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Feedback is Fundamental
Under the right conditions, normal human beings can learn to do anything — from speaking human languages, to Advanced Placement Calculus, all the way to more advanced and complicated skills like running effective classrooms, schools and school districts. This is proven every day, by people operating in the most difficult circumstances—poor children, often from broken families and communities, taught by highly effective, but mostly anonymous educators who have learned how to generate those ‘right conditions’.
So what are the right conditions? There are obvious factors like motivation and opportunity to learn, and these must be in place; but today, I’d like to focus on a condition for learning that we think about a lot at Efficacy: people who consistently learn are people who, when faced with learning challenges, are always able to make feedback from their experiences, and use it to guide their strategies for improvement.
Remember that feedback is not the same thing a ‘data’. Dat...
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Efficacy and Peres Elementary in the News
We are proud to announce that Peres Elementary and the Efficacy Institute were recently featured in the March/April 2011 issue of NEA Today (published by the National Education Association). The feature appeared along with, "The Praise Paradox," an insightful article about the power of praise by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. You can read the Efficacy/Peres feature below or click here to read the article, including "The Praise Paradox" online.
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Mass. considers new goal for MCAS
President and Founder of The Efficacy Institute, Jeff Howard, is chairing a task force to address the "proficiency gap" in Massachusetts; yesterday the group presented their report and recommendations to state board members. The report sets a goal that every student population (including currently underperforming groups such as English Language Learners, Black, Hispanic, and Low-Income), reach 85% proficient or advanced by 2020. The board will vote on task force recommendations next week.
Click here to read more about it from The Boston Globe (by Jamie Vaznis).
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Jeff Howard on NPR
NPR's Ed Gordon speaks with Jeff Howard about the national issue of education reform; click on the link below to listen now: Click Here
(c) npr.com
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Proficiency Now! A Rallying Cry for Black Folks in the 21st Century
Dr. Jeff Howard's essay from State of the Race addresses the desperate need for a "Third Movement" - the mission of proficiency for all children. "Proficiency Now!" also offers a method, The Self-Directed Improvement System™, to help communities mobilize around this mission.
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The Possible Dream: A Nation of Proficient School Children
Cara Feinberg's article for Ed., The Magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Eduction, details how the "Get Smart" Mindset Smart drives Dr. Jeff Howard and The Efficacy Institute in their quest to educate all children.
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Still at Risk: The Causes and Costs of Failure to Educate Poor and Minority Children for the Twenty-First Century
First published in A Nation Reformed? American Education 20 Years After A Nation at Risk, Dr. Jeff Howard identifies two critical problems at the heart of our on-going failure to educate all children to high levels.
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You Can’t Get There From Here: The Need for a New Logic in Education Reform
Dr. Jeff Howard explains the current educational model in America, and outlines key elements for change. Originally published in Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, this article offers a in-depth summary of the Efficacy Approach for education reform.
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Getting Smart: The Social Construction of Intelligence
This excerpt, published by Dr. Howard in Network Newsnotes: The International Network of Principals' Centers, identifies a prevalent belief about intelligence that is counterproductive to the mission of getting all students to proficiency.
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TECHNOS Interview with Dr. Howard
Mardell Raney interviews Dr. Jeff Howard for TECHNOS, about the history and importance of the "Get Smart" Mindset and the Efficacy Mission.
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The Third Movement: Developing Black Children for the 21st Century
Dr. Howard addresses the crisis of underdevelopment among black children in America, and proposes a third social movement lead by mobilized black adults to attack the problem head-on. (Originally published in The State of Black America.)
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An Attribution Primer
Dr. Jeff Howard's primer offers a crash course in Attribution Theory: The study of how people explain their failures and successes.
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The Effects of Expectancies for Reference Group Performance on Individual Performance
Jeff Howard's dissertation for the Harvard University School of Social and Public Psychology outlines the effects of group expectancy on individual performance behavior, affect, and cognitions.
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