Once More: Thanks for some amazing moments

As I suggested yesterday, many of the Pearson Foundation’s best moments in 2011 came about when we were fortunate enough to help deliver the work of an individual or organization with others who otherwise might not have benefited from this connection.

This happens all the time, in a lot of small but important ways. Some of the bigger connections this year all had to do with identifying, exploring, and sharing best practices—of broad, national educational systems, and of individual, innovative educators working to develop smart approaches inside and outside the classroom.


Three quick examples worth celebrating before we begin again this year:

• Exploring Best Practices with OECD. When the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results were released last December, the Pearson Foundation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a series of videos documenting the most effective education reform strategies from around the world. The series, “Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education” examines the innovative partnerships that led to improved student learning and, ultimately, more access to high-quality education in several of the PISA top-performers. The existing collection includes in-depth looks at the relationships among officials, educators and students in such places as diverse as China, Canada, Poland, Germany, Brazil and Finland.
  
  One of the year’s finest moments: seeing for the first time the way in which OECD’s Andreas Schleicher expertly integrated components of these longer films as proof-points with his thoughtful and provocative presentation of OECD’s findings. (There are more profiles on the way—look for news of them early in the new year.)

• This year’s Pearson Foundation/CCSSO International Conference on Education, which for the fourth consecutive year brought together an international delegation of education leaders to explore innovative approaches to a single, shared issue. In many ways, the gathering is a regional analogue to the international analysis underway with OECD, providing participants the opportunity to explore first-hand emerging methods, best practices, and policies—all with an eye to the ways in which they may apply to their own local contexts. (An overview of past conferences is available here.)
  
  In the process, another of the year’s finest moments: Watching Fernando Reimers—the Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director of Global Education and of International Education Policy at Harvard—who gave one of the opening presentations at this year’s event in Rio de Janeiro. He expertly connected Brazil’s complex social and educational systems to those in the United States, making use of the Brazil film we completed together with OECD to help bring these distinctions to life.

• Working together with the MacArthur Foundation on a variety of initiatives, including the funding of Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century. The film—which appeared first on PBS stations nationwide early in the year—shares with parents, teachers and education leaders the ways in which exceptional educators are using digital media and innovative practices to ignite their students' curiosity and ingenuity, encourage them become civically engaged, allow them to collaborate with peers worldwide, and empower them to direct their own learning.
  Two great moments: The first, watching the film with my kids at home on TV, right on PBS, and then talking through their suggestions for ways their own classrooms could be energized by some of the approaches they’d seen. Another: Using the film as a centerpiece for town-hall meetings the Pearson Foundation hosted together with the MacArthur Foundation to help bring these ideas to local communities. (In Chicago, we were joined by both Mayor Rahm Emanuel and by the Department of Education’s Karen Cator. That was a great evening.)

In every instance, proven practices were shared and new ideas were developed. We’re very much looking forward to building on all this work in the new year.