AERA 2009

Valerie Hannon, Tony Mackay and David Jackson represented The Innovation Unit at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting "Disciplined Inquiry: Education Research in the Circle of Knowledge" held in San Diego, USA, in April 2009.

They presented a Symposium on The Innovation Unit's work. The title was Next Practice Innovation: An Applied Research Model for 21st Century Reform. The papers were very well received and you can view the presentation here

AERA is the world's largest educational research conference, and The Innovation Unit connected with research of significant value to the UK on themes as diverse as;

• ‘the economic costs of school dropouts' (and a 15 city programme to reduce dropouts by 50%);
• ‘redesign of school district to support locality working'; and
• ‘pedagogy for student engagement'.

On this last theme, we also visited San Diego's High Tech High, a school with a radical approach to pedagogy and workforce reform - and with stunning outcomes (88% of free school meal students achieve College degrees; 100% of students graduate). As one visiting reporter wrote: this textbook-free school fosters personalized project learning with pervasive connections to the community. Any visitor can see the evidence in the students' engagement and the eye-popping projects that adorn almost every corner and wall.