Education is fond of fads: If it feels good, fund it

Giving every student a laptop was supposed to transform education -- for the better. Now Chromebooks are back in the carts, and students are flashing mini-whiteboards or writing with pencils on pieces of paper.

Like 1:1 devices, "21st-century skills, trauma-informed pedagogy, flipped classrooms" were supposed to be the answer, writes Robert Pondiscio. Why is education so damned fad-prone?" Can't anyone remember that the last shiny thing failed to work? And the one before that?

Among other things, Pondiscio writes, change is how administrators show they're leaders. The new superintendent" announces a bold vision, rebrands existing efforts, and introduces a new set of priorities. Three years later, often before results are fully visible, that leader departs," and a new one comes in with bold new ideas. If the experiment is working, it's hard to sustain the success.

"Schools that improve often do so through unglamorous means: adopting a coherent curriculum, building teacher expertise, reinforcing consistent instructional routines, and maintaining focus over time," he writes. It's not flashy. And it is fragile.

Education innovators don't worry about proving that their ideas work, 22nd-century skills guru Paul Banksley (a fictional character) tells Rick Hess. “We inhabit an aspirational praxis, one where we envision transformational potentialities and nurture them via a deep-seated, future-facing belief in the urgency of now. That requires language that summons untapped opportunities to unlock crucial philanthropic support.”

“Just because a program hasn’t worked in the past and doesn’t work today doesn’t mean it won’t work in the future . . . What counts is what feels true." -- education consultant Paul Banksley

Even if there's no evidence it's effective, "there are hints that some applications of our core intuitions may lead to an exciting array of innovative practices with regards to emotive and equitable benchmarks. And this, of course — supported by best practices, AI-infused classrooms, and added investment — is the way to usher in a future of personalized, permissionless educational transformation.”

In the "search for solution-ness," what counts is "what feels true," not what can be proven, says Banksley. "We’re weaving new realities . . . That’s what the funders are paying us for!”

Half of social-science research papers can't be reproduced or replicated, and education research does the worst, reports Nicola Jones in Nature. A massive study found many published social-science papers -- especially in education -- don't provide enough data to be evaluated.

Only 2.9 percent of education papers provided data that could be checked, notes

Kyle Saunders on Sacred Cow BBQ.