I was visiting Swisscom to learn more about its remarkable apprenticeship program. The first thing these student workers told me, proudly, is that earning a spot there is highly competitive. (About 1 in 12 applicants are accepted.) Swisscom is the leading telecom provider in the country. In 2010, the company trained 813 apprentices, averaging about five percent to six percent of 19,500 employees. Swisscom’s apprentices are chosen from among 7,000 applicants each year. The application review process I witnessed was an initial step in sorting out who would join the company.

To continue reading Adjunct Lecturer Nancy Hoffman’s post, please visit Harvard Education Publishing Group’s Voices in Education blog.

Photo: Michael Dwyer/The Weinstein Company

On February 15, Askwith Forums hosted a screening of and panel discussion on Bully, a new documentary by Sundance and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Lee Hirsch. The film follows five kids and families over the course of a school year. As teachers, administrators, kids and parents struggle to find answers, Bully examines the dire consequences of bullying through the testimony of strong and courageous youth. 

In this EdCast, Hirsch, shares stories of the film and explains why this subject is so personally important to him.

Download audio file (lee_hirsch.mp3)

Download the mp3: The Bully Pulpit

About the Harvard EdCast

The Harvard EdCast is a weekly series of podcasts, available on the Harvard University iTunes U page, that features a 15-20 minute conversation with thought leaders in the field of education from across the country and around the world. Hosted by Matt Weber, the Harvard EdCast is a space for educational discourse and openness, focusing on the myriad issues and current events related to the field.

In this EdCast, Marsalis, explains how the spirit of music informs his unprecedented series of ongoing Harvard lectures.

Download audio file (wynton_edcast.mp3)

Download the mp3: The Jazz in Teaching

About the Harvard EdCast

The Harvard EdCast is a weekly series of podcasts, available on the Harvard University iTunes U page, that features a 15-20 minute conversation with thought leaders in the field of education from across the country and around the world. Hosted by Matt Weber, the Harvard EdCast is a space for educational discourse and openness, focusing on the myriad issues and current events related to the field.

“Dr. Effie Jones was a stellar career educator, who used her considerable talents to maximize opportunities and successes for students and emerging system leaders, with a focus on significantly augmenting the senior leadership pool with more woman and people of color,” Sherman said. “Through the efforts of many, I have been mentored and supported, which has allowed me to serve in leadership positions that exceed even the most grandiose dreams of my youth. To be recognized for continuing the tradition of reaching back as one climbs is perhaps the highest tribute to those who believed that demography would not define my destiny.  In their honor, I cannot and will not do less.”

Throughout her career, Jones maintained a professional and personal commitment to diversifying the field of education with high-quality leaders and to ensuring the best education for all students. The recipients of the honor given in her name have picked up the torch of equity and social justice and demonstrate its humanity in their lives. The award was first given in 2004 and recipients are selected by an external independent panel of AASA members and representatives from the National Alliance of Black School Educators and the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents.

Prior to joining the HGSE faculty, Jewell-Sherman served as superintendent of Richmond Public Schools, culminating in her being named Virginia Superintendent of the Year 2009 by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents. During her appointment, 95 percent of Richmond’s lowest performing schools achieved full accreditation under Virginia’s Standards of Learning reform legislation. In addition, the district improved from 18 percent to 91.7 percent of all schools meeting this standard as measured by the State Department of Education in 2008. Currently, Jewell-Sherman serves as the director of the Urban Superintendents Program and is the principal investigator for an initiative between the faculty of HGSE and the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. Jewell-Sherman also serves as a key faculty member for the Doctor of Education Leadership Program (Ed.L.D.).

IEP master's candidates visit a preschool in Casablanca over J-Term.

During J-Term 2012, a group of 15 graduate students from the International Education Policy Program (IEP) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) spent 10 days researching the Moroccan Education system. Representing the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Morocco, Russia, and Japan, the delegation set out to conduct rigorous comparative education policy analysis under the theme of “Implementing Quality in Education.”

This study abroad program emerged when a group of IEP students convened and decided to launch an ambitious comparative educational study across three wildly diverse contexts: Brazil, Jamaica, and Morocco. These countries were selected as regions of interest due to their status as emerging economies, political powers, or educational innovators. Although they represented a wide spectrum of cultures, ethnicities, and education systems, they shared the characteristic of a commitment to innovative education reform.

In the case of Morocco, the country is currently in the process of implementing a sweeping educational reform. Its flagship initiative, the new National Education Emergency Program (“Plan D’urgence” 2009–2012) introduces a series of comprehensive educational reform at all levels, with specific emphasis on education for all and improving quality of outcomes.

In Rabat, the group attended meetings with several departments of the Ministry of Education, including the Department of Strategy, Planning, and Statistics; the department for the promotion of private education and cooperation; the Department of Curriculum ; the Department of Quality; the Department of Higher Education; and the Department of Non-Formal Education. Outside of the ministry, the group visited the regional offices of UNESCO, USAID, World Bank, the Higher Education Council, and the Regional Academy of Education and Training for the Rabat region. Highlights of the trip included visits to a community youth center and preschool in Casablanca, in which participants had the opportunity to enter classrooms and interact with Moroccan school children.

Amid the diversity of organizations and entities, several issues consistently emerged: improving literacy rates, improving gender parity, improving rural education, reducing dropouts, and promoting 21st Century Skills. There were also recurring questions regarding the policy implications of language of instruction, privatization, and decentralization.

Many of the participants drew parallels between the ongoing issues of the Moroccan reform efforts and their own respective education systems. This trip provided students a unique opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the strengths of the Moroccan education system and areas in which they have room to improve. Students were able to apply skills and information learned at HGSE to a real-world context, where abstract policies become concrete practice with measurable results. The experience was extremely valuable for the students, who hope to formulate policy suggestions that will help the Moroccan Ministry of Education continue on their trajectory of improvement and the provision of a quality education to all students.

Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, announced today that Oprah Winfrey will be joining them at Harvard University for the official launch of the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012. Oprah will appear alongside Lady Gaga as she formally unveils BTWF before a crowd of policymakers, nonprofit organizations, foundation leaders, students, and youth at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Askwith Forum.

For up-to-date information about the launch, please visit gse.harvard.edu/ladygaga. To enter a public raffle for tickets, "like" HGSE on Facebook. facebook.com/HarvardEducation

Lady Gaga also will be joined by several renowned guests including prolific author and speaker Deepak Chopra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, and Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School’s Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. The one-day event will be cohosted by BTWF, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The California Endowment. Highlights of the launch event will be featured in an upcoming episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter on OWN: OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK.

BTWF has partnered with the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The California Endowment and The Berkman Center at Harvard to explore the best ways to reach youth and create a new culture of kindness, bravery, acceptance, and empowerment. BTWF, a nonprofit charitable organization, will address issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring and career development through research, education and advocacy. With a focus on digital mobilization to create positive change, BTWF will lead youth into a braver new society where each individual is accepted and loved as the person they were born to be.

Additional details concerning the Born This Way Foundation launch will be announced closer to the event date, February 29th, 2012. Please visit: www.BornThisWayFoundation.org to take the pledge and become part of the movement.

About The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. MacArthur’s $85 million digital media and learning initiative aims to determine how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to education and other social institutions that must meet the needs of this and future generations. More information is at www.macfound.org/learning.

About The California Endowment To Empower Youth
The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. The Endowment challenges the conventional wisdom that medical settings and individual choices are solely responsible for people’s health. The Endowment believes that health happens in neighborhoods, schools, and with prevention. And as such, the Endowment has embarked on a ten-year campaign to improve the health of young people residing in vulnerable, at-risk communities through stronger and innovative prevention approaches. For more information, visit The California Endowment’s homepage at www.calendow.org.

About Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Founded in 1997, through a generous gift from Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman, the Center is home to an ever-growing community of faculty, fellows, staff, and affiliates working on projects that span the broad range of intersections between cyberspace, technology, and society. More information can be found at cyber.law.harvard.edu.

About the Harvard Graduate School of Education
Since its founding in 1920, the Harvard Graduate School of Education has been training leaders to transform education in the United States and around the globe. Today, our faculty, students, and alumni are studying and solving the most critical challenges facing education: student assessment, the achievement gap, and teacher effectiveness, to name just a few. Through the Ed School’s 13 master’s programs, two doctoral programs, and extensive executive education programs, the HGSE community is pushing the frontiers of education, and the effects of our entrepreneurship are improving the world. More information can be found at www.gse.harvard.edu.

About OWN: OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK
A joint venture between Harpo, Inc. and Discovery Communications, OWN: OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK is a multi-platform media company designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives. OWN debuted on January 1, 2011, in approximately 77 million homes on what was the Discovery Health Channel. The venture includes the award-winning digital platform, Oprah.com. For more information please visit www.oprah.com/own.

Media Contacts:
Amanda Silverman
42West
Amanda.Silverman@42West.net
(212) 774-3683
Sarah Rothman
42West
Sarah.Rothman@42West.net
(646) 254-6030

PLEASE NOTE: We expect heavy demand for tickets to this event. To enter a public raffle for tickets, “like” the Ed School’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/HarvardEducation) and wait for a post about the raffle. For more the most up-to-date information about the event, please visit www.gse.harvard.edu/ladygaga.

Master's candidate Megan Marcus' FuelEd was awarded first prize at the Education Innovation Pitch Competition.

On Thursday, February 2, a packed crowd turned out to the Harvard University i-lab to hear seven students pitch their education ideas to judges at the second annual Education Innovation Pitch Competition (EIPC).

“The huge turnout in part is due to the work HGSE is doing to help foster these ideas,” said Ed L.D. student Beth Rabbitt, who directs BRIDGE, an Ed School organization that aims to unite students, professors, and professionals from all of Harvard’s schools to foster the future of education innovation within a shared, collaborative space.

This year there were 70 students who submitted plans from across the university. From that number, 16 made it to the semifinals and seven presented at the final round. With ideas ranging from websites aiming to fill the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math through craft-making to a health newsletter geared toward elementary students, the pitches were broad, diverse, and original.

Finalists had five minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges including Professor Monica Higgins, Associate Dean for Planning and Research Keith Collar, and Fulcrum Investments President Dan Leeds.

“This was really well worth coming in from Washington,” Leeds said, noting how impressive the entries were this year. “It took us almost twice as long to decide the winners [as it has in the past]. We had a hard time deciding.”

In the end, FuelEd – a nonprofit that seeks to reduce teacher turnover by creating a curriculum that works on developing interpersonal relationships among teachers – took home the $6,000 first prize. FuelEd is the brainchild of HGSE master’s candidate Megan Marcus, who told the judges, “America’s teachers are drowning, but only because we haven’t given them an oxygen tank.”

Marcus came to the Ed School with the intention to launch FuelEd. She said she spent a lot of time thinking about the high teacher turnover rate and pondered what was missing from teacher preparation that might be causing it. Her encounters with classmates – many whom had been teachers – further focused her thoughts on improving teacher training through research and building interpersonal communication skills. She worked with a team that included fellow Ed School students Tracy Money, Radhika Khandelwal, Anu Oza, Meaghan Dowdle, Irene Chen, Christopher Vaughan, and Chris Kajander, and Lesley University student Pearl Hill. “This diverse group has been immensely helpful as the experiences they have shared from their time as former teachers really underscore the need for FuelEd,” Marcus said.

Now, after winning the grand prize, she said she can really get started on turning FuelEd into a reality. “I am building the pilot curriculum now and this will provide some padding in the pocket to get this started,” Marcus said.

In addition, The Plot Thickens – an interactive storytelling and story-building website for tweens to help build literacy skills heading into high school by Ed School students Aaron Morris, Bryn Keating, Chelsea DeLorme, Rebecca Fisher, and Gabrielle Santa-Donato  – received the $2,500 second-place award. In third place, receiving a $1,500 award, was Harvard Kennedy School student REy Faustino, who created One Degree, a website tool that will be used to provide an additional intervention to connect kids and families to poverty fighting resources.

Martha K. Ferede as a child, shortly after her arrival to Canada from Ethiopia at age 7. (Photo by Sidney Pratt)

What is it like to be a refugee, fleeing from a distant land to the doors of a Western nation? For doctoral student Martha K. Ferede, Ed.M.’06, the answer lies in the voices of the refugees themselves.

Ferede – who settled in Canada as a child when her own parents were granted asylum as political refugees from Ethiopia – hopes to make these voices heard. “Right now is a tense time in terms of Canadian refugee policy and there is a lot of rhetoric, but how often do you hear the voice of the refugee in the discourse and debates?” she says.

Ferede’s dissertation, It Takes a University, explores the social and academic integration experiences of refugees — largely coming from Kenya, Malawi, and Thailand, as well as Iraqi urban refugees from Syria — who were resettled directly into Canadian universities.

Ferede, a former fourth-grade teacher for first and second-generation immigrant and refugee children in a high-needs area in Toronto often saw a disparity between her students’ community and the education system. Many of her students’ families had come from developing and war-torn countries and made homes in a high-poverty community representing over 100 nationalities and languages, she says.

“Despite significant challenges, it was also a place of hope where parents held high educational aspirations for their children. However, I soon learned that many were unaware about the process to and in tertiary education,” Ferede says. “[Observing] this disconnect solidified my commitment to understanding the challenges and experiences of newcomers in accessing and succeeding in universities and colleges.”

By focusing on Canadian universities, Ferede’s dissertation is unique in that it will spotlight a program that is the only one of its kind in the world: the World University Service of Canada’s (WUSC) Student Refugee Program (SRP). Administered by Asni Mekonnen and Michelle Manks of WUSC, run by student volunteers, and financed through the Trillium Foundation, donors, and by students in higher education institutions across Canada, the SRP enables refugees to resettle and pursue their post-secondary education at Canadian universities and colleges. Groups of student sponsors come together to form local committees, helping refugees with everything from setting up a bank account to understanding cultural nuances.

John Gherang Maduk from Brock University participates in a WUSC leadership meeting. (Photo by Galen Fick.)

“SRP is a really powerful program,” Ferede says, noting that Canada is currently the only country in the world that allows for the private sponsorship of refugees. “Sponsoring refugee students into degree programs reimagines the university as a space for refugees’ academic, social, and personal growth and, perhaps, as a springboard for effective integration within the broader society. I believe that SRP could serve as a useful example for other countries searching for an effective way to integrate resettled refugees.”

Ferede’s study utilizes four different research methods: document and database review, observations, semi-structured interviews, and social network maps. Although it is not scheduled to be complete for another year, she recently finished the first round of interviews and is impressed by the resourcefulness, drive, and determination of the refugees she interviewed, many of whom view the SRP as their only way out of the refugee camps.

“I was fascinated by the role of technology in shaping the lives of the refugees,” she says. “They are using technology not only to mediate relationships they have, but to create relationships with family members they thought they had lost due to wars and displacement. It is amazing.”

In the end, Ferede not only hopes to share recommendations with WUSC that may help improve the SRP but also hopes to share the findings with education and immigration policymakers who require sound evidence to make informed decisions.

“For me, this type of research is not looking at pathology, but looking at agency, at people who have accomplished great things in the face of so much,” she says. “Immigrants and refugees are often clumped together in the literature, but in reality, the experiences and circumstances of refugees are unique. I believe they should be treated as such.”

In this exclusive interview with the EdCast, Duncan reflects on the future of ed schools and college tuition increases, and makes predictions for Harvard men’s basketball.

Download audio file (arne_edcast.mp3)

Download the mp3: The Arne Duncan Interview

About the Harvard EdCast

The Harvard EdCast is a weekly series of podcasts, available on the Harvard University iTunes U page, that features a 15-20 minute conversation with thought leaders in the field of education from across the country and around the world. Hosted by Matt Weber, the Harvard EdCast is a space for educational discourse and openness, focusing on the myriad issues and current events related to the field.

Watch the Digital Learning Day webcast to learn more about the EcoMobile project.