Schools pick and chose which strategies they want to try.) The team shared strategies for elementary schools:

3 “I” Messages: Managing and communicating negative or difficult emotions can be challenging. “I” messages help children (and adults) identify feelings and communicate them appropriately. These messages support the development of an emotions vocabulary. If you notice your child or student feeling angry or embarrassed, help them use an “I” message to describe what they are feeling. An “I” message has three parts: 1: I feel… states how he or she feels as a result of the current situation. 2: …when you… in the second part allows the student to state what behavior caused this feeling. 3: …and I would like… lets the student name something that he or she would like to see happen as part of the resolution to the problem. 14 15 3 Say It Back: When students use “say it back,” they engage listening skills to attend closely to what another person is saying, and they demonstrate understanding by repeating it. For example: “You feel sad when I call you names. You want me to apologize and not call you names anymore.” “Say it back” is intended to develop students’ ability to focus on what other people Stay Calm and Play Frisbee are thinking and feeling and to support empathy and understanding.

3 Feelings Thermometer: Emotions run on a continuum from low-key to in- HOW A SIMPLE PLASTIC DISC CAN HELP KIDS LEARN SELF-CONTROL, RESPECT, AND POSITIVE ENERGY tense and students often lack the ability to recognize when they are about to be overpowered by emotions. Before they can control their responses, students first must be able to identify what they are feeling and gauge intensity. WHAT IS ULTIMATE FRISBEE? Just as a thermometer measures rising temperatures, a “feelings thermom- STORY BY BEN SEARLE, ED.M.’17 eter” measures rising emotion levels. Using a scale of 0–5, students can use Picture football, soccer, and basketball mashed into one the “feelings thermometer” to describe their level of emotional intensity. sport, but instead of a ball, there’s a plastic flying disc. s a kid, i loved throwing and running after Frisbees with my team. It’s a reminder, especially for young people, that joy and friend- And no referees or umpires. Or physical contact. Instead, 3 Peace Path: In any conflict, the goal is to find a win–win solution, but this A dad. When I got to college, I tried out for the ultimate Frisbee ship are more important than winning. players try to score by passing the flying disc to a team- can only happen when both parties are clear about their feelings, feel calm team at the University of Texas–Austin and didn’t make it. But it If your organization works with youth, give ultimate a try. Although mate in the other team’s end zone. The person holding enough to actively listen to one another, and have the skills to negotiate was a very friendly rejection, and I appreciated the positive energy that there is no umbrella site for ultimate Frisbee, there are thousands of the disc can’t take any steps. Although people have effectively. It is important to give students an initial structure for this kind of most ultimate players seemed to share. I continued playing. Eventually, local leagues and clubs around the country. You can Google search for been tossing around flying discs of various sorts for complex negotiation. The step-by-step “peace path” model includes: while working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama, I began using ul- “ultimate Frisbee” with your city and state, and local organizations decades (such as metal pie tins before plastic ones were 1: Tell the Problem: Each person gives an “I” message, with the other invented), as an official sport, ultimate is relatively new. person summarizing that message with “say it back.” This ensures that each timate Frisbee as a simple way to build relationships with young people. will pop right up. Ultimate players love teaching new players, so most The first ultimate game was played in 1968 at Columbia knows how the other is feeling. It is amazing how quickly kids learn to throw and catch the disc. Then, would be thrilled to get an invitation from a school or youth organiza- High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, between the 2: Brainstorm Together: Each person suggests a solution to the problem, in 2012, still in Panama, I helped launch Ultimate Without Borders. tion. You can also check out five organizations from around the world student council and the student newspaper, the Colum- with the other person summarizing to be sure he or she has understood. One of the best parts of the game, especially when working with that already teach youth via ultimate Frisbee: Girls Ultimate Move- bian. Naturally, the newspaper won the match, 11–7. 3: Solve the Problem: Both people discuss the possible solutions and young people through the nonprofit, is something called spirit of the ment (United States), Bridging the Gaps (India), Juega Ultimate Frisbee agree on one to try. They should be striving for a win–win result, something game. This “rule” for how to play the sport is actually an ideal tool for (Mexico), 10 Million Discs (the Balkans), and Ultimate Peace (Israel). that both parties can live with, and then try it out. LH social and emotional learning. For starters, players mediate disagree- BEN SEARLE IS THE CO-FOUNDER OF ULTIMATE WITHOUT BORDERS ments via self-officiating — there are no official referees. But it goes beyond that. In ultimate, players must demonstrate respect, integrity, HEAR FROM FILM PRODUCER JOEL SILVER, A WATCH SEARLE AND IEP STUDENTS TEACH FORMER COLUMBIA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT, ON HELPING and self-control. At the end of a game, it’s common for both teams to PROFESSOR FERNANDO REIMERS HOW TO PLAY: TO FORMALIZE (AND NAME) THE SPORT: GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ READ A RELATED PIECE FROM USABLE KNOWLEDGE ON ANOTHER perform a cheer or play an icebreaker to show appreciation for the other GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS ED/EXTRAS STRATEGY, BRAIN GAMES: GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS

Illustration by Greg Clarke

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SAFE IS NOT ENOUGH PARTICIPATORY CREATIVITY: Michael Sadowski INTRODUCING ACCESS AND EQUITY TO THE CREATIVE CLASSROOM There has been a sea change in pub- Edward Clapp lic attitudes around gender and sexu- ality, yet progress on LGBTQ issues EDWARD CLAPP, ED.M.’07, ED.D.’14, writes that with ON MY BOOKSHELF POWERED BY GIRL in schools has moved slowly, writes Participatory Creativity, he wanted to broaden what Lyn Mikel Brown MICHAEL SADOWSKI, ED.M.’95, we mean when we think of creativity. This struggle ED.D.’05. Although more schools was something Clapp had to grapple with when he In her new book, Powered by Girl, have worked hard to make school a was a student at the Ed School and later at Project LYN MIKEL BROWN, ED.D.’89, a safer place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, Zero, where he works. He also wanted to figure out Dana McCoy, Assistant writer and education professor transgender, and queer students, ways to break down barriers to participating in cre- BECOME THE PRIMARY at Colby College, explores how Sadowski says this deficit model ativity, whether in the classroom or the community, TEACHER EVERYONE young women have embraced isn’t enough — schools have to also and to think about creative ideas less as something WANTS TO HAVE Professor, Psychologist activism and how adult women support students academically and only individuals come up with and more as some- Seán Delaney have supported them and need to create more inclusive environments thing that emerges socially. continue to support them in their so that students feel not only safe, After teaching for nearly a movements. As she writes, “This but also welcome. dozen years, SEÁN DELANEY, field guide is not so much a how- YOU’RE CURRENTLY READING: Swimming Studies, a memoir by artist and for- ED.M.’99, knows that teach- mer competitive swimmer Leanne Shapton. to, as it is a how-to-be: how to be ing is tough and no matter in relationship with girls — how how hard you work, there’s THE THING THAT DREW YOU TO IT: In general, I like to read memoirs. I was also to hear them, learn from them, en- always more to do. In this a competitive swimmer for 16 years growing up, so I have a personal connec- able and support their ideas, join career guide primarily for them in their activism.” tion to the topic. new teachers (although experienced teachers will FAVORITE BOOK FROM CHILDHOOD AND WHY YOU LOVED IT: Nancy Drew. The STUDENT SUCCESS IN HIGHER also find it useful), Delaney EDUCATION books remind me of my grandmother, who gave me her copy of The Secret of describes what teaching is Elaine Brzycki and Henry Brzycki really like and offers tips and the Old Clock when I was 8. strategies for creating a ful- The goal of their new book, writes ELAINE filling teaching career, with PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO KNOW I’VE NEVER READ … Moby Dick! BRZYCKI, ED.M.’90, and her husband, Henry chapters focused on relating Brzycki, is to have readers rethink what to colleagues, work–life bal- IF YOU WERE TO GIVE A BOOK AS A GIFT TO SOMEONE, WHAT WOULD IT BE, WHOM they mean by student success and student ance, and communicating WOULD IT BE FOR, AND WHY? I recently started giving my graduating students well-being, and re-evaluate what systems better with parents. a picture book that relates in some way to their interests or the work we’ve are currently in place to help students done together. As someone who studies early childhood, I like to find every live happy, healthy lives. Starting with a opportunity to remind my students of the importance of early reading! My chapter called “Higher Education and the 16 Decline of Well-Being,” Student Success 17 most recent gift was Make Way for Ducklings, which I gave to a depart- includes examples of promising practices ing doctoral fellow from Brazil. Its plot centers on the importance of early that colleges and universities can use to parenting, which is her research area of focus. I also wanted to give her help students succeed and eventually something to remind her of her time in Boston. define achievement for themselves.

LAST BOOK YOU READ THAT SURPRISED YOU AND WHY: On a whim, I recently re- read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I remember loving it as a child but was struck in my latest read by its complexity and timelessness.

FAVORITE BOOK THAT WAS TURNED INTO A MOVIE AND DID YOU LIKE THE BOOK OR MOVIE BETTER? I was dragged to see the last Harry Potter movie on opening night, and it inspired me to (finally) read the books. As usual, the books were better than the movie, but given that I already knew the ending, I did find them to be a bit anticlimactic.

PAPER BOOK OR E-READER? E-reader. I travel a lot, so they’re more practical.

FAVORITE SPOT TO CURL UP WITH A GOOD BOOK: On my sofa with my cat, Mu.

NEXT UP: I’m looking for suggestions. Maybe Moby Dick? LH

FOR A FULL LIST OF BOOKS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE: GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS. IF YOU’RE PART OF THE ED SCHOOL COMMUNITY AND YOU’VE RECENTLY PUBLISHED A BOOK, LET US KNOW: [email protected]

Photograph by Ekaterina Smirnova

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A LOOK AT WHY STUDENTS GET INCREASINGLY BORED AS THEY GET OLDER — AND WHY IT MATTERS STORY BY ZACHARY JASON

18 19

ILLUSTRATION BY TODD DETWILER

Bored Out of Their Minds

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a “character flaw. We say, ‘If you’re bored in school, there’s something wrong with you.’” But new research has begun to reveal boredom’s dismal effects in school and on the psyche. A 2014 study that followed 424 students at the University of Munich over the course of an academic year found a cycle in which boredom bore lower test results, which bore higher levels of boredom, which bore still For two weeks in third grade, lower test results. Boredom accounts for nearly a third of variation in student achievement. A I preached the gospel of the wild boar. My teacher, the 2010 German study found that boredom “in- sprightly Mrs. DeWilde, assigned my class an open-ended stigates a desire to escape from the situation” research project: Create a five-minute presentation about that causes boredom. It’s not surprising, then, that half of high school dropouts cite boredom any exotic animal. I devoted my free time before bedtime to as their primary motivator for leaving. A 2003 capturing the wonders of the Sus scrofa in a 20-minute ser- Columbia University survey found that U.S. mon. I filled a poster as big as my 9-year-old self with photo- teenagers who said they were often bored were more than 50 percent more likely than not- graphs, facts, and charts, complete with a fold-out diagram bored teens to smoke, drink, and use illegal of the snout. During my presentation, I shared my five-stan- drugs. Proneness to boredom is also associat- za rhyming poem about the swine’s life cycle, painted the ed with anxiety, impulsiveness, hopelessness, loneliness, gambling, and depression. species’ desert and taiga habitats in florid detail, and made Educators and academics, Ed School fac - uncanny snorting impressions. I attacked each new project ulty and alumni among them, have begun to that year — a sketch of the water cycle, a history of the Pow- engage with boredom, investigating its sys- temic causes and potential solutions. Mehta, hatan — with the same evangelism. who’s been studying engagement since 2010, 20 says, “We have to stop seeing boredom as a 21 Flash forward to the fall of my senior year in Some of boredom’s progression seems ob- frilly side effect. It is a central issue. Engage- high school, and my near-daily lunchtime rou- vious, such as: ment is a precondition for learning,” he adds. tine: hunched over at a booth in Wendy’s, choc- 3 An escalating emphasis on standard- “No learning happens until students agree to olate Frosty in my right hand, copying calculus ized tests. Fifth-grade teacher JILL GOLDBERG, become engaged with the material.” worksheets from Jimmy and Spanish home- ED.M.’93, told me, “My freedom as a teacher work from Chris with my left while they copied continues to be curtailed with every pass- my notes on Medea or Jane Eyre. Come class, I ing year. I am not able to teach for the sake spent more time playing Snake on my graphing of teaching.” With lack of teacher freedom calculator than reviewing integrals, more time comes lack of student freedom, and disen- daydreaming than conjugating verbs. gagement and tuning out. “Yo, Mr. P., I just wanted to let you know on What happened in those nine years? Many 3 The novelty of school itself fades with Day One that I’m not a science person.” things. But mainly, like the majority of my fel- each grade. Here I am for another year in the “Mr. P., I’m not very good at science.” low Americans, I fell victim to the epidemic of same blue plastic chair, same graffitied fake “Science is not my favorite subject, Mr. P.” classroom boredom. wooden desk, surrounded by the same faces. Every year for 14 years, Victor Pereira Jr., A 2013 Gallup poll of 500,000 students in Repetition begets boredom (e.g., I haven’t had heard this from a handful of his students dur- grades five through 12 found that nearly eight a Frosty in a decade). “We have to stop and beget rewards at a thousandth the speed ing the first week of his ninth- and 10th-grade in 10 elementary students were “engaged” with 3 Lack of motivation. Associate Profes- of Snapchat and Instagram. science classes. After falling behind in specif- school, that is, attentive, inquisitive, and gen- sor Jal Mehta says, “There’s no big external seeing boredom as a But who cares? Isn’t boredom just a natural ic subjects throughout elementary and middle erally optimistic. By high school, the number motivating force in American education ex- frılly side effect. side effect of daily life’s tedium? Until very re- school, students “were full of preconceived no- dropped to four in 10. A 2015 follow-up study cept for the small fraction of kids who want to cently, that’s how educators, academics, and tions” of their capabilities, says Pereira, who found that less than a third of 11th-graders felt go to the most selective colleges.” It is a central issue. neuroscientists alike have treated it. In fact, in taught at South Boston’s Excel High School engaged. When Gallup asked teens in 2004 to 3 The transition from the tactile and cre- Engagement the preface to Boredom: A Lively History, Peter before becoming a lecturer at the Ed School select the top three words that describe how ative to the cerebral and regimented. Mehta is a precondition Toohey presents the possibility that boredom and master teacher in the Harvard Teacher they feel in school from a list of 14 adjectives, calls it the switch from “child-centered learn- might not even exist. What we call “boredom” Fellows Program. Engaging the students who “bored” was chosen most often, by half the ing to subject-centered learning.” In third for learning.” might be just a “grab bag of a term” that covers are already discouraged was an uphill battle. students. “Tired” was second, at 42 percent. grade I cut with scissors, smeared glue sticks, “frustration, surfeit, depression, disgust, in- For comparison, Pereira remembers ob- JAL MEHTA, ABOVE, Only 2 percent said they were never bored. The and doodled with scented magic markers. By ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR difference, apathy.”TODD ROSE, ED.M.’01, ED.D.07, serving a second-grade science teacher’s les - evidence suggests that, on a daily basis, the vast 12th grade I was plugging in formulas on a TI- a lecturer at the Ed School and director of the son and leaving the class deflated. “Those majority of teenagers seriously contemplate 83 and writing the answers on fill-in-the-blank Mind, Brain, and Education Program, says the kids were curious, they listened intently, and banging their heads against their desks. worksheets. And research papers stimulate American education system treats boredom as they were excited to take chances.” In second

Photograph by Tim Llewellyn

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grade, he says, “you can use your common gagement really wouldn’t matter,” Rose says. language and experiences from your everyday “But if you really believe that all kids are capa- Why the Periphery life to explain what’s happening and engage in ble, then you would build environments that the science lesson.” really worked hard to sustain engagement and Is Often More However, as students advance in science, nurture potential.” learning its progressively technical terminol- Rose suggests adding much more choice to Powerful Than ogy “requires almost learning another lan- the classroom. Allow exams to be written or guage.” Technicality can breed boredom and taken orally. Assign students more hands-on the Core frustration, which breeds more boredom. projects, in which they become in control of By Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine, Ed.M.’13 As Rose puts it, “The friction is cumula- their own learning. New research bolsters his tive.” For example, the best predictor for how theory. Since 2011 Mehta and current doctoral students will fare in algebra is how they fared student SARAH FINE, ED.M.’13, have been study- in pre-algebra. A downward spiral emerges: ing “deeper learning” (learning that is both WHEN WE BEGAN OUR STUDY of powerful learning in high schools five years ago, we were not thinking of electives or ex- “You’re not doing well, and you’re going to challenging and engaging) at more than 30 tracurriculars as places to look. But as we began to visit schools, keep not doing well,” Rose says. “And then American high schools, and they have found we noticed a pattern: Often, in core disciplinary classes like his- that becomes a part of how you see yourself that schools with the most project-based cur- tory and science, instruction was teacher-centered, tasks were as a learner.” ricula tend to foster the fewest bored students. unchallenging, and students were frequently passive and often Rose has a master’s and doctorate from the Of course, no teacher can assign and grade bored. When we asked students why they were learning what they Ed School, but he also had a 0.9 GPA in high 30 individual projects and create 30 individual were learning, their answers tended to be uninspired: “because school before he dropped out, primarily from lesson plans every day. Rose suggests schools we need it for college” or “because the teacher said so.” By contrast, when we stumbled into spaces that initially boredom. He says he grew weary of the “poor more often exploit digital, scalable technolo- lay outside of our study — art classes, debate club meetings, design of the learning environment that creat- gies that can deliver readings and assignments newspaper, Model UN, athletic practices — these same students ed so many barriers to me being able to learn.” tailored to specific types of learners. With bore- “The friction is looked and sounded totally different. In these spaces, they were For one, because of his “pretty poor working dom, Rose says, “the focus is on the curricu- cumulative. You’re actively engaged and eagerly assuming roles as leaders. Over memory,” he often forgot to bring home his lum first. I think we can talk to teachers about time, we shifted some of our research so that we could inves- many of these characteristics. The teachers in homework or forgot to bring the homework it second. Let’s do something for them instead not doing well, tigate what made these “peripheral” spaces so powerful and explore what this might tell us about the disciplinary “core.” these classes are less interested in covering con- he completed back to school. He says he was of asking more of them.” and you’re going to Extracurriculars, our work suggests, tend to differ from core tent and more interested in helping students learn never taught skills like planning and orga- keep not doing well. classes in a number of important ways. They are voluntary rather how to think in the mode of the domain; they enact 22 nizing, and failed because the grading rubric And then that than mandatory; they often involve work that is undertaken col- a “cognitive apprenticeship” model that echoes 23 neglected his style of learning. Eventually, “I becomes a part lectively rather than individually; they feature opportunities for what happens in extracurriculars. They foster couldn’t see why I should be there. They didn’t peer leadership and peer-to-peer learning; they involve dimen- ownership by organizing the learning around the know why I should be there. We both agreed.” of how you see your- sions of playfulness; and they are aligned to activities that are production of something that is authentic and valued in broader American culture. As a result, these learning high quality. Once students have a sense of pur- SAM SEMROW, ED.M.’16, can relate. She attend- Still, teachers can staunch boredom. Mehta self as a learner.” spaces take on a sense of purpose and vitality that all too often is pose, teachers build in the more prosaic aspects ed a public high with a 10/10 rating on great- and Fine discovered that even in underper- of learning; writing a letter to a city councilwoman TODD ROSE, BELOW, missing from normal disciplinary classes. schools.com in a wealthy suburb of Chicago, forming schools where boredom was near uni- DIRECTOR OF THE MIND, BRAIN, Extracurriculars are also usually well-designed as learning is an occasion to learn how to craft an introduc- but what she calls the “lack of individualized versal, “there were individual teachers who AND EDUCATION PROGRAM environments. In particular, they allow, and often require, learners tory paragraph much as an upcoming basketball understanding of who we were as students” to do what Professor David Perkins has called “playing the whole game motivates layup drills. These classes also discouraged her. She read novels through game at a junior level.” For example, participants in a musical the- frequently involve a real (if bounded) element of choice; students need to produce an essay or math class, skipped days, contemplated drop- ater production have the opportunity to experience the process documentary film that accomplishes certain aca- MEHTA AND FINE ping out, and barely graduated with a 1.8 GPA. from soup to nuts: the initial line reading, the blocking, the devel- RECOMMEND THESE opment of the set design, the back-and-forth between directors demic objectives, but they can choose the topic PUBLICATIONS TO Rose has proposed a solution. In his book and actors, and, ultimately, the integration of these elements in a that interests them. Finally, and perhaps most LEARN MORE: The End of Average, he illustrates that class- importantly, the ethos of these classrooms is simi- final performance. By contrast, core disciplinary classes rarely af- 3 lar to what one might find at an athletic practice THE MEANS TO GROW rooms are falsely designed to cater to the “av- ford students a glimpse into the domains to which they are con- UP BY ROBERT HALPERN erage learner.” Fourth-graders take tests and nected. Science students, for example, often do not see how new or theater rehearsal — an ethos that combines 3 read texts written at a “fourth-grade reading scientific knowledge is produced unless they work in a laboratory playfulness with purposefulness, drawing together “THE WHY, WHAT, the warm virtue of passion and interest with the WHERE AND HOW OF level” that assume an “average” fourth-grad- during college or graduate school. DEEPER LEARNING IN Part of why the extracurricular mode is so powerful is that cooler virtues of intellectual demand. er’s knowledge of rock formations and the Civ- AMERICAN SECONDARY it draws from the tradition of apprenticeship learning. Unlike There is much to be learned from these “ex- SCHOOLS” BY MEHTA il War and the “average” fourth-grader’s cog- in most disciplinary subjects, adults who lead these activities tras”; they illuminate some of the most important AND FINE AT GSE.HAR- VARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS nitive development. In reality, Rose says, “that frequently continue to be involved as participants as well as qualities that characterize powerful learning en- average fourth-grader doesn’t exist.” Each stu- teachers — they play in adult soccer leagues, act in community vironments. Strong teachers already incorporate 3 “FROM THE COURT TO dent is much more “jagged” in his or her skill- theaters. This serves to deepen their understandings and com- some of these features into their classes; if this THE CLASSROOM: OP- PORTUNITIES FOR EN- set — advanced in memory, underdeveloped in mitments, as well as to keep their perspectives fresh. Finally, became the rule and not the exception, perhaps students would be as excited for what happens GAGEMENT, LEARNING organization, say, or vice versa. By designing extracurriculars draw together opposing virtues that are critical AND IDENTITY IN BAS- for sustained and deep learning: passion because students have during the school day as they are for what hap- KETBALL AND CLASS- for the average of everyone, the classroom is chosen the arena and are seeking to excel in it, and precision pens after the final bell. ROOM MATHEMATICS” ideal to no one. And in this design, boredom because there are ample opportunities for practice and feedback. BY NA’ILAH SUAD NASIR JAL MEHTA IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND VICTORIA HAND runs rampant, and there’s no room for a cure. Once we began to see this world this way, we realized that the AT THE ED SCHOOL AND SARAH FINE, ED.M.’13, AT GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ “If you see human potential as a bell curve most powerful core disciplinary classes that we observed shared IS A DOCTORAL STUDENT. ED/EXTRAS and there are only some kids who are going to

be great and most kids are mediocre, then en- KATES TOM OPPOSITE: SAXLER; PATRICIA ROSE: HERE CREDIT

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were creating classrooms where students were human anatomy fit into her future. But Sem- experiment testing various wavelengths and sibility of how we rethink our own environ- really engaged and motivated.” These teach- row says she graduated by the grace of the few light intensities, and then present their data in ments in the classroom.” ers trusted students to sometime control the teachers who did stress relevance. a form of a letter of recommendation to NASA. For example, poor scheduling also culti- class. They tried to learn from their students Pereira says that the examples of how biol- Rose adds that high schools rarely take ad- vates boredom. Seven a.m. start times for high as much as they taught. They weren’t afraid to ogy fit into his students’ lives — for example, vantage of an adolescent’s cognitive develop- school often mean rising at dawn to catch the go off script. explaining the water cycle through the Flint, ment. Teenagers “take on identities; they’re bus, which means much less sleep than the In some ways it’s no surprise Spanish and Michigan, water crisis — often “weren’t good more socially oriented. This is the first time National Sleep Foundation’s recommended calculus were my worst subjects senior year: enough. They’re not in teenage language.” To when abstract ideas can be motivating. They eight to 10 hours a night, which means severe- They had the most monotonous curricula and counter that, he often let students “give better become more politically engaged and think ly diminished alertness. In most high schools, the dullest teachers. In Spanish we spent weeks examples that translate to the larger group.” about things like justice. Yet we’re still keep- regardless of the subject, the day’s first class- watching the “educational” and horrendously And when the class seemed particularly bored, ing them in the kind of education system... es have the worst average grade. Schools that acted soap opera La Catrina and more weeks he made room for in-class adjustments to re- that wants nothing from them in terms of their have bumped start times an hour later have slogging through call-and-response lessons ignite the lesson. For example, when he start- own ideas. School has already decided what seen the number of Ds and Fs cut in half. recorded 20 years earlier, on cassette. I had by ed a photosynthesis lesson one day, students matters and [what it] expects from you. It’s Mehta adds that “having students take six then ruled out a career in math, and my teach- sighed, “We already know this.” But one stu- like an airplane: Sit down, strap in, don’t talk, or seven classes of 45 or 50 minutes at a time er did little to explain the pertinence of limits dent brought up a news article about scien- look forward. Why would it be meaningful?” basically gives them enough time to just start and derivatives in my life beyond that I may tists who were experimenting with growing The beauty of relevance, Rose says, “is that to do something before the period ends.” fail another test. My English and U.S. history plants in space. Pereira then decided the stu- it’s free. If you’re an educator or curriculum de- Often, much of that time is spent reviewing teachers, however, inspired me to thrive. Mr. dents would design their own photosynthesis veloper, and you saw your responsibility to en- homework and menial tasks, exacerbating Howell had us imagine how Huckleberry Finn’s sure every kid knew why they were doing what boredom. Semrow notes that “being in school Jim and Pap would interact if they were guests they were doing, you can do that tomorrow.” longer would have given teachers more free on Da Ali G Show and helped us identify falla- “Those kids were time to reach out to me” to get to know her cies by having us debate the war in Iraq. And strengths and weaknesses as a learner. Mr. Rice culminated each chapter of Ameri- curious, they listened Educators and scientists have yet to agree can history with a class-wide debate in which intently, and they on a definition of boredom, let alone unearth we each assumed the role of a different figure were excited to take its exact causes and cures in the classroom. from that period, bonus points for showing up Of course, impassioned teachers who com- The most exhaustive book on the subject to date, in costume. chances.” municate the relevance of their lessons of- Boredom in the Classroom: Addressing Student Of course, there’s value in teaching students ten aren’t enough. JILL GOLDBERG, ED.M.’93, who Motivation, Self-Regulation, and Engagement in 24 VICTOR PEREIRA, LEFT, ON WHEN 25 to suck it up and work. As Mehta notes, learn- HE WAS TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL teaches fifth grade at a public school in New- Learning, is 72 pages long. As Dean James Ryan ing any discipline or gaining any skill requires SCIENCE, WHERE STUDENTS OFTEN tonville, New York, has been shaping her les- recently wrote in Education Week, “Boredom a certain amount of “necessary boredom. ... COMPLAINED OF BEING BORED, sons to be more interesting and relevant for ought to be considered much more seriously HE REMEMBERS OBSERVING If you want to be a great violinist, you’ve got to A SECOND-GRADE SCIENCE the past 24 years. Still, her students fiddle with when thinking about ways to improve student practice your scales. You want to play basket- TEACHER’S LESSON, AND pencils, scribble notes to friends, and “practi- outcomes. ... I would think it is in all of our in- ball? You’ve got to shoot your free throws.” An LEAVING THE CLASS DEFLATED. cally have drool coming out of their mouths.” terests at least to confront this stubborn fact of overemphasis on engagement, Emory professor She tells them, “I wish there was a full-wall school rather than simply to accept boredom as Mark Bauerlein writes in “The Paradox of Class- mirror behind me ... , so you could see what inextricably linked to learning.” room Boredom” in Education Week, may inad- your faces and body language convey to me.” “But the biggest shift we need,” Rose be- vertently “stunt students in preparation” for col- Goldberg lays some blame on parents. lieves, is much more elemental. “We need to get lege, where pushing through tedious work — like When she asks her students why they’re in away from thinking that the opposite of ‘bored’ memorizing equations for organic chemistry school, “they tell me it is because their parents is ‘entertained.’ It’s ‘engaged.’” It’s not about — is required to advance. “In telling [students], work and so this is where they need to be dur- pumping cartoons and virtual reality games ‘You think the material is pointless and musty, ing the day. Some say it’s like their ‘job’ to go into the classroom, it’s about finding ways to but we’ll find ways to stimulate you,’ high school to school. ... No child ever [says] that learning make curriculum more resonant, personal- educators fail to teach them the essential skill of and being educated is important. No one ever ized, and meaningful for every student. “En- exerting oneself even when bored.” says that they love to learn new things no mat- gagement is very meaningful at a neurological “The problem,” Mehta says, “is that we ter what the subject. No parents or students level, at a learning level, and a behavioral level. haven’t created trajectories where students seem to believe that pure learning for the sake When kids are engaged, life is so much easier.” see the meaning and purpose that would make of learning is the goal. the necessary boredom endurable.” The prob- “Why do my students’ parents work?” Gold- ZACHARY JASON IS A BOSTON-BASED WRITER WHO WRITES FOR BOSTON MAGAZINE, THE BOSTON GLOBE lem is relevance. berg adds. “They most likely tell their children MAGAZINE, AND THE GUARDIAN. Every teacher and academic I talked to kept that they work in order to make money in order coming back to relevance. Semrow says she to live the life they want to live. But do they love grew bored because for most subjects, “I didn’t their work? Why have they chosen the field in see what it meant for my life.” Few teachers which they work? Are these adults who are in- contextualized their lessons. “Especially for spired to make the world a better place?” 17- and 18-year-olds, we’re dealing with a lot of Rose, however, cautions against casting too FOR MORE ON ROSE’S END OF AVERAGE RESEARCH FROM OUR FALL 2015 ISSUE: GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/ issues about what’s next for us.” The curricu- much blame on parents. “Even though it feels EXTRAS. READ DEAN RYAN’S BLOG POST ON BOREDOM: lum rarely addressed how trigonometry and right, it will excuse [society] from the respon- GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS

Photograph by Tim Llewellyn

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No More the Sub

WHAT IF YOU BROUGHT IN A MUSICIAN OR FARMER INSTEAD OF A WORKSHEET WHEN A TEACHER WAS OUT FOR THE DAY?

Story by Lory Hough Photographs by Jonathan Kozowyk

Sarah Cherry Rice, founder of Parachute Teachers

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while Sarah Cherry Rice was visiting a public She was blown away. “It was like, holy cow.” school, she noticed an adult sitting in the back She wondered: Wasn’t there a better way to pro- ofOne a class texting. “Who’s that?” she asked. vide schoolsday, with high-quality substitutes that It was the substitute teacher. “I was like, made it easy on them, hassle-free for teach- what? It felt like there was a babysitter. No ers, and full of useful learning for students? “I teaching or learning was going on. I already didn’t think I was the person to solve this,” she don’t like inefficiency, so the thought that we jokes, but nonetheless, she came up with an were paying folks to be in a class and babysit idea that one Boston principal calls “amazing,” and do nothing or just pass out worksheets or one he wishes he himself had come up with. put on a movie” didn’t sit right, she says. An Uber for substitute teachers. At the time, Cherry Rice, now a second-year 28 Ed.L.D. student, was consulting in schools for 29 Mass Insight and hadn’t given much thought to the subject of substitute teaching. But then WHAT IT IS another incident happened. “I sit on the site Called Parachute Teachers, Cherry Rice’s idea council for my daughter’s school in Boston, is, at its core, actually pretty simple: Para- and a mom asked me when there would be chute finds high-quality subs, handles back- a substitute in her son’s class. She said she ground checks, offers basic training, and does wasn’t going to send him in on those days be- the scheduling. Principals in Boston Public cause it was always such a horrible situation.” Schools, where she’s been piloting the pro- Is the state of substitute teaching, what gram since last school year, email her when one Atlantic Monthly writer calls “education’s they need someone and she takes care of the toughest job,” really that bad? rest. (Eventually, there will be a database that Turns out, it kind of is. “Almost everyone principals and office staff can log into to book appreciates at a gut level that what happens in Parachute subs themselves.) the regular teacher’s absence is not often some- But here’s why the idea is actually so thing to brag about,” said researcher RAEGEN “amazing”: Parachute is more than just an MILLER, ED.D.’05, in a recent Education Week sto- outsourcing service that provides a warm “ONE GIRL WHO HAD ry. “It’s kind of an underbelly, one of the darker body when a teacher is out. It’s more than just secrets of what happens in public education.” a way to counter the substitute shortage. The MOVED HER CHAIR TO As Cherry Rice discovered, substitute pay subs themselves are unique. Cherry Rice knew THE FRONT OF THE ROOM SAID, is very low, averaging about $105 a day. Left that, in order to be successful, “Parachute had ‘OH! I GET IT. THE EMULSIFIER with busy work, even subs not texting often to disassociate from the existing substitute IS LIKE A GOOD SONG THAT have difficulty keeping kids engaged (sink the teacher model,” beginning with the teachers. COMES ON TO MAKE THE BOYS sub, anyone?). Across the country, a substitute “I started interviewing people, and it turns AND GIRLS DANCE TOGETHER!’ shortage is leaving schools shorthanded while out Boston has an incredible ecosystem of teachers struggle to prep lesson plans for subs people who have expertise and want to be in IT WAS A BRILLIANT to use. While some substitutes are excellent, schools, but there hasn’t been a clear pathway ‘AHA’ MOMENT.” at the extreme end, Cherry Rice discovered to come into schools,” she says. Most people numerous stories about substitutes getting as- don’t know where to begin or who to call to get Alexis Daniels, right, who started as a Parachute teacher saulted or having inappropriate relationships started; many assume you need a teaching last year at the McKay K–8

with students. degree or at least have some classroom expe- School in East Boston HERE CREDIT

Illustration by John Doe

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PARACHUTE TEACHERS rience to be a sub. (You don’t. Requirements cord their results,” she says. “To describe the vary by state, from as little as a high school concept of an emulsifier, I used the analogy “PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH AN diploma or GED to a bachelor’s degree in any of being at a dance, with boys on one side of OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE subject — not specifically education.) the room and girls on the other. They don’t THINGS THEY HAVEN’T EVER Cherry Rice decided that Parachute teach- want to touch, so you have to add something TALKED ABOUT BEFORE.... IT ers would be a different kind of substitute else, something special, to make them stay to- WAS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT — experts in a range of fields — and they’d gether.” They discovered that mustard was the THEY NORMALLY LEARN. teach in a different way. Instead of handing best emulsifier, but Daniels’ favorite discovery out worksheets or popping in a movie, or even came at the end of class. THE KIDS LOVED IT.” relying on a lesson from the regular teacher, “One girl who had moved her chair to the Parachute teachers would instead bring their front of the room said, ‘Oh! I get it. The emulsi- Jordan Weymer, left, principal of the McKay K–8 School in East Boston own project-based plan for the day (or class pe- fier is like a good song that comes on to make riod), and they would ideally come from the the boys and girls dance together!’ It was a community. They would be passionate about brilliant ‘aha’ moment.” the material. A computer scientist, for exam- Jordan Weymer, principal at McKay, loves ple, might parachute into a class and teach these aha moments. He says that while they kids how to create a game using code. An in- still use traditional substitutes — and stress- structor from Berklee College of Music might es that they have several great regulars — teach kids about Yo-Yo Ma followed by a lesson he loves using Parachute teachers because on how to play the cello. A grad student might “they provide students with an opportunity set up a makerspace and ask students to re- to experience things they hadn’t ever talked imagine regular household items. about before.” One Parachute sub brought in Not only does this new approach to sub- a 3-D printer. Another had students do yoga stitute teaching make it easier on the regular and learn about mindfulness. During one of teacher who doesn’t have to prep a lesson, but Daniels’ recent classes, Weymer watched as also — and more importantly — it gets kids students learned that their neighborhood is interested so they’re not throwing paper air- a food desert — an urban area without many planes or falling asleep in the back of the room. fresh food options. “It was different from what “It’s enrichment, and that’s really appealing they normally learn. The kids loved it.” 31 to me as a principal,” says Ed.L.D. candidate Jordy Sparks, a principal and former teacher in Charlotte-Mecklenberg, North Carolina, who has been working with Cherry Rice on the WHY IT’S NEEDED Parachute project. Parachute may have come at just the right time. Alexis Daniels started as a Parachute teach- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as er last year at the McKay K–8 School in East of May 2015, about 626,750 substitute teachers Boston, where she lives and where she found- are hired annually to cover days when regular ed an urban community farm. For nearly two teachers are sick, at the dentist, observing a re- years, she has also been director of a teaching ligious holiday, dealing with a family emergen- kitchen at the local YMCA. cy, or attending professional development. Es- Currently, she subs at least once or twice timates show that, on average, teachers are out a week at McKay (Parachute subs can teach about nine to 10 days during a 180-day year. as little or as often as their schedule allows), However, a 2016 Education Week study found bringing hands-on activities and lessons that nationally, 27 percent of preK–12 teachers about nutrition and food systems. Recently, were absent for more than 10 schools days in she taught kids in a fifth-grade science class 2013–14. Teachers in Hawaii topped the chart about emulsion and polarity, secretly couched at 75 percent absent for more than 10 days, fol- within a lesson on how to make salad dressing. lowed by Nevada at 49 percent. Last year, in “I brought in about a dozen jars, experi- Providence, Rhode Island, where Cherry Rice mental ingredients like red wine vinegar, bak- is hoping to work next, 47 percent of teachers ing soda, mustard, mayonnaise, honey, and were out for more than 18 days per year. flour, and we went through the scientific pro- The logistics of replacing these teachers, cess, seeking to answer the question: Do water as Cherry Rice learned from talks with princi- and oil mix?’” she says. “We created hypothe- pals, was often a huge hassle. Although some ses and made mixtures.” The goal was not just bigger districts have online systems for re- to mix the ingredients, but for the ingredients questing a sub, typically, Cherry Rice says, “A $105 to stay mixed. principal would call Central. Someone would AVERAGE DAILY PAY FOR “Students had to guess what qualities pull out a Rolodex and start calling people and SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS IN THE U.S. made the water and oil stick together and re- then wait for them to call back.”

Illustration by John Doe

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Too often, they don’t call back or already have “I STARTED INTERVIEWING president of the nonprofit National Substitute classroom management or curriculum devel- plans, leaving schools shorthanded. In Boston, PEOPLE, AND IT TURNS Teachers Alliance (NSTA). opment, for example. Daniels ran the urban Cherry Rice says the district needs about 200 “NSTA believes this is a serious mistake,” he farming session with 11 attendees this summer subs a day, and “there are about 30 schools in OUT BOSTON HAS AN says. “Substituting, like teaching in general, is at the Harvard iLab, where Cherry Rice initial- the district that can’t even get people because of INCREDIBLE ECOSYSTEM OF as much art as science. Brain surgery, welding, ly worked on the idea for Parachute and where the shortage and because some subs only want PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERTISE and shoe repair each require specialized train- Parachute continues to be part of the lab’s Ven- to teach in certain schools.” Schools have even AND WANT TO BE IN SCHOOLS, ing. So does successful substitute teaching.” ture Incubation Program. Daniels says more resorted to housing several classes of students in BUT THERE HASN’T BEEN Parachute teachers receive about three potential Parachute teachers wanted in. the gym all day with one teacher. A CLEAR PATHWAY TO hours of basic training to start, before the mi- “I have a waitlist for the next training,” More often than not, other adults in the crocredentialing, and in addition to what the she says. “A lot of people who are interested building fill in the gaps. COME INTO SCHOOLS.” district might require. have a lot of experience with food systems or “We actually had a protocol for this it was “We bring them in for a crash course on nutrition or farming and are passionate about so frequent,” Sparks says. “First, the grade Sarah Cherry Rice, left things like lesson planning, classroom manage- sharing it with students,” especially during chair would disperse the class into other class- ment 101, and how to own your presence in the the cold months, when not much is growing in rooms on the grade level. If there were too classroom,” says Sparks, who helped develop New England. “They want to be substitutes, many students, a member of my leadership the training program. “This is the first step to but they don’t have school experience.” team would teach the class. If folks’ schedules becoming a Parachute substitute, which is one During the first training, Daniels shared were too loaded, I would generally teach the step more than most substitute teachers get.” tips and lessons she’s honed so far as a Para- class. To be sure, I enjoyed doing this and did it Daniels remembers her first day as a Para- chute teacher — the things you can’t learn often; however, I’m still not confident that the chute teacher at McKay. She had plenty of ex- from a manual or online training course. lack of preparation benefitted students in the perience working with kids in afterschool set- “I told them, these are good questions same way a prepared substitute would be with tings, but never in a classroom setting. to ask on your first day at a school. Here’s a a great lesson and passion for the subject.” “It was a nervous day. My very first lesson great list of things to bring to class,” she says. It’s even a strain on the regular teacher try- was very ambitious,” she says. “One of my oth- “Here’s a lesson I did that flopped or one that ing to take a day off as he or she scrambles be- er gigs is teaching at Tufts, so I’m used to col- worked really well.” The course is about 8 to forehand prepping curriculum for a regular lege students. This was a class of sixth-graders, ten hours of work, which includes videos to substitute to use. many non-English speakers. I later realized watch, articles to read, and in-person training As a result, “there are a lot of teachers who that probably a lot of what I was saying was go- at the iLab on topics like behavior manage- 32 come to work sick because it’s more work to ing over their heads. I’ve since learned a lot, ment and how to problem solve on the fly. Stu- 33 take a day off,” Sparks says. “It’s really a three- especially to quickly assess what kids know.” dents had to submit a completed lesson plan. day ordeal: prepping for the substitute the Her initial training helped, but as she told Cherry Rice says she’s happy with what day before, the day you’re out, and the next Cherry Rice, she needed a bigger tool kit. “She they’ve achieved so far, focusing on one ur- day getting things back on track. That’s a lot ity” with payments, she says. “A school might was hearing the same sentiment from other ban district, but looking forward she wants to of stress on teachers. I want them instead to only need someone for an hour. However, in Parachute teachers. Now Sarah’s developing figure out how to expand the model to other know that if you want to take a day off, we have Boston, and most districts, you have to pay microcredentials to do that and also to build high-needs areas. an awesome teacher lined up.” regular substitutes for the full day. Teachers 626,750 in incentives to be a better teacher: earning “What does it look like to scale this?” she Research has also found that teacher ab- need that flexibility, like anyone would want in more badges translates into more bookings says. “That’s our big focus.” sences can affect student achievement. their job, but principals can’t provide it.” Para- and feeling better trained,” Daniels says. Daniels, too, sees the potential in expand- NUMBER OF SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS “On average, it’s a six-month loss” of learn- chute teachers can be hired for just one class NEEDED ANNUALLY IN THE U.S. These badges are a way to fine-tune teaching — especially for the students. ing over the course of a student’s career, says — and for those juggling several part-time ing skills — skills that people without classroom “You’re bringing in something kids wouldn’t Cherry Rice, “but in urban areas, it can be as jobs or needing to get back to the office, this is experience might not think much about or have exposure to or limited exposure,” she high as a year.” Even 10 days of teacher ab- preferred. Cherry Rice says she is also looking know how to approach, like how to build rela- says. “It’s something different and enrich- sences can have an impact, Miller and former into grants that schools can use to buy materi- tionships with students you’ve just met or how ing. So you’re immediately received positively Ed School professors Richard Murnane and als for Parachute teachers to use. to make sure your lesson plan stretches the full by kids. We’re working with teachers on how John Willett found in 2007, reducing, for ex- 55-minute block. Often described as bite-sized to get the attention of the kids, that you need ample, students’ math achievement by 3.3 per- skill development, microcredentialing “sets a hook. For me, people love food. When I first cent of a standard deviation. Parachute teachers apart from traditional started, I wanted to get to know the students. I And the cost isn’t cheap. In 2012, in a report WHAT’S AHEAD substitute teachers,” Sparks says. “The badg- went into the lunchroom and asked questions, for the Center for American Progress, Miller Now in its second year, with about 150 sub- es are the things that a principal can say, ‘Oh, got to see who they were.” Eventually, she says, estimated that the cost of substitute teachers stitutes in its queue, Parachute has added a this teacher has a five-star rating and those cre- she knew it was working when other kids in the and related administrative expenses across the new — and teachers say much-needed — fea- dentials,’ which allows for some choice for the lunchroom asked who she was. “And then they country added up to at least $4 billion annually. ture: more training, using something called principal. And since students spend so much started asking, ‘Can you come to my class?’” Luckily, another unique feature of Para- microcredentialing. While some districts time with substitutes, it’s important for those LORY HOUGH IS THE EDITOR IN CHIEF OF HARVARD ED. chute is that it doesn’t cost schools any more do require a few hours training (usually on- folks to constantly be learning and improving than they are already spending on subs. line), traditional substitutes often get little to their craft. That only makes sense.” “We tap into the money they have already no training before stepping into a classroom 27 The first two badges offered this past sum- set aside for substitutes,” Cherry Rice says. — certainly a far cry from the amount of time mer were “urban farming” and “facilitator PERCENT OF PREK–12 TEACHERS Parachute subs are paid the district-set rate it takes to become a certified full-time teacher. WHO MISSED MORE THAN 10 SCHOOL of learning.” Future microcredentials might LEARN MORE: PARACHUTETEACHERS.COM. FOLLOW for traditional subs. “And there’s more flexibil- This doesn’t make any sense, says Jim Politis, DAYS IN 2013–14 focus on specific areas of interest to teachers: THEM ON TWITTER: @PARACHUTETEACH

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Rethink the

34 35

DO ALTERNATIVE GAP-YEAR PROGRAMS HAVE LESSONS FOR TRADITIONAL HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES? STORY BY BRENDAN PELSUE

ILLUSTRATION BY BEN KIRCHNER

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commonly between high school and college. But the American Gap Association, an accredi- tation organization founded in 2012, advocates “We currently see increasing rates of depression, thinking of gap years not as “time off,” but as substance abuse, sexual assault, et cetera,” “an experiential semester or year ‘on,’ taken to on college campuses. “And a key component deepen practical, professional, and personal is students are going to campus with no purpose awareness.” The number of gappers is impos- and direction around their learning, with no sible to measure — it can be hard to know how sense of what it means to be an adult.” many high school seniors who delay college robin pendoley, ed.m.’03, will enroll eventually and how many are end- cofounder of thinking beyond borders ing their formal educations. Still, colleges are seeing more students defer admission, and there are now 38 national gap-year informa- tional fairs annually, up from seven in 2008. Harvard College has encouraged the practice “We currently see increasing rates of de- for decades, and Princeton, Tufts, and the Uni- pression, substance abuse, sexual assault, et versity of North Carolina–Chapel Hill have all cetera,” on college campuses, Pendoley says. recently launched programs that help incom- “And a key component is students are going ing students participate in gap years. to campus with no purpose and direction Media debate around gap years typically around their learning, with no sense of what it revolves around economics. Does what’s good means to be an adult, and so students are get- for the few, the questioning usually goes, come ting lost in destructive behavior because they at the exclusion of the many? According to this don’t have the support to step into a higher ed line of thinking there are gap-year advocates, community.” The best gap-year programs, he like BOB CLAGETT, ED.M.’91, who has done studies believes, provide students with the indepen- showing that gap-year alumni outperform their dence, curiosity, and sense of purpose to help peers in college, who nonetheless worry that them negotiate this predicament. These quali- high-profile gappers like Malia Obama con- ties, he says, can also be fostered at traditional 36 tribute to the “widespread perception that gap- high schools and colleges though this will re- 37 year experiences are the delaying of the rich quire deep changes to the ways that many in- and famous.” (Advocates argue that gap years stitutions approach their missions. Malia Obama, right, on may 1, 2016, the office of the first are in fact more affordable than they seem at Gap years, in other words, might be more accepted to Harvard Lady announced that Malia Obama would first glance.) And then there are gap-year crit- than simply time for self-discovery or unaf- College, decided to delay 35% her start date and in- take a gap year. The first family’s personal ics, like Senior Lecturer Mandy Savitz-Romer, fordable luxuries. They might be laboratories choices have a tendency to serve as national who point to data indicating that time away where educators can ask the kinds of big ques- gappers attended private school stead take a gap year. (Based on a 2014–15 survey Rorschach blots, dredging up our hidden feel- from school reduces the chances that students tions that are becoming increasingly difficult by the American Gap Association ings about everything from organic vegeta- — especially those from first-generation and to consider in the results-driven worlds of of 558 gap-year alumni) bles to Portuguese water dogs, and this was lower-income backgrounds — will ultimate- high school and college: What makes students no exception. Malia’s gap year was “Part of a ly complete their degrees. They are wary of a genuinely curious? What kind of adults do we Growing (and Expensive) Trend,” ran a head- world where gap years become like French horn want our education system to help create? And line in The New York Times. It was “The Ulti- solos, spots on the fencing team, or any of the how do we get there? mate Sign of Luxury,” read an opinion piece other feats privileged high schoolers use to pad Gap years could hold clues to big changes. in the New York Post. An editorial in The Tele- their resumes: “one more thing,” Savitz-Romer graph thought Malia was “right” to take a gap says, “for less-advantaged students not to know year while The Atlantic pointed out that stu - about and not to have.” dents who take time off after high school have But this easy division into pro and con, have a lower chance of completing college. NPR, and have-not, glosses over some of the subtler PBS, and The Guardian all did segments. Ev- thinking occurring across the gap-year world. eryone, it seemed, had an opinion about what ROBIN PENDOLEY, ED.M.’03, cofounder of Thinking it means to take time away from school. Beyond Borders (TBB), a gap-year program When The national spotlight is shining on gap focused on international development, ad- years at what might be a watershed moment vocates for another lens on the situation. He for the trend even without the Obamas’ help. agrees that questions of economics and equity pendoley enrolled at the ed school as By some estimates, the number of “gappers,” are essential in any discussion of gap years, a special studies master’s student in the fall of or students who take gap years, has doubled in but he also believes there is a breakdown in 2002, the term “gap year” was just entering the past 10 years, though exact figures are hard how our education system prepares most high the American vocabulary (mostly thanks to to pin down. Partly, that’s because the term is school students for adulthood — and that gap- Prince William’s high-profile, post-Eton stint loosely defined. In the common lexicon, a gap year programs offer clues toward a corrective teaching in Chile), but the phenomenon had

year is time off from formal education, most IMAGES GETTY of this breakdown. been around under other names for decades.

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first, Pendoley demurred, but soon they met Sandy Cooper, a former Peace Corps volun- “Part of the problem of our current approach teer and Americorps team leader, and the con- is that we teach theory. Writing is theory. versation got bigger. How, they all wondered, could international education create really Literature is theory. Students aren’t meaningful change? out in the real world engaging and grappling They found their answer in gap years. The with the engagement.” market was growing and offered a chance to robin pendoley innovate outside the confines of traditional educational institutions. “We could create the curriculum, and we could create the pedago- gy,” Pendoley says. By spring of 2007, they quit their full-time jobs to design a program that HOLLY BULL, ED.M.’94, says her father, Cornelius, would foster three values they believed were had banked on “interim year” or “interim common to great change-makers throughout time” when he founded the Center for In- history: a sense of purpose, a capacity for hum- terim Programs, the country’s first gap-year ble learning, and higher-order empathy. counseling organization, in 1980. After two In fall 2008, Thinking Beyond Borders (TBB) formative gap years of her own, Bull eventu- launched its first offering, Global Gap Year. Stu- ally joined her father at Interim, where she is dents visited nine countries over 35 weeks, study- now president. In the past 30 years, she says ing poverty, sustainability, and equity. Since she has seen gap years grow from limited be- then, Global Gap Year has evolved somewhat ginnings at private schools on the East Coast (it’s now six countries in 28 weeks), and TBB into a national trend — mostly, she says, be- has launched semester-long programs as well, cause both parents and children increasingly one focused on food security and public health see the value in putting students “at the reins,” in Asia and another focused on empowerment in a position to decide what is of value to them and sustainability in South America. and what is not, before starting college. Despite its focus on international develop- 38 Those decades of gap-year growth were ment, TBB is not a social change organization. 39 far from Pendoley’s mind when he graduated Pendoley says that too often travel programs from the Ed School and began working in pub- for young people fall into the trap of “volun- lic schools in and around Boston. He loved the tourism,” a combination of sightseeing and work and eventually became a middle school light manual labor that assuages the first- 24% coordinator at a Montessori charter school in world guilt of the volunteers but does little to said their parents or Newburyport, Massachusetts, but found the change the structural problems that create peers influenced their decision to take a gap year emphasis on grades and test scores made it poverty in the first place. At TBB, as students difficult for students to engage directly and travel, they observe, listen, and repeatedly “authentically” with their world and their in- ask, “What is development?” — a question terests. “Part of the problem of our current that inevitably leads to a number of subtopics: approach is that we teach theory,” he says. What should my role be in development? What “Writing is theory. Literature is theory. Stu- systems create poverty in the world today? dents aren’t out in the real world engaging and How am I complicit in those systems? Whose grappling with the engagement.” That trajec- responsibility is it to fix the situation? tory continues through the end of high school, For TBB students, this self-reflection can and then students enter college, where “there be profoundly shaking. Alexandra Duncan, are mountains and mountains of learning op- an alumna of TBB’s first Global Gap Year, says portunities ... and your success on campus is she began her time at TBB “hoping to save the dependent on your ability to chart a course for world” and left having no idea no idea how to yourself.” A tall order, he says, when your aca- do so. What, as the program asked, was de- demic life until that point has given you little velopment? How could it be done right? Was chance to engage your curiosity. she even sure it was her responsibility? “I had In the summer of 2005, Pendoley took a job to start from scratch,” she says. “I had to find leading a summer program in Costa Rica for one thing I knew was right, which was doing no Rustic Pathways, a company that organizes harm, and go from there.” That led her down travel and service programs for high school an unexpected path: After TBB, she went to students. There, he connected with Chris Sta- Tufts, then took time off to train as a doula. She kich, a Harvard College alum who asked Pen- eventually graduated from New York Univer- doley if he wanted to help him create a study sity and founded Praxis Clinical, a New Haven,

abroad program for high school students. At Connecticut-based medical training company. ANDERSON ANDERSON JILL JILL STEWART; STEWART; MARHTA MARTHA TBB;

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public high schools nationally) and 18 percent come from households that earn more than “The problem isn’t a lack of facilities $200,000 annually. Many programs, includ- or experts.” The problem is “we don’t ing TBB, offer need-based scholarships, but accessing those funds requires both informa- have a group of students prepared to step tion and guidance, a tall order in urban schools on campus and chart a course that is where a single college counselor can have 700 meaningful for themselves.” students on his or her caseload. There are robin pendoley cheaper ways to take time off — paid volunteer programs like Americorps and City Year are often described as “funded” gap years — but Pendoley believes that “unless there is a major change in how we fund undergraduate educa- When Duncan arrived at Tufts in the fall tion,” gappers will never account for more than of 2009, she noticed commonalities among 3 to 4 percent of the college-bound population. the students who had taken gap years. “We He also thinks, however, that the demon- had a clearer sense of what we wanted from strated benefits of gap years can be created in our education,” she says. Research confirms other ways. “A more intentional approach to her observations. In 2011–12, while dean of ad- the college transition is important,” he says, missions at Middlebury College in Vermont, and the gap-year world offers clues about Clagett studied the college careers of gap-year how that could happen. Specifically, Pen- alumni. Using methodology developed with doley says that effective gap-year programs Ed School Lecturer Terrence Tivnan, he com- (and he is quick to point out that not all gap- pared the “academic rating” that admissions year programs are, by his definition, effec- officers assign to applicants (a combination tive) give students two key opportunities they of grades, test scores, teacher recommenda- aren’t finding at school. The first is a chance tions, etc.) with their actual academic perfor- to engage with the real-world questions that mance once they enrolled at Middlebury. Gap feel burning to them. In contrast, many high 40 years, he found, were a better predictor of aca- school and even college course loads are about 41 demic performance than SAT or ACT scores mastering pre-existing bodies of knowledge for all four years of college, and that was true rather than engaging curiosity. The second is whether the students “spent $40,000 or an adult mentor who can help students reflect flipped hamburgers.” Clagett speculates this on fundamental questions like who am I? Who 81% is because gap years allow students to make do I want to be? How do I get there? Students said they were likely connections between life and education, arriving in college encounter new levels of per- to recommend taking a gap year to others two circles of experience that, for many high sonal and academic choice, but lack trusted, schoolers, barely overlap at all. Clagett thinks nonparental role models to help them navigate this schism is partly responsible for what he this enormous freedom. calls the “infantile behavior” of many college “The problem isn’t a lack of facilities or students. That’s difficult to prove, of course, experts,” Pendoley says. The problem is “we but his study does give empirical backing to don’t have a group of students prepared to step Pendoley’s hunch: that there are better ways to on campus and chart a course that is meaning- help our young people transition to indepen- ful for themselves.” dence than we are currently providing. On one level, the change Pendoley hopes for is programmatic. He would like to see more colleges offer freshman study abroad — focused, small-group trips designed to get students to think about what they want from their college experience before they arrive on campus. And he would like to see similar programs on campus. Perhaps students could spend their first se- If mester in small groups, meeting all day every day with a single professor to engage deeply in a topic that relates to the world around them, the benefits of gap years are well like gentrification, social class in America, or documented, the barriers to participation re- public health. main high. The American Gap Association On another level, however, Pendoley knows says that 84 percent of gappers are white (com- the change he is describing will mean going

pared with 50 percent of students enrolled in deeper than alterations to the curriculum. It DOOHER KATHLEEN TBB;

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essential to democratize the trend. She cites NEWS + NOTES FROM OUR ALUMNI COMMUNITY evidence that delaying college raises the like- “I’m not an advocate for lihood that lower-income students won’t complete their degrees at all and wonders if the gap years. I’m an advocate term “gap” in “gap year” implies that college is the inevitable next step after high school, an for meaningful and intentional assumption that tilts towards privileged stu- spaces in the college dents. She advocates for thinking in terms of “bridge years,” which she describes as high transition.” school–college transition experiences sup- robin pendoley ported by existing educational institutions. As examples, she cites the Myra Kraft Tran- Grad. sitional Year Program at Brandeis University, which gives students who haven’t had access to AP and honors courses a year of academics will mean getting schools to be explicit about designed to prepare them for advanced under- the purpose of higher education, which he graduate level coursework, and Northeastern sees as “trying to prepare students for fulfill- University’s Foundation Year, a similar pro- ing lives and careers that contribute to a bet- gram for students living in Boston. These ter world.” He knows that some academics fo- programs are not categorized as gap years cused primarily on scholarship will disagree because “they’re designed for lower-income with that assertion — the debate over whether students,” Savitz-Romer says. But “there is an universities exist primarily to create fulfilled opportunity to reconceive what we think of as citizens or to advance knowledge is not a new gap years. ... We could broaden the definition one — but he does see most of higher educa- a little bit and in doing so we could also learn “ I don’t think that anyone tion “stumbling” toward something like what something from these programs because they stays in this field of he describes, even if “we are missing some of have something to teach us by being tied to in- education — I’ve been at the tools to get there.” stitutions already.” Harvard for 40 years — 42 Those tools, however, seem to be appear- For Pendoley, any and all of these efforts unless her temperament 43 ing. In the last decade or so, colleges and uni- could be an important part of transforming and stance are hopeful and versities have incorporated many new learn- a higher-education system where “the cost determined, unless she ing models. In 2009, Princeton launched the no longer reflects the value.” Gap years are can find a way to resist 77% Bridge Year Program, a tuition-free nine- among the places where it’s currently possible cynicism and blame, and month international service program for in - to experiment with remedies to this problem, cultivate searching took their gap year between high coming freshman. In 2015, Tufts started a 1+4 to try new ways of mentoring, of allowing stu- school and college (16% took a gap questions and imaginative program, which extends university financial dents to ask questions, of engaging real cu- year during a leave of absence thinking. I, for one, refuse from college, 5% after college, 2% aid to students looking to fund service years riosity. If the gap world’s capacity for experi- before career/no college) before starting college. In 2016, with the help mentation changes, Pendoley’s focus might to be cynical about teachers and children and about of MADELAINE EULICH, ED.M.’16, the College for change as well. Social Innovation launched Semester in the “I’m not an advocate for gap years,” he the capacity of these folks City, a 15-week program where college ju- says. “I’m an advocate for meaningful and to do good work.” niors receive college credit and financial aid intentional spaces in the college transition.” SARA LAWRENCE-LIGHTFOOT, ED.D.’72, while working in social impact organizations The real challenge, he believes, is not to pro- IN A HARVARD GAZETTE Q&A ABOUT HER in greater Boston. Some gap programs, like vide more graduating high school students LIFE AND CAREER LEAPNOW, are affiliated with universities, with exotic travel experiences. It’s to find bet- which means students graduate with transfer- ter ways for our society to manage one of life’s rable college credits and are eligible for Fed- most essential rites of passage — the journey eral Student Aid under Title IV. Ethan Knight, to adulthood. the head of the American Gap Association, is working with the Lumina Foundation to de- BRENDAN PELSUE IS A WRITER BASED IN velop “a more universally applicable method NEW YORK. HIS LAST PIECE FOR ED. PROFILED THE LANDMARK SCHOOL. for transcribing experiential learning,” which he hopes will help gap programs meet Pell Grant documentation requirements. Some in the gap-year world are skeptical of too much integration with traditional education (Knight wonders if, perhaps, gap years

need to “stand apart” to be effective), but Sav- READ A LONGER STORY ABOUT THE LAUNCH OF THINKING

itz-Romer says that these efforts are actually BEYOND BORDERS: GSE.HARVARD.EDU/EXTRAS HERE CREDIT

Illustration by Riccardo Vecchio

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Hill, Massachusetts, and would be common goal. Jamentz has been a ciation. He served as an elementary 1952 1962 IN MEMORY “delighted” to see any Ed School teacher, administrator, curriculum school principal for 27 years in four , M.A.T., writes , Ed.M, retired as alumni in the area. consultant, and academic deputy schools in both urban and suburban 1950–1959 William Forbush Vaughn Nelson that following his time at the Ed dean of the Research and Informa- superintendent. Massachusetts. He says he is “pas- CHARLES PHILLIPS, M.A.T.’51 School, he was in the U.S. Medical tion Technology Graduate School at Jane (Kamps) Strauss, M.A.T., was sionate about the principalship” and THOMAS GRAVES JR., GSE’52 Corps and then served as a teacher West Texas A&M University in 2001 elected last summer as vice chair Nancy Traina-Sulek, Ed.M., was committed to providing principals COAN (BELL) HANSON, M.A.T.’52 administrator and acting head of and continued as director of the to the Fairfax [Connecticut] County appointed development officer at professional learning and support. EDMUND GLEAZER JR., ED.D.’53 Friends Academy in Locust Valley, Alternative Energy Institute until School Board. She is a former el- Volunteers in Medicine Hilton Head He is deeply grateful to the Ed JOAN HORRIGAN, M.A.T.’53 New York. He received a doctor of 2003. He has written several books ementary and preschool teacher. Island, the free health care clinic in School, particularly to Roland Barth, ALICE FRAENKEL, M.A.T.’54 education in 1960 from Columbia on renewable energy, bioenergy, Hilton Head, South Carolina. for the preparation he received to VIVIENNE KALMAN, ED.M.’54 University and was headmaster of and wing energy. This year, he took be a school leader. JILL COGAN, ED.M.’55 1975 the Friends School in Baltimore from up quilting; many of his pieces have VIRGINIA JOHNSON, M.A.T.’55 1986 1960 to 1998. More recently, For- a science or math motif. Harold Goldmeier, Ed.D., pub- LORRAINE GREENSPAN, ED.M.’56 1990 bush served as board chair, trustee, lished an ebook this past summer, Anthony Baxter, Ed.M., recently SYLVIA MENDENHALL, M.A.T.’56 and archivist at Sheppard Pratt Healthcare Insights: Better Care published From Prisoner to PhD: Elaine Brzycki, Ed.M., recently DOROTHY (DUTTON) SCOTT, 1971 M.A.T.’56 Health System. Better Business. He writes that he is Reflections on My Pathway to De- published Student Success in FREDERICK DANKER, M.A.T.’57 Mary Clare (Hummer) Decker, currently teaching international uni- sistance from Crime and Addiction. Higher Education: Developing the MARY (ALFORD) WILLIAMS, M.A.T., is no longer teaching but is versity students in Tel Aviv, Israel. Whole Person through High-Impact 1961 M.A.T.’57 working full time as an attorney for hgoldmeier.wordpress.com. Elena DeVos, Ed.M.’83, Ed.D., edited Practices (see page 17), which MARY ANNE LADD, ED.M.’58 Dwight Wall, M.A.T., retired after 53 Deloitte LLP in Boston. Her husband the book An Unlikely Strength: introduces a new model for student SAMUEL POWERS, ED.M.’58 years teaching English and AP lit- of 42 years, Michael, died April 29, Tourette Syndrome and the Search success based on the psychology 1976 RUTH (GRIFFITH) SHOLES, erature at Greenwich [Connecticut] 2015. She writes that their three for Happiness in 60 Voices, a collec- of well being and student-centered ED.M.’59 High School. For many years, he was daughters are great companions, Dvora Yanow, Ed.M., was awarded tion of stories about how Tourette learning. The book represents the ANN WHITTIER, ED.M.’59 also the faculty adviser to the Beak, and the growing family now includes a fellowship at the Käte Hamburger syndrome affects the lives of adults mission of The Center for the Self the student newspaper. Prior, he four grandchildren with another Kolleg/Centre for Global Coopera- and children. As she wrote in a re- in Schools, which she co-founded 1960–1969 taught at East Hartford High School. on the way. She lives in Chestnut tion Research in Duisburg, Germany, view of the book, “The 60 voices tell with her husband, to impact the ELGIN BOYCE JR., M.A.T.’60 of doctors who understood them, emotional, psychological, and RUDOLPH CARCHIDI, ED.M.’61 Tazi Lee O’Hair, class of 2038, son of Grace Lee, and those who didn’t. Of schools physical well-being of young people 44 BARD (ROGERS) HAMLEN, 45 M.A.T.’61 SPOTLIGHT Ed.M., can’t contain his joy over the summer 2016 that took them seriously and those through education. She writes, “I 1999 STUART DECOVSKY, M.A.T.’62 issue of Harvard Ed. who let bullying occur. Parents am looking forward to partnering ROBERT SHIVELY, ED.M.’62 share their techniques for dealing with like-minded alums, sharing our HELEN POPP, ED.M.’60, ED.D.’64 with the medical and educational vision for the transformative effect MICHAEL CURLEY, M.A.T.’65 Inspirational. professionals. Every person’s stark that education can have on young DENNIS WALSH, M.A.T.’66 which is affiliated with the Universi- Institute, research fellow in the individuality strikes readers, along people’s health and well-being. ty of Duisburg-Essen. The fellowship Center on Terrorism at the John Jay with the commonalities we all share, Always happy to hear from alums at: 1970–1979 Practical. runs through March 2017. While College at CUNY, a visiting professor as humans.” [email protected].” there, she is working on a book on at the University of Uppsala, a fellow SALLY LUNT, ED.D.’74 race–ethnic categories and immi- of the German Science Founda- JAMES SLATTERY, ED.D.’74 1989 1991 grant integration policy. tion Moral Psychology Group, and EDWARD TAYLOR, ED.M.’75 Grounded in Research. , C.A.S., became execu- , Ed.M.’86, Ed.D., super- MARTIN HUNT, ED.D.’76 a licensed psychologist in clinical Rick Rogers Stacy Scott practice at Psygroup in Brussels. tive director of the Massachusetts intendent of schools in Framingham, JUNE BARNHART, ED.M.’78 1979 DONALD BURGESS, ED.M.’78 Day’s work has been published in Elementary School Principals’ Asso- Massachusetts, was named to the JANET BAKER-CARR, ED.M.’79 Heather Weiss, Ed.M.’71, Ed.D., many scholarly journals, including MARGARET CESARIO, ED.M.’79 Explore more than 70 programs recently published Family En- the Behavioral Development Bul- DOROTHY FRAUENHOFER, gagement in the Digital Age: Early letin. He is the father of three living THE 1-QUESTION INTERVIEW: ED.D.’79 for preK-12 and higher education Childhood Educators as Media Men- children: Julia, Jonathan, and Jacob. RICK ROGERS, C.A.S.’89 tors. Weiss is founder of the Global 1980–1989 professionals. Family Research Project. 1985 WHY DO PRINCIPALS NEED LEADERSHIP COACHING? JAMES CURLEY, ED.M.’82 Q JOSEPH JACKSON, C.A.S.’83 Kate Jamentz, Ed.M.’84, Ed.D., was 1981 honored by the Fremont Union High Being an effective principal is complex. The question is: How do FREDERICK GREENE, ED.M.’84 A SHER LAKHANI, ED.M.’89 James Meredith Day, Ed.M., is a School District in northern California you develop leaders who can thrive in difficult and constantly DAVID LUSTICK, ED.M.’89 professor of human development by having an award named after her: shifting environments? Coaching can help principals reduce what and the psychology of religion in the the Dr. Kate Jamentz Award: Ensur- [researchers] Pfeffer and Sutton call the “knowing–doing” gap and 1990–1999 hgse.me/ppe_ed faculty of psychology and educa- ing Excellence Through Collegial provides support for principals committed to continuous improve- RUTH TROMETER, ED.M.’92 tional sciences at the Universite Collaboration. The award will honor ment and meaningful change. Coaching is beneficial for all school ULLA MALKUS, ED.D.’95 Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. teams of district teachers who have leaders, not just those who are new or struggling. Even Tom Brady has

GRACE LEE GRACE He is also an associate of the Taos successfully collaborated on a a quarterback coach!

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board of directors for Inversant, a of higher education for planning teacher for 11 years in Kilkenny, Schools in 2014. She writes that the in San Diego, was recognized this 1998 Boston-based nonprofit that helps at the Rhode Island Office of the Ireland. More recently, he was ap- book includes a foreword from the past fall by the Council for Opportu- families learn about and save for a Postsecondary Commissioner. She Brian Buckley, Ed.M., joined the pointed as a mathematics educator minister of education in Honduras nity in Education as a national TRIO college education. has worked at the office and its board of trustees of the Shining at the Marino Institute of Education and endorsements from interna- Achiever. The award was named for predecessor agency, the Rhode Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, in Dublin. He completed his Ph.D. at tional agencies and faculty from the federal TRIO college access and Island Office of Higher Education, Colorado. His three daughters, the University of Michigan in 2008. academic institutions. support programs that have been 1992 since 1998. Norah (9), Clare (6), and Ruby (4), all Delaney has a blog (seandelaney. helping low-income, first-gener- Joseph Arthur Kennedy, Ed.M., was attend the school. com) and podcast (seandelaney. Ana Maria Schlecht, Ed.M., was ation students and students with named assistant professor of Eng- Michael Moody, Ed.M., recently com/podcasts/). named to the board of the Oak Har- disabilities succeed in college for lish recently at Francis Marion Uni- launched a new edtech firm, Insight Carol Watson-Phillips, Ed.M., pub- bor school district in Washington. more than 50 years. versity in Florence, South Carolina. ADVANCE, based in Encino, Cali- lished “Relational Fathering: Sons 2000 fornia. The organization supports Liberate Dads” in the October 2016 Susan Stuebner, Ed.M.’98, Ed.D., Max Klau, Ed.M.’00, Ed.D., recently teachers through video-based feed- issue of the Journal of Men’s Stud- Rose DiSanto, Ed.M., gave the ad- was named president of Colby- became chief program officer at the 1994 back and instructional coaching. ies. The article was an outgrowth dress at the University of Delaware’s Sawyer College in New London, New New Politics Leadership Academy, a Angela Gonzales, Ed.M., joined of her presentation on relational Department of Art & Design 2016 Hampshire. Prior, she was the ex- nonpartisan nonprofit that recruits Arizona State University this past Karen Richardson, Ed.M., was fathering at the International Con- convocation ceremony. DiSanto, a ecutive vice president and chief op- and trains alumni of service pro- fall. She was a professor of devel- named dean of undergraduate ference on Men and Masculinities in graduate of the University of Dela- erations officer at Allegheny College grams, such as military veterans, as opment sociology and indigenous admissions for the School of Arts New York City in 2015. ware, challenged graduates to use in Pennsylvania. She has also held well as alumni of civilian programs studies at Cornell University. Gon- and Sciences and the School of En- their art-making to do something for posts at various colleges, including like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps, to zales is an enrolled member of the gineering at Tufts University, where someone else. She is a volunteer at Lycoming, Dartmouth, Wheelock, run for political office. His first book, 1999 Hopi nation. she has worked since 2008. She Children’s Hospital Boston and at Harvard, Albright, and Carleton. What’s True About Race and Social was director of graduate admissions Seán Delaney, Ed.M., recently The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Change? will be published in the and previously worked as assistant published a guidebook for teach- Ashford, Connecticut. spring of 2017. 1997 2004 dean for undergraduate admis- ers, Become the Primary Teacher Phyllis Harnick, Ed.M., was pro- sions at Princeton and in the Boston Everyone Wants to Have (see page 2001 2006 moted to assistant commissioner Public Schools. 17). Delaney was a primary school Jen Johnson, Ed.M., is a writer Wenli Jen, Ed.M., was appointed by 46 whose pen name is J.J. Johnson. the secretary of the U.S. Depart- 47 She has written three young adult ment of Health and Human Services novels, including the most recent, to serve on the national advisory Believarexic, and is an active blog- council for the Substance Abuse Education ger: jjjohnsonauthor.com/blog. and Mental Health Services Admin- istration at the Center for Mental Health Services. 2002 needs Rodolfo Rivarola, Ed.M., was appointed dean at IAE Business Seeta Pai, Ed.M.’94, Ed.D., joined the Michelle Tiu, Ed.M., and David School in Argentina. Prior, he was director of the school’s SPOTLIGHT more people national educational advisory board Borrelli, Ed.M., were married in Big 2007 executive MBA school. He says he also designed a leadership at the Goddard School, an organiza- Sur, California. After living together program applying frameworks learned from Professor Bob tion of preschools around the coun- in Hong Kong and San Francisco, Kegan and Kennedy School Lecturer Ronald Heifetz. He writes, like you. try. She is currently an independent Matt Aborn, Ed.M., his wife, Monica, they recently moved back to the “My wife, Lucía, and I have been applying all that we have research and strategy consultant and their daughter, Ione, announced Boston area, where they first met as learned in Cambridge in raising our six kids. (We had two more focused on children, families, and the birth of their son (and brother), students at the Ed School. after coming back home.)” They live in Bella Vista, Argentina. Help us find education. Prior, she was vice Augustine Lucien Aborn. He was president of research for Common born on April 3, 2016. Aborn writes, others who share 2007 Sense Media and a senior director of “The family could not be more ex- your passion research at Sesame Workshop. cited to welcome this new little one Valerie Li, Ed.M., recently became into the world!” an assistant principal to be shared THE 1-QUESTION INTERVIEW: for education. between two elementary schools: CAROL WATSON-PHILLIPS, ED.M.’98 2003 Rachael Bregman, Ed.M., is a rabbi Snoqualmie and North Bend, both Stephen Bunch, Ed.M., was ap- at Temple Beth Tefilloh in Brunswick, in Washington. Prior she was an au- WHAT IS RELATIONAL FATHERING? Q pointed by Virginia Governor Terry Georgia. She was recently named tism facilitator and taught preschool McAuliffe to the board of visitors of one of “America’s Most Inspiring in Washington. Relational fathers see fathering as a relationship rather than a A the College of William & Mary, locat- 2016 Rabbis” by Forward. role. They openly engage in mutually growth-fostering relation- ed in Williamsburg, Virginia. Bunch Jennifer (Heckathorn) Spong, ships with their sons. Such relationships are antidotes to destructive, hgse.me/refer_ed is a partner at Cohen Milstein. Ed.M., was named assistant super- stereotypical visions of manhood for both sons and fathers. As a re- 2005 intendent for instructional support sult of being in connection with their sons, fathers reframe manhood Megan Gavin, Ed.M., published Jose Cruz, Ed.M., executive director services at the Onondaga-Cortland- as caring and masculinity as relationship. You can learn more on our

Parental Participation in Honduran RIVAROLA RODOLFO ABORN; MATT of the Barrio Logan College Institute Madison BOCES, one of the boards website, relationalfathering.org.

HED03-BOB-Grad.indd 46 12/21/16 12:22 AM HED03-BOB-Grad.indd 47 12/21/16 12:22 AM Grad. Harvard Ed. The Campaign for the Harvard Graduate School of Education Learn to Change the World

of cooperative educational services 2012 in New York state. Allison Ashley, Ed.M., a third-grade CHANGING THE WORLD THANKS, FAVORITE TEACHER teacher at Becker Elementary in 2008 Dante Melotti, a history teacher at Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills, Austin, Texas, was named teacher of THROUGH EDUCATION: EVERY Michigan, most likely never expected to receive a letter last year from the , Ed.M., was appointed the year in Texas. Ashley has taught Chris Flieger GIFT MATTERS Ed School telling him how much his teaching had affected one of his former principal of St. John the Evangelist bilingual education for a decade. students. But he got the letter, as part of the Ed School’s Applaud an Educa- School in Canton, Massachusetts. Ok, so you don’t plan on giving a million dollars. That’s tor Program, on behalf of SARI WILSON, ED.M.’16, who had contributed to the He was an associate superintendent Sarah (Sprague) Katan, Ed.M., fine. But your smaller gift is still incredibly important to Class Gift Fund. (Any student who contributed at least $50 was offered the for the Archdiocese of Boston. married Chris Katan on July 9, 2016, what we do at the Ed School. Your contribution helps a chance to applaud a former teacher.) in Rensselaer, New York. There to dedicated young teacher afford a master’s in the Teach- Wilson says that Melotti was so happy when he got the letter that he called her during graduation week, saying, “It is certainly one of the great- celebrate were fellow 2012 Ed.M. er Education Program so he can return to his urban high 2010 school as a teacher–leader. It pays for a doctoral stu- est honors I have received as a teacher.” Wilson had lunch with him this classmates Scott Asakawa, Jo past summer when she went back to Michigan to become senior director of , Ed.M., was one of , and . dent to research the effects of mobile technologies in Trevor Ivey Schnitz Dora Lubin the classroom. And it pays for a seasoned school leader alumni affairs at IDEA. During lunch, Melotti gave her a matted and framed 36 national finalists last May for who wants to sharpen her skills to be even more effec- self-drawn print of Memorial Church in Harvard Yard in honor of her gradua- the Albert Einstein Distinguished tion. “I felt like Dante was returning the favor,” she says, “to a fellow teacher.” 2013 tive in her district. Educator Fellowship Award. In June, An excerpt from Sari Wilson’s Applaud an Educator letter: he was also named one of 50 in Leslie Boozer, Ed.M.’07, Ed.D., the 2016–17 cohort of Leadership was appointed superintendent of “For the past eight years, I have been a teacher, mentor, coach, South Carolina. This past Septem- Dublin Schools in Dublin, California. and director, leading work to help more students access college ber, Ivey was chosen for the 2016– Prior, she was superintendent of and beyond. I can honestly say that my passion for education 17 South Carolina Education Policy the Fontana Unified School District, and the ways in which I approach my work came from my trans Fellowship Program, a 10-month Boozer started her career in Ohio as formational ninth-grade world history class with Dante Melotti. professional development program a business litigation attorney. She - for emerging education leaders. is the founder of DiSanto Design: Mr. Melotti believed in the power of voice. Instead of mere lec Ivey is an assistant principal at the disantodesign.com. ture, Dante pushed his students to think for themselves, formu- Alice Drive Middle School in Sumter, late and defend opinions, and question all. Using the Socratic - 48 South Carolina. Michele Elyse Shannon, Ed.L.D., Method each class period, we would analyze historical perspec was promoted to chief of schools tives from diverse viewpoints. ... I learned how to analyze prob - for Boston Public Schools. She lems, to create solutions, and to love the process of learning. - 2011 oversees the team of instructional Because of my experience in his class, I went on to participate Joy Ippolito, Ed.M.’06, Ed.D., was superintendents, formerly known Emily Longenecker, Ed.M., worked in Tbilisi, Georgia (above), in Model United Nations and study abroad in Italy, just to expe recently named the anti-human as principal leaders, and supports SPOTLIGHT for six weeks this past summer. She was part of a six-person 2010 rience learning outside the four walls of a classroom. I am not - trafficking coordinator for the State principals and headmasters in their team, put together by IREX, consulting for the Georgian we believe in the work of the Ed MEET BEN WILD, ED.M.’16 sure he knows, but Mr. Melotti has been an incredible influence of Wisconsin in the Department goal to eliminate the achievement Ministry of Education with the goal to make their educa- BEN WILD (above) talks about why School. Strong alumni participa- on my style of education. As a teacher in the Rio Grande Valley, of Children and Families. Since gap. Previously she was an assis- tion style less lecture and more participatory. She worked he recently gave to the HGSE Fund, tion encourages outside donors graduating from the Ed School, she tant superintendent of leadership for IREX in Washington, D.C., for five years and is now a high which raises much-needed money to write checks. Additionally, the I brought a piece of Dante Melotti to my classroom every day. has been conducting implementa- development and has been a social school world history and geography teacher in Virginia. for student financial aid. opportunities made available to us While other teachers may have been lecturing, I frequently used tion and evaluation research at the worker, teacher, and principal. as students were funded in part by the Socratic seminar method, getting my students to question, WHY DID YOU GIVE WHILE University of Chicago and teaching Q student contributions. This is our think, and believe. I also started the first Model UN program in YOU WERE STILL A STUDENT? opportunity to ensure that future Ed human development for the Urban Blake Sims, Ed.M., founded epiic I decided to contribute to the rural South Texas, which has now grown to over eight different A School students are supported in Teacher Education Program at the solutions, a program that teaches teens to help them become creative Teaching Foundation as a 2016 HGSE Fund and 2016 Class Gift the same ways. schools. This stems from my deep belief in the power of learning Urban Education Institute. business concepts to Boston-area innovators and entrepreneurs. teaching fellow. Mabayoje is in her after witnessing all the ways that the experiences outside of the classroom that push students to own Ed School supports its students. I second year teaching physics at WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW their leadership and learning. These values came directly from was lucky enough to receive a merit- Q East Boston High School. During her THAT YOU’VE GRADUATED? 2014 based scholarship, the Leadership in my experiences in Dante’s classroom.” first year, she helped started the I’m the executive director THE 1-QUESTION INTERVIEW: Education Award, which was a won- A Darienne Driver, Ed.M.06, Ed.D., school’s STEM Pathway Program, of the Walkabout Education BLAKE SIMS, ED.M.’13 derful surprise and tremendous vote Foundation, an organization that I superintendent of Milwaukee allowing students to take at least of confidence from the school. More started right before coming to the Public Schools since 2014, had her five AP STEM courses and complete importantly, I’ve seen where the dol- HOW CAN YOU HELP? LET ME COUNT THE INDIVIDUAL WAYS Ed School. I’m happy to say we’re a WHERE DID THE PROGRAM’S NAME EPIIC, WITH TWO I’S, contract extended through 2019. a capstone research project. lars are spent, and I’ve committed 1. HGSE FUND: Support financial aid for all Ed School students with a gift to Q far stronger organization as a result COME FROM? Prior, Diver was the district’s chief myself to supporting the school in the HGSE Fund. of my time there. Other Ed School innovation officer — the first person whatever ways I can. 2. CLASS GIFT FUND: Support financial aid specifically for the Class of 2018 2016 alums have joined our team, we A friend and former IEP grad Mette Bohnstedt, Ed.M.’13, came to hold the position. with a gift to the Class Gift Fund. A ADVICE FOR OTHER ALUMS made it to the finals in the XQ Super Make a donation in honor of up with the name epiic solutions when piloting our content with Maria Chal, Ed.M., was chosen Q 3. MARATHON CAMPAIGN FOR THE HGSE FUND: THINKING ABOUT GIVING? School Competition, and we’re teachers and Dean Jim Ryan running the annual Boston Marathon. Money Citizen Schools in Boston two years ago. It’s an acronym for entre- by the Knowles Science Teaching I encourage alums to contrib- getting close to launching our first raised goes to the HGSE Fund. 2015 A preneurial, powerful, inspiring, innovative, and creative solutions. Foundation as a 2016 teaching fel- ute because our participation, school. I’m deeply grateful to the Coming up with a name is tricky, and this one stuck. It’s fun and who Oluwanifemi Mabayoje, Ed.M., was low. Chal teaches biology at Cristo even if it’s only a small amount, many ways that the Ed School has TO GIVE: gse.harvard.edu/givenow

doesn’t want to be epic?! chosen by the Knowles Science Rey High School in Boston. LONGENECKER EMILY HERE CREDIT sends a strong message that supercharged our work! FOR MORE INFORMATION: [email protected] JILL ANDERSON JILL Illustration by John Doe

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This Winter on Campus

REMEMBER HOW MUCH YOU LOVED GOING TO ASKWITH FORUMS AND CAMPUS EVENTS? HERE’S A LIST OF A FEW FORUMS AND EVENTS COMING UP THIS SEMESTER, AS WELL AS INFORMATION ABOUT ONES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED IN THE FALL. MANY EVENTS CAN BE WATCHED ON CAMPUS IN ASKWITH HALL OR LIVE-STREAMED AT YOUTUBE.COM/USER/HARVARDEDUCATION. FOR AN UPDATED LISTING OF EVENTS, GO TO THE PUBLIC CALENDAR: GSE.HARVARD.EDU/CALENDAR.

ASKWITH FORUMS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

ALUMNI OF COLOR CON - A CONVERSATION WITH A CONVERSATION WITH WHERE ARE ALL OF THE FERENCE 2017 ANNE HOLTON BEVERLY DANIEL TATUM TEACHERS OF COLOR?

Join the Ed School com- Anne Holton, former secre - Beverly Daniel Tatum, Did you miss this October munity for the 15th annual tary of education in Virginia, former Spelman College Askwith panel discussion Alumni of Color Conference sits down with Professor president and recognized connected to the summer (AOCC). This year’s theme Deborah Jewell-Sherman authority on racial issues, issue of Ed.? No worries. is “Define. Defy. Dismantle: for a conversation as part of will headline the 35th an- We’ve got you covered. Forging Our Legacy Through the Ed School’s Women in niversary celebration of the Watch the video (and videos Activism.” Leadership institute. Principals’ Center. from other past forums) online any time.

MARCH 3 & 4 MARCH 6 MARCH 21 YOUTUBE.COM/USER/ HARVARDEDUCATION

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