Dodge City’s New Frontier
A high school in the famed Kansas town is embracing its rapidly changing demographics.
Education
97 posts
The Surprising Problem With U.S. Manufacturing: It’s Creating Too Many Jobs
An ongoing theme of our reports from “career technical” schools—like this high school in Georgia and this community college in Mississippi and these high schools and tech-training centers in California and South Carolina, and these colleges in Vermont and Maine—is that for…
‘The Last Best Hope for Public STEM Education in Mississippi’
Over the years my wife Deb and I have frequently mentioned the remarkable Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. You can read about some of its successes in posts collected here,…
Budget Challenges at a Remarkable Mississippi School
An update on what's happening at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.
Why the Maker Movement Matters: Part 1, the Tools Revolution
Just like the internet before it, the Maker Movement is revolutionizing manufacturing, with implications for startups and jobs.
Deb Fallows at the University of Redlands
During our West Coast travels for American Futures reports in the winter of 2014-2015, my wife Deb and I were based at the University of Redlands, in southern California. From…
Tech Meets Art in Middle School
A South Carolina public school gives tech-savvy students a sense of humanity.
How America Is Putting Itself Back Together
Most people in the U.S. believe their country is going to hell. But they’re wrong. What a three-year journey by single-engine plane reveals about reinvention and renewal.
Mississippi Students Write About Life in Their Home State
Inspiring young writers connect with their literary legacy
Punching Above Their Weight in Mississippi
Mississippi schools come in #49 in many national rankings. Read these essays and poems by high school students from Columbus, Mississippi. Then tell the folks who make up the rankings that they need a different algorithm.
Another Look at Maine Maritime: Who is Providing Value, to Whom, and How?
In response to our series of posts about Maine Maritime Academy, we heard from a reader who pushes back on the notion that the merchant-marine academies provide very high career-earnings value to their students, at a low cost.
When High School Means a Build-It-Yourself Education
A charter school in Oregon encourages students to shape their own learning
A Community College at the Center of an Oregon Recovery Story
When the lumber industry left, the region bet its future on technology—even though it lacked a research university.
Building for the Future, In California’s Famously Failed City
The Los Angeles Times has a big, new demonstration of how bad things have gotten in the city of San Bernardino. Here’s a look at people doing their best, despite those odds.
A High School That Changes Lives, One at a Time
Teachers and students in a bankrupt California city, determined to make progress
Post-Memorial Day Note: Another Kind of Service, San Bernardino
"I don't just sit around. I don't sleep much. That's what I do. I do stuff." The story of a man determined to do something for his town.