The Education Reform Collection

Update 8/8/14: A Call for Submissions & Guidelines

Update (8/8/14):

Recently, Medium announced they were making changes — in my opinion, foolish/nonsensical changes — to how collections work on the site. These changes, which were outlined in a pair of posts in June, seriously inhibit the ability of writers to share their work with different audiences, as well as have their work discovered.

In short, two things happened: first, Medium eliminated “open” submissions to collections. Now, in order to submit a story to a given collection, you must be added as a “writer” by that collection’s editor. Second, a story can only be submitted to a single collection, not several as before.

Obviously, I disagree with these changes — in particular ending open submissions — and hope the folks at Medium soon come to their senses and rescind these rules. In the meantime, here’s my work around:

If you want want to be added as a writer to Education Reform, CLICK HERE.

Everyone who sends a request will be added as a writer to the collection, although submissions will still be vetted according to the guidelines below.

Thanks to those of you who’ve submitted pieces and continue to do so!

PCC

Submission Guidelines:

After receiving a steady stream of submissions to Education Reform, I thought it might be helpful to provide some guidance around the topics/issues that would be most relevant to this collection. I’ve read a number of thoughtful, well-written submissions that I nevertheless didn’t add — not because they weren’t good, but because they just didn’t “fit” with the aims of this collection.

Here’s a general idea of what the collection is looking to feature:

• Essays on current trends and policies in K–12 public education, both in the United States and abroad — especially those initiatives that seek to close the “achievement gap”
• Posts that highlight innovative instructional models that depart from traditional teaching methods, and/or are targeted at traditionally underserved or underrepresented student populations
• Inspiring narratives from the classroom that illustrate the challenges that educators face in public schools
• Commentaries on current education reform news or controversies

Here are some of the most common reasons why submissions have not been added to the collection:

• They advocate a stridently anti-reform (nuanced critiques are fine) or anti-public education position
• They exclusively address non-public education issues, such as private schools, homeschooling, etc.
• They are exclusively focused on higher education ← (Yes, that means your piece on your college experience)
• They are clearly intended as an “advertorial” for a certain product or service
• They assume what I’ll call — for lack of a better term — an “everything we’re doing is stupid, let’s blow it up” stance
• They attempt to make the case that a new tech platform or gamification will fix all the problems in our education system…it won’t

One Final Request!

Please include links to articles, documents, etc. you reference in the course of your essays. Articles that make a lot vague generalizations without links to data or additional information won’t be included in the collection.

I hope this helps — thanks to those of you who have already submitted pieces for consideration. Please keep them coming…