Thomas Arnett is a Research Fellow of Education at the Clayton Christensen Institute. His research focuses on the changing roles of teachers in blended learning environments and other innovative educational models.
Edtech entrepreneurs and school choice advocates sometimes invoke disruptive innovation as an indomitable force that will redeem and transform broken school systems.
A recent report found that most educational software licenses go unused in K-12 districts. The findings unveil a clear disconnect between district software procurement and classroom practice.
In addition to being content instructors, we also expect teachers to be curriculum designers, assessment creators, and experts at evaluating student work and analyzing student learning data, not to mention experts in classroom management and culture, coaching students on self-management, providing students with social and emotional support, and being the primary school connection with parents and families.
We don’t have a clear pipeline for preparing and developing personalized learning teachers. What we really need is a single organization with an integrated solution to show us how to do personalized learning and teacher development really well.