The Harvard EdCast

How we see the world and interact with each other, especially whether we create welcoming environments of acceptance, does not always come naturally. Tim Shriver, chair of the Special Olympics, and Stephanie Jones, a Harvard professor whose research focuses on social emotional development, say that it’s something we can teach, and fostering an inclusive and accepting mindset in schools and communi...

Post-pandemic schools are still feeling the aftershocks—socially, emotionally, and politically – say educators and co-authors Mathew Portell and Tyisha Noise. Educators, students, and administrators are navigating a landscape that feels more uncertain than ever, with growing political pressures, policy shifts, and the lingering impact of disrupted learning. “In this hurrying time of, ‘we've got to...

Eve L. Ewing wants people to talk, not just about how American schools started, but also how that can inform the future of schools, especially for Black and Native children. She argues that Black and Native children’s schooling experience is more than just a footnote, but a central narrative in history. “From the very first classes that I taught, I always began by telling my students, you cannot u...

The U.S. Department of Education has been a subject of political debate since its creation in 1980.  “It's the one whose status has been most tenuous from the inception. So the recent calls we've heard to eliminate the Department of Education have really been a constant feature of its history from the moment it was created,” says Marty West, a Harvard professor specializing in the politics of K-12...

When it comes to making an impact on school outcomes, Harvard Professor Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell says we often overlook the power of relationships within the school .  “I think the complexity of how relationships work is one of the reasons why the first place we often go when we're trying to improve schools is to something like policies and procedures,” she says. “It seems very concrete. Put the po...

Andrew Tucker says the growing adoption of Portraits of a Graduate in K-12 education is a way to address gaps in education and prepare students to thrive in an evolving workforce. Portraits of a Graduate (POG) are frameworks, adopted by a state or district, that defines the skills and competencies students should have upon graduation, extending beyond academic benchmarks. “For a long time-- maybe...

Laura Chávez-Moreno says bilingual education inadvertently creates boundaries around Latinx identity by gathering Spanish-speaking students together. “Bilingual education, rightfully so, has focused on language,” says Chávez-Moreno, an assistant professor at UCLA. “But there has to be also a recognition that bilingual education, because it is a part of schooling in the U.S., that it is also engagi...

The superintendent’s role is challenging and always evolving but too often educators step into this leadership position not fully prepared for what’s ahead. As a position with high turnover and equally high isolation at times, Lindsay Whorton, The Holdsworth Center president, says we need to be more upfront about the role if we are to attract, support, and retain leaders. “What we have to do is be...

Edward Clapp wants education to shift from a traditional, individualistic view of creativity toward a participatory, socially distributed perspective. Clapp, principal investigator at Harvard’s Project Zero and co-author of, “The Participatory Creativity Guide for Educators,” doesn’t see creativity as a personal trait some people "possess" or "are," instead he proposes that everyone can "participa...

Sexual misconduct by school employees is more prevalent than many of us want to believe, according to Charol Shakeshaft, a distinguished professor in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Many times, school culture gets in the way of stopping this abuse from happening.  “What I find is that teachers see things, kids see things, administrators see things, parents see things....

Elliot Haspel believes universal childcare can happen in America, especially because it affects everyone across red and blue lines. Haspel, senior fellow at Capita, says part of the challenge is recognizing that childcare is something Americans seen as a public good.  Reflecting on the history of childcare in America, Haspel points out how certain policy failures, particularly the Comprehensive Ch...

Drawing from her research and interviews with boys over the past three decades, Niobe Way, a professor of developmental psychology at New York University, reveals how boys in early adolescence express a strong desire for close, emotionally intimate friendships, but as they grow older, societal pressures cause them to suppress these feelings. She calls this a crisis of connection and it’s affecting...

The explosion of artificial intelligence exposed many benefits and challenges for children interacting with AI, especially in educational and social contexts.  “The big question becomes whether children can benefit from those AI interactions in a way that is similar to how they benefit from interacting with other people,” says Ying Xu, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Educa...

The 2024 Election is anything but easy to teach in a classroom today  where fears range from community backlash, restrictive state policies, and job security. For many teachers, the election is a topic to avoid, but Eric Soto-Shed, lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, insists we're missing a real opportunity by doing so. “We’re at a crisis right now in terms of Americans belief in...

As millions of students prepare for summer vacation, many parents may worry about endless time spent on the screen. Michael Rich, pediatrician and Director of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital, says children spend more time on the screen during the summer but that the real challenge is balance between screen time and offline activities. “Now, the issue with screen time also sh...

With looming threats of high teacher turnover rates during COVID-19, Olivia Chi, an assistant professor at Boston University, wanted to study how the pandemic shaped who decided to become a teacher. Many states foresaw serious disruptions to the teacher pipeline as testing centers and schools closed around the county. While teacher requirements differ by state, many require a bachelor’s or master’...

While most schools in the United States do not report using corporal punishment – the use of pain as punishment -- it still impacts tens of thousands of students annually, particularly in states where it remains legal.  Jaime Peterson, a pediatrician and assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University, along with the American Academy of Pediatrics, issued a call this fall to end such p...

Family engagement plays a pivotal role in combatting chronic absenteeism. The number of students who are chronically absent – missing 10% or more of the school year – has skyrocketed since the pandemic. Eyal Bergman, senior vice president at Learning Heroes, studied this issue and was surprised to discover how schools with robust family engagement had significantly lower rates of chronic absenteei...

For many first-generation college students, the dream of pursuing a college degree is often accompanied by financial uncertainty and adversities that keep it as just a dream. The faulty rollout of a new, more simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form may only keep this student population from even trying. “The intent of simplifying it and making it 'Better FAFSA' was actuall...

Math has a problem when it comes to equitable learning. The way math is taught and how students are tracked is part of the issue, according to Kentaro Iwasaki, a former math teacher who led new math standards in California and now works with school districts nationwide to overhaul their math programs. Tracking in math contributes to segregation, with Black and brown students often placed in lower-...

Janet Patti and Robin Stern joined forces decades ago when they recognized the crucial role of emotional intelligence for school leaders. How educators understand and manage emotions can positively impact the entire school community, contribute to better leadership, well-being, and resilience. The problem though is that for many education leaders developing emotional intelligence is low on the to...

Over the past few years, a battle is taking place on many school grounds – one being driven by mothers that is inevitably shaping the future of schools. Laura Pappano – a journalist with decades covering education – couldn’t ignore the growing influence of these movements on education policies and challenging public schools.  In her book, “School Moms,” she reports on the well-organized efforts of...

In a world increasingly dominated by structured routines and adult supervision, renowned psychologist Peter Gray is not surprised that children’s mental health challenges and anxiety has been on the rise for decades. “We are so overprotecting children, because we are so always there to solve their problems for them, they're not developing the sense that they can solve their own problem,” Gray says...

How do we teach children to love reading amidst the ongoing debates surrounding literacy curriculums and instructional methods, and the emphasis on student outcomes? It's something that Pamela Mason, senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, thinks about a lot. She's been both a teacher and school leader, and has spent decades training teachers on literacy instruction. She says...

Questions about the power of report cards led high school history teacher Wade Morris to dig deep into how these pieces of paper came to carry so much weight in the world. In his book, “Report Cards: A Cultural History,” Morris uncovers the evolution and significance of report cards. “Since the birth of report cards, report cards have had critics and they've had reformers that have tried to create...