Hewlett Foundation President Larry Kramer spoke recently at the Commonwealth Club of California about the origins of our current political polarization and what the Foundation’s Madison Initiative is doing to address it. Audio of his talk is now available.
Katrina Schwartz, writing for KQED’s MindShift blog, on the new Deeper Learning Planning Guide by Monica Martinez and Dennis McGrath: Many school administrators, teachers and parents want the education provided to children to be high quality, rigorous and connected to the world outside the classroom. Teachers are trying to provide these elements in various ways, but a group of …
Bob Lenz of Envision Schools (a grantee of our Education Program), in an op ed in the San Jose Mercury News, on the “false choice” between skills and college readiness for high school students: Learning to code is cool, but I fear we will be in an either-or situation: learn code or learn academics. Schools like the ones …
Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, Cyber Initiative Program Officer Eli Sugarman makes the case that hackers—the white hat wearing kind—are critical to U.S. cybersecurity: During his State of the Union address last month, President Obama singled out hackers as one of America’s principal cyber enemies and called for stiffer criminal penalties against them. Fans of this tough rhetoric should beware: …
Dick Meyer, writing for DecodeDC: What are the core values of the U.S. Constitution? “We, the people,” the poetic expression of the idea of democratic self-government, is surely at the head of the list. Most of us would probably add the values guarded by the addendum to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights: free speech, freedom …
Debra Blum, writing in The Chronicle of Philanthropy: A sweeping movement is under way among nonprofits to more regularly collect information and consider the perspectives of the people they serve. New tools and services, like apps that run text-message surveys, are springing up to aid feedback efforts, and new grant money is trickling in. What’s more, …
Point Lobos State Natural Reserve (Photo Credit: David Seibold, licensed under CC BY NC 2.0) Paul Rogers, writing in the San Jose Mercury News, has a good write-up on a new report from the California Parks Forward Commission, which the Hewlett Foundation supported: California’s venerable state parks—from sunny Los Angeles beaches to towering redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains—are under “serious stress” and …
Nice piece by Sharon Noguchi in the San Jose Mercury News on the inroads being made by open educational resources: “We’re just at the initial stages of a revolution in education,” said Matt Chamberlain, principal of Venture School, an independent study school in the San Ramon Unified School District. Selecting and managing online material is challenging, “but to put resources …
SAN FRANCISCO and MENLO PARK, Calif.—The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation are pleased to announce the recipients of a $300,000 initiative to support the creation and production of new dances by California choreographers. The funds are directed toward innovative California choreographers who represent a wide spectrum of cultural and …
Later this morning, Education Program Officer TJ Bliss will be featured in a livestreamed event at the University of Northern British Columbia: Bliss will be sharing his perspective on the worldwide OER and open textbooks movements, participant perceptions of OER, and examples of effective application of OER in higher education. The University of Northern British Columbia …