The Test Must Go On: Where Did Annual Standardized Tests Come From?

In a highly variable year, the limits and uses of annual standardized tests are once again under the microscope. Some claim mandated tests give policymakers and schools useful, unbiased information - without them, inequities would be swept under the rug and resources misdirected. Others question the loss of instructional time and point out how the …

The Meritocracy Trap [Book Notes]

The Meritocracy Trap | by Daniel Markovits Summary In 1958, British sociologist Michael Young created the term meritocracy to describe a fictional world where people would be sorted into schools, universities, and jobs solely based on their merit and industriousness, as determined by increasingly accurate tests for intelligence. What started as satire has now become …

Fear Is The Mind Killer [Book Notes]

Fear Is The Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time - and how to make it work | by James Mannion , Kate McAllister Summary Can we teach students to become proactive, independent, and fearless learners? While schools generally orient themselves around teaching and assessing a set of pre-ordained stuff, the Learning Skills …

Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t Have To [Book Notes]

Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don't Have To | by David Andrew Sinclair and Matthew LaPlante Summary In Lifespan, David Sinclair argues aging can be slowed down to postpone disease and death. Whereas average human lifespans were once 30-40 years in the 1800s, they have been extended to more than 75 years …

Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries [Book Notes]

Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries | by Safi Bahcall Summary Why do some breakthrough ideas spread far and wide while others collect dust? And how do good teams full of experts with great intentions kill useful ideas? In Loonshots, Bahcall draws on physics and the …

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World [Book Notes]

Since the dawn of the smartphone, humans have been unwillingly enrolled in a novel experiment to see what happens when solitude and leisure are replaced with notifications and the never-ending scroll. What started as a way to connect with friends has mutated into widespread compulsive behavior.

The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes [Book Notes]

Why do intelligent people do stupid things? And how can greater knowledge make us more prone to error than the average person?

Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked [Book Notes]

Approximately half of all people in the developed world are addicted to something - and for most these can be classified as behavioral addictions. Common behavioral addictions take the form of email, social media, and binge-watching episodes.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise [Book Notes]

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise | by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool Summary  No matter the domain, to improve one must practice. Yet it's not as simple as putting in 10,000 hours. This practice should be purposeful and deliberate, meaning there are well-defined goals and great attention paid to catching and fixing …

What Schools Can Learn From Pandemic Pods: Betting on Small-Group Tutoring

Providing online teaching and tutoring to smaller groups of students is a far better bet than trying to recreate a classroom community from scratch.