Keeping up with Joel Klein

Since he resigned as the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, Joel Klein has been still been staying busy as a major voice for education reform. He is now the CEO of the Education Division at News Corp. In an interview with Rick Hess on his segment Straight Up for Education Week, he describes his new main focus as changing the "model of classroom instruction to a more individualized, differentiated model. We’ve got immense new opportunities to do this now. Much, much more digitized content is available today than was ever the case before. Technology and digitization offer a very powerful way to supplement a teacher’s delivery of instruction with multiple modalities." Read the entire Q&A at Education Week. Read more about technological innovations for the classroom here. Most recently, Klein has rejoined the heated conversation over teachers, unions, and education reform with an article at the Washington Post. He states the problem from both sides - education reform requires better teachers than are now in the field and that teachers are overworked and underpaid. He thinks both sides are right pointing out that some teachers are "America's heroes" and others are just working by the clock. He thinks the problem is not distinguishing between these two types of teachers in the discussion about education reform and a solution needs to include effective evaluations and differentiations - "with consequences." Read his entire piece at the Washington Post. Klein is an expert in the field of education, and it is interesting that his input for both education reform in teaching styles and teachers includes differentiation. Schools That Can often sides with Klein, as he understands that yes it is challenging to teach children from difficult situations, but unlike Diane Ravitch, he also knows that it is possible. Need more Klein? Don't miss our exclusive video of Joel Klein in conversation with Sy Fliegel from last year's Forum. Details for registering for this year's Forum in Cleveland can be found here.