OLD (don't use)

The Reading Mind (Daniel Willingham)

*44 phonemes in English language and 26 letters. 1. Writing ideas down creates a permanent record of information and expands what we're able to remember (didn't use to be able to do this!). We transitioned to "coded" language because communicating with symbols (pictographs) is way too arduous. 2. Reading is not natural (speaking is). We must understand the "code" of what sounds different symbols (letters) stand for. Those symbols can look very different (fonts). 3. Instruction in spelling improves reading abilities (understand how letters = sounds and come together to form words; helps us read in words in letter clumps). 4. Students encounter ~85,000 unique words in school texts, so vocabulary size matters. 5. As we read sentences, we build a web of ideas and attempt to connect them. We need knowledge about world for this. 6. More a person reads, better s/he becomes. Better s/he becomes, more s/he reads. 7. Concern that technology is making youth more distracted is not well supported. May be the case that students are less willing to tolerate boredom.

Switch (Chip & Dan Heath)

*Emotional Elephant side and a rational Rider side. Elephant has six ton advantage. Got to reach both to make a switch. 1. Direct the Rider. *Follow the bright spots: investigate what's working and clone it (Jerry Sternin in Vietnam) *Script the critical moves: don't think big picture, think in terms of specific behaviors (1% milk - getting people to purchase it vs. skim...ad showing whole milk had same amount of saturated fat as 5 strips of bacon worked!) *Point to the destination: change is easier when you know where you're going and why it's worth it (teachers saying "you'll be 3rd graders soon" to 2nd graders) 2. Motivate the Elephant. *Find the feeling: knowing something isn't enough to cause change (purchaser piling gloves on boardroom table w/ prices attached to show waste vs. showing people spreadsheet) *Shrink the change: break down change until it no longer spooks the Elephant (5-minute room rescue...set 5 minute timer, go to dirtiest room, start clearing a path; it's likely you'll keep going!) *Grow your people: cultivate a sense of identity and instill the growth mindset (employees of Brasilata became known as "inventors" and new employees signed an innovation contract...company always on lookout for potential innovations...134,846 in 2008) 3. Shape the Path *Tweak the environment: when the situation changes, the behavior changes (Rackspace improved poor customer service...long string of phone / email lines...by removing automated answering system; phone had to be answered, made customer service priority) *Build habits: when behavior is habitual, it's "free" - doesn't tax the rider ("Tomorrow morning, right after I drop off Elizabeth at dance class, I'll head straight to the gym for my workout.") *Rally the herd: behavior is contagious - help it spread (Fataki in Tanzania - ad campaign pushing younger women to stay away from "Fataki" - an older man offering money or goods for sex - to decrease risk of HIV; also, seeding the tip jar is an example)

Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson)

1. "Capital punishment means that those without the capital get the punishment." "Each of us is more than the worst thing we've done." 2. Prison population: 300,000 (early 70s) to 2.3 million (today) w/ 6 million on probation or parole. 3. 1 in 5 born in 2001 expected to go to jail or prison. 1 in 3 black male babies expected to be incarcerated. 4. Poor women (and children) cannot get food stamps or housing assistance if prior drug conviction. 5. Spending on jails and prisons by state and federal gov rose from $6.9 billion (1980) to $80 billion today. 6. Walter McMillian from Monroe County, AL (interestingly, birthplace of Harper Lee). Monroe County developed by plantation owners in 19th Century (rich soil, many slaves, part of "Black Belt"). 1940s Great Migration led to cotton farming becoming less profitable (fewer blacks), and transition to timber farming happened. Walter started doing pulpwork. 7. Anti-miscegenation laws in Alabama, even after Loving vs. Virginia (1967); struck down in 2001 but 2011 poll showed 46% support for ban. (Walter had affair w/ white woman). 8. Until recently, prison punishments like weeks or months-long isolation, "sweat boxes," and "hitching posts" were constitutional. 9. Strauder vs. West Virgina (1880s) - excluding black people from jury duty unconstitutional, but juries still remained all white for decade. 1945 - Supreme Court upheld Texas statute that limited number of black jurors to 1 per case; 1970s - Supreme Court ruled under-representation of minorities and women unconstitutional but didn't mean they needed to actually serve on juries (just called for duty); Batson vs. Kentucky (1986) - prosecutors could be challenged more directly about peremptory strikes on prospective jurors in discriminatory manner, but they simply found creative ways to exclude blacks from juries. 10. By 1998, black people four times more likely to be killed by police than white people. 11. Those who murdered whites found, through research studies, more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks. 12. Florida at one point sentenced 72 juveniles to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide offenses. 13. Women who gave birth to stillborn children were subject to being charged in certain states. 14. Miller vs. Alabama (2012) - United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders.

Nudge (Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein)

1. "Libertarian Paternalism" - give people the freedom of choice, but "nudge" them in right direction toward better choices by designing choices better. (25% increase/decrease in healthy/junk food by rearranging placement of items in school cafe; putting picture of fly (target) in urinal in Amsterdam reduced spillage by 80%) 2. "Choice Architect" - we engage in this all the time (i.e. designing a building so people bump into each other more often); it's all about giving people more high-quality default options (i.e. saving for retirement in paycheck..."Save More Tomorrow" - increases in savings as pay increases) 3. Humans are fallible and prone to thinking errors: *Anchoring: how big is Milwaukee? whether you live in Green Bay or Chicago will change that answer *Availability: thinking homicide happens more often than suicide (it doesn't) b/c you read about a murder in the paper *Representativeness: the "Linda problem" - more likely to predict she's a "bank teller & feminist activist" than a "bank teller" (logical fallacy) b/c you know some of her background; also, myth of basketball "hot streak" *Yeah, whatever: people often don't act...why magazine subscriptions automatically renew *Framing: difference b/w "Out of 100 people, 10 die of this disease." and "Out of 100 people, 90 survive." *You can predict congressional races by sharing pics of candidates w/ people and asking them who looks more competent 4. Temptation and mindlessness (i.e. take away nuts at a party if you don't want people to fill up; in experiment, people ate 53% more popcorn if it was in a larger bucket) 5. "Doer vs. Planner" (Sys 1 vs. Sys 2): plan to buy a pair of shoes on sale, but you then buy other clothes too (self control decreases in moment) 6. People tend to "follow the crowd" even when the crowd is wrong (Nazis, Jim Jones, judges influenced as well in experiment by voting next to judges with different beliefs) 7. NUDGES (iNcentives, Understand mappings, Defaults, Give feedback, Expect error, Structure complex choices) to be good choice architect (i.e. Paris metro cards that work on either side of card, seatbelt buzzer in car, paint wheels, digital camera shutter click when taking pic) 8. RECAP (Record, Evaluate, Compare Alternative Prices) - i.e. for mortgage loans 9. Predatory subprime loans are not necessarily "predatory" b/c they allow populations to get loans that wouldn't otherwise get them...BUT must make it more transparent (fees, etc.) and provide info on fixed rate vs. variable rate vs. interest-only (side by side) 10. Stafford loans (loans for education where government pays interest while you're in school) are highly profitable for schools b/c they are backed by fed government, compared w/ private loans, but Fafsa process is very confusing; private brokers also send confusing material to students 11. Give people "freedom of contract" in healthcare; medical malpractice insurance is very expensive so we "pay for right to sue" in our healthcare costs, even though very few actually sue (even if they have a case...less likely to sue if doctor simply apologizes...); in many cases, those who deserve money don't get it and vice versa b/c negligence is vague and difficult to provide; waiving right to sue would cut down costs significantly

Better (Atul Gawande)

1. "Making medicine go right is less often like making a difficult diagnosis than like making sure everyone washes their hands." 2 million acquire infection in hospital annually, 90,000 die. Doctors/nurses wash hands 1/3 to 1/2 as often as they should. 2. "Devise a score for seemingly intangible and impressionistic concepts." 1952 - Virginia Apgar, practical and easy to implement. 3. "Even doctors with great knowledge and technical skills can have mediocre results; more nebulous factors like aggressiveness and diligence and ingenuity can matter enormously." People assume medical doctor quality forms a "shark fin" but really it's a "bell curve" like everything else. Dr. Warren Warrick and cystic fybrosis (CF) treatment...do whatever you can to keep patients' lungs as open as possible. He's a "bright spot" based on the data (life expectancy). 4. "Great medicine is not easy, but it is possible anywhere." Surgeons in rural India develop astonishing range of expertise despite lack of supplies, poverty, high # of patients. 15-30 minutes each afternoon, group would drink chai and swap stories...which gave them ideas on how to get better.

Built to Last (Jim Collins)

1. BHAG: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (Boeing pursuit of commercial airline market in 1950s, ahead of rival Douglas) 2. No "tyranny of the 'or'; embrace the "genius of the 'and' 3. You don't need a great idea to start a company. (American Express started a mail business, Motorola started with 'battery eliminators') 4. Without a core ideology, a company will never be visionary. (Walmart = lowest prices, greatest customer service) 5. Visionary companies are like a cult. (you're either in or out...couldn't say the f-word, damn, or shit around Walt Disney...no exceptions, you're fired). 6. Try a lot of stuff and keep what works. (Johnson & Johnson accidental discovery of using talc as a skin soother after customers complained of skin irritation from medicated plastics they were producing...led to "baby powder")

Why Don't Students Like School? (Daniel Willingham)

1. Be sure there is a problem to be solved in class - pique curiosity. 2. Respect cognitive limits and limits of working memory. Need background knowledge to engage. 3. Reconsider when to "puzzle" students ("Why do you think...?)...before class doesn't do much...student really doesn't know much yet! 4. People are naturally curious, but not naturally good thinkers...cognitive conditions must be right. 5. Working memory (site of awareness and of thinking) feeds into long-term memory (factual knowledge and procedural knowledge) and vice versa. 6. Factual knowledge must precede skill (Recht and Leslie baseball study, experiment where you have mash-up of letters together but they're really acronyms of things like CIA parsed out...) 7. Memory is the residue of thought. Must think about something a lot for it to stick (remember TV show over history of WWI) 8. Review lesson plans in terms of what students are likely to think about (WW2 battles or the powerpoint animations...) 9. We understand new things in the context of things we already know, and most of what we know is concrete. (provide examples!) 10. It's virtually impossible to become proficient at a mental task without extended practice (space it out though!) 11. Cognition early in training is fundamentally different from cognition late in training (can't "think like an expert"...chess player example) 12. Children are more alike than different in terms of how they think and learn (no learning styles...think in terms of content not in terms of students) 13. Children do differ in intelligence, but intelligence can be changed through sustained hard work. Praise effort not ability.

Helping Children Succeed (Paul Tough)

1. Character is product of environments in which children form strong, secure attachments to teachers and caregivers, and are taught in ways that stimulate autonomy and ability to solve problems. 2. Must pay attention to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scores of children. Impacts academic functioning.

The Checklist Manifesto (Atul Gawande)

1. Checklists protect us against failure. We lead complex lives and have complex jobs...we can't keep it all in our head. 2. Checklists establish a higher standard of baseline performance. Pushes everybody to adhere to higher level of performance, consistently. 3. In the end, a checklist is only an aid. If it doesn't aid, it doesn't help. 4. When doctors and nurses in the ICU create their own checklists for what they think should be done each day, the consistency of care improves to the point that average length of patient stay in intensive care was cut in half. 5. Checklists can either be "Do-Confirm" (airplane check-off) or "Read-Do" (recipe) and should be kept b/w 5-9 items (simple and exact, 1 page). "The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably." Checklist examples: Boeing pilot's checklist, hospital (blood & antibiotics available?), Sully Sullenberger (adhered to protocol, not "hero")

The Wisdom of Crowds (James Surowiecki)

1. Crowds, in certain conditions, are more accurate than the best individual (i.e. 1) 1906 state fair - crowd picked weight of ox one pound off, much better than closest individual, 2) 1980s Challenger - stock dropped for Thiokol [made o-rings that didn't stand up to cold...] before people knew what problem was, 3) sports books - adjust lines/spreads based on wagers so they earn a vig, 4) 1968 - finding U.S. Scorpion within 220 yards from collective guess in deep, 20-mile wide area, 5) Google searches 2. 3 types of problems where crowds thrive: 1) cognition (where should we build this park?), 2) coordination (how can you drive safely on a busy highway?), 3) cooperation (paying taxes, fighting pollution) 3. For good group decisions, you need 1) diversity of opinion (bees send out 100s alone to find flower patches..."waggle dance" when successful; Bay of Pigs...no diversity of thought - 1200 troops was way insufficient; Olds dabbled w/ steam, electric, gas cars before gas eventually won out in market - batteries had to be charged all the time, steam took long to heat up), 2) independent thought, and 3) decentralization and local context (need to aggregate data though...like Linux operating system; US military relies on "in the field" judgments but able to communicate fast) 4. Information cascades: original decision-maker can have impact on those who follow, whether good or bad (i.e. ants...if lost, "follow the leader" in a big circle until all die; Geddes plank road - allowed more efficient travel but road broke in 4 years (not 8), Sellers standard screw in 1860s (started w/ big companies first so it would cascade down) 5. Herd mentality: ensure people decide simultaneously, not before / after one another 6. "Schelling points": "meet you at Grand Central at noon"; people able to coordinate w/ each other to solve complex problems (i.e. walking on sidewalk) w/o knowledge of what others are doing 7. People motivated to cooperate only if they believe outcome is fair (i.e. no free-riding, earnings = effort); people incentivized to trust in capitalism b/c you want to build long-term relationships for future deals ("Quaker honesty") 8. Columbia disaster (2003): dissenting opinion is vital (damage that piece of foam could do to shuttle was overlooked at numerous points..."piggybacking" hurt) 9. Zara: immediate feedback loops to coordinate b/w designers, manufacturers, and stores (didn't hang on to much inventory...pivoted on design quickly based on what people bought) 10. "Super hero CEO": MYTH...decentralizing knowledge can bring powerful insights...vital to take into account knowledge of those closest to problem

Peak (Anders Ericsson)

1. Deliberate practice: learning method experts use to achieve superior performance in their fields (Steve improving his ability to remember sequence of numbers...remembered 7 at start (as is typical), but at end could remember 82 after intensive, focused practice with constant feedback) 2. Purposeful practice: similar to deliberate, but nobody is guiding you and not within an established field 3. Mental representations: encoding of external reality within the physiology of neurons, essential components of expertise (i.e. chess players) 4. "10,000 hour rule" is oversimplified...mastery is highly dependent on the type of practice, not necessarily duration 5. Even Mozart ("child prodigy") received excellent training from his father starting before he was 4 years old...started composing in teen years after a decade of deliberate practice

Practice Perfect (Doug Lemov)

1. Encode success: practice getting it right. 2. Practice "bright spots": tap into the power of what works. 3. Differentiate drill from scrimmage: to develop skills, use drills; reserve scrimmage for evaluating readiness and mastery 4. Correct instead of critique: don't just tell people they're wrong...help people repeat a task in a concretely different way 5. "Walk this way": imitating others is sometimes best way to learn 6. Shorten the feedback loop: give feedback immediately

Great by Choice (Jim Collins)

1. Fanatic discipline is a trait of great companies. Roald Amundsen trek to South Pole...20 miles every single day, no matter the weather conditions (conserved energy). Competitors walked as far as they could. "20 mile march" 2. Fire bullets, then cannonballs. You should innovate only when the evidence supports it. 2001: Apple released iPod, only compatible w/ Macs, users liked it, then shot another bullet w/ iTunes, then opened up and introduced for non-Mac computers. 3. Never rely on luck or chance to take care of things, maximize them by working hard instead. Maximize ROL (return on luck). Most lucky when you work ass off. "Fortes fortuna adiuvat." (Fortune favors the bold). Don't wait for luck.

Mindset (Carol Dweck)

1. Fixed mindset: believe talent is everything; if they're not gifted with ability to do something, going to fail; skills written into genes 2. Growth mindset: whatever they want to achieve is theirs for the taking, as long as they work hard for it and dedicate themselves to the goal 3. Fixed mindset less likely to take challenges because they are afraid of looking dumb; growth mindset seeks challenge because they are eager to learn and get satisfaction from pushing themselves 4. Praise carefully...instead of "You're so smart!" (fixed) say "I love how you took your time and used multiple strategies on that problem!" (growth). Kids praised for their "smarts" actually lowered their achievement!

How We Learn (Benedict Carey)

1. Forgetting is critical to learning new skills. Continuing to test yourself on information will increase the storage and retrieval strength of what you already remembered. 2. Vary aspects of the environment in which you study. Each alteration of the routine further enriches the skills being rehearsed. 3. Distributed learning can increase the amount you remember later on. Better to study 30 minutes over a few days than 3 hours in one sitting. 4. The fluency illusion can interfere. We don't know as much as we think, especially right after. Space out practice and retrieve information later to deepen storage. 5. Guessing wrong is okay. It increases the likelihood of getting the question correct in the future. We learn from answering incorrectly. 6. Vary practice ("interleaving"), mixing related but distinct material during study. This helps you see the distinctions between each and achieve a clearer grasp on each one individually. 7. Sleep improves retention and comprehension of what was studied the day before.

How Children Succeed (Paul Tough)

1. GPA is a better predictor of college success than SAT scores. 2. Executive functioning matters more to academic achievement (persistence, self-control, curiosity, etc.) 3. Prefrontal cortex is flexible and responds to intervention through early adulthood. 4. Prefrontal cortex adversely affected by major trauma or consistent lower-level trauma. Hurts them academically. 5. Lab rats grow up better adjusted if they're consistently licked and groomed. Those rat brains then processed stress hormones more effectively. 6. Study of kids under 4 that focused exclusively on parents predicted with 77% accuracy who would drop out of HS. 7. Six key traits: optimism, self-control, motivation, conscientiousness, grit, and identity.

Make it Stick (Peter Brown, et al)

1. Get it out to get it in: it's retrieval from memory, not review, that deepens learning and makes it stick. 2. Some difficulties are desirable: difficulties that resemble real-world conditions, and require effort to overcome, deepen learning and improve late performance. 3. Intuition misleads us: many strategies that feel productive, like rereading and massed practice, are labor in vain. 4. Mindless repetition does not build memory - use retrieval practice spaced out and quiz yourself frequently. Interleave your practice (mix it up!). 5. Fluency is not the same as understanding - just because you repeat something doesn't mean you get it. 6. Creativity and knowledge are not separate - creativity requires knowledge, and knowledge must be memorized.

Hidden Brain (Shankar Vedantam)

1. Hidden brain = unconscious bias that affects how humans act 2. Teri Gustus fingered wrong suspect in rape (didn't notice rapist had straight, not crooked, teeth...didn't seem important at the time); your hidden brain can trick you. 3. People overlook overweight applicants and even average-weight candidates if they're sitting next to overweight applicants while waiting for interviews in waiting area. 4. Unconscious brain at work: "spotlight effect" (people contributed more to coffee fund if there was a picture next to it of eyes staring at them); "irresistibility heuristic" (companies with easy-to-pronounce names and stock exchange acronyms do better); waiters who mimicked exactly what a customer wanted (vs. using synonyms) got better tips. 5. Mental disorders (i.e. temperofrontal dementia) can reveal how important our hidden brain is, as disorder can take away ability to use social cues (table manners, politeness, personal space, etc.); if we thought intensely about every little decision we'd be overwhelmed...we need unconscious mind. 6. Frances Aboud (Montreal) research showed that white AND black children associated white faces w/ positive adjectives and black faces w/ negative adjectives (unconscious bias resulted from fusiform face area of brain seeing hundreds of repetitions of faces in specific positions of power or subjugation; adults express prejudice as they get older b/c of conscious brains diminished ability to override unconscious brain (George Allen, "macaca") 7. Lilly Ledbetter, manager at Goodyear in AL, found a note in her mailbox listing her salary (lower) compared to 3 male managers; unconscious bias affects women in power; transgender pose interesting case study - one study found transmen paid 7.5% more after transition and transwomen paid 12% less! 8. Hidden brain at work when disaster strikes, i.e. 9/11; you think you have ability in moment to make individual choice, but unconsciously your decisions are tied to what others around you do (88th floor get out alive b/c an employee screamed "get out," but 89th floor perished b/c they stayed put after 1st tower was hit) 9. We often think of suicide bombers as loners, poor, down on their luck, etc., but interestingly most bombers are not on the fringes...often married, w/ kids, older, not religious zealots; small group psychology is at play...often young men WANT to be suicide bombers together...they are part of family and want to bring honor to the group (kamikaze pilots, Jim Jones)...peer pressure is big factor. 10. Study found that death penalty sentences more likely to be given to those w/ darker skin, even for similar or identical crimes; death sentence also more likely in cases w/ white victims. 11. Implicit Association Test (IAT) shows higher unconscious bias scores in areas where Republicans win and lower scores where Democrats win; there seems to be a "tipping point" - too few blacks in an area and unconscious bias doesn't really play a role; many blacks trumps unconscious bias in favor of Dems (~40% black population), but if there are "just enough blacks" it favors Republicans; if only white men could vote, only white men would win elections (due to unconscious bias). 12. Unconscious bias tells us we are safer w/ guns in our home, but statistically we are much more likely to hurt or kill somebody by accident, domestic violence, or suicide than use the gun to kill an intruder; suicide rates much higher than homicide, and while guns are used in minority of suicide attempts, guns have the highest "completion" rate; handgun ban in DC in 70s reduced number of suicides and homicides significantly (no shift in outlying areas, so change was due to ban).

Drive (Daniel Pink)

1. Higher pay and bonuses result in better performance ONLY if the task consisted of basic, mechanical skills (defined steps, single answer). 2. Higher pay resulted in lower performance if task involved cognitive skills, decision making, creativity. Pay enough "to take the issue of money off the table." 3. To motivate employees, give them 1) autonomy, 2) mastery, and 3) purpose.

Setting the Table (Danny Meyer)

1. Hospitality must be enlightened: we must care for our own staff first. 2. Only way a company can grow, stay true to its soul, and remain consistently successful is to attract, hire, and keep great people. 3. Excellence reflex: natural reaction to fix something that isn't right, or to improve something that could be better. 4. For most people, it's far more important to feel heard than to be agreed with. 5. Wherever your center lies, know it, name it, stick to it, and believe in it. Apply constant, gentle pressure. 6. People will move your saltshaker off center. That's their job. Until one understands that, you're going to get pissed off every time someone moves the saltshaker. Your job is just to move the saltshaker back each time and let them know exactly what you stand for.

The Talent Code (Daniel Coyle)

1. It's all about growing myelin (insulation that wraps neural circuits and grows according to certain signals...muscle memory). 2. Deep practice (hard work, mental struggle, extreme attention to detail...keep firing that circuit) 3. Highly talented pockets develop because they accelerate deep practice (Brazilian soccer players and futsal, Florence and its craft guilds...apprenticeship, Meadowmount and its 5x increase in learning speed for elite music players...playing one "chunk" at a time to perfection) 4. Chunking is a secret to accelerated struggle (divide big chunk into smaller chunks, slow action down) 5. Ignition! (South Korean female golfers...Se Ri Pak) 6. Long-term commitment is a huge predictor of success 7. Great teachers are key...but they're not what we commonly think of as great teachers (spend most of their time offering small, targeted, highly specific adjustments; John Wooden - 2,326 discrete acts of teaching...75% were pure information)

Winning (Jack Welch)

1. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence. 2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it. 3. Leaders get into everybody's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism. 4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit. 5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls. 6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action. 7. Leaders inspire risk-taking and learning by setting the example. 8. Leaders celebrate.

Good to Great (Jim Collins)

1. Level 5 Leadership: leaders who are humble, but driven to do what's best for the company 2. First Who, Then What: get the right people on the bus, then figure out where to go (try different seats on the bus) 3. Confront the Brutal Facts, but never give up hope. James Stockdale (Stockdale Paradox): coping strategy during Vietnamese POW camp (optimists leaned too much on faith, "died of broken heart") 4. Hedgehog Concept: three overlapping circles (what lights your fire? what could you be best in the world at? what makes you money?) 5. Culture of Discipline: rinsing the cottage cheese (Dave Scott won six Ironman, and rinsed cottage cheese to remove excess fat) 6. Technology Accelerators: using technology to accelerate growth, within three circles of hedgehog (avoid fads and bandwagons) 7. The Flywheel: the additive effect of many small initiatives - they act on each other like compound interest (SPI flywheel)

Why Knowledge Matters (E.D. Hirsch)

1. Matthew effect: rich get richer, the poor get poorer (i.e. vocabulary and background knowledge). 2. "Massachusetts Miracle": highest scores in 4th & 8th grade reading and math in both 2003 and 2007 (incredible feat)...largely due to Hirsch principles, implemented Core Knowledge program in 1993. 3. Coherent, cumulative factual knowledge is vital for reading comprehension, literacy and critical higher-order thinking skills. 4. Late 1990s: Maryland found correlation b/w school implementation of Core Knowledge and subsequent achievement. 5. Nations with core curricula tend to outperform nations without on international tests (Finland, Sweden, Japan). 6. Children from poor, illiterate homes remain poor and illiterate because they lack the accumulative advantage of cultural capital and core background knowledge. 7. A broad and deep foundation of knowledge is fundamental to future academic achievement, because a memory replete with facts learns better than one without. 8. FRANCE: PreK-HS achievement was tremendous, national curriculum led to astounding equity b/w socioeconomic groups; damaged in 1989 by socialist educational "reforms" under a socialist education minister Lionel Jospin; based on wealth of longitudinal, statistical data on academic achievement, the "Jospin Law" led to profound decline in academic achievement.

Raising Kids Who Read (Daniel Willingham)

1. Play games that help your child hear speech sounds: rhyming games, reading aloud books that have lots of rhyme, alliteration, etc. 2. Create a sense in the child that reading is valued in the family: things on your wall, house rules, who parents talk about, etc. Model reading. 3. Put books everywhere! Every room, even cars. Face titles out for young ones because the covers are appealing. 4. Rewards have the potential to backfire - "This is not something I expect you to do on your own." Have fun!

Cage-Busting Leadership (Frederick Hess)

1. RTB (rolling the boulder). Free up leaders to focus on what's important. 2. INMM (I need more money). Money is not only thing that can drive improvement! 3. TMT (the MacGyver trap). Just because some immensely talented person can deliver results doesn't mean everybody can. 4. OMTOMP (one more thing on my plate). Recipe for alienated staff and exhausted leaders. 5. GGD (get going downhill). Don't struggle uphill...alter rules so you're working way downhill. 6. WPAYS (what problem are you solving?). Improvement happens when you stay focused on identifying problems and finding smart ways to solve them.

The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg)

1. Rats brain imaging changes after many trails of finding chocolate at end of a "T" (must turn right of left). Once rat figures out where chocolate is, brain activity goes down, habit is formed. Habits are necessary b/c we don't want/need to be thinking about every little decision...too taxing! Rat brain wave while forming habit: pretty even "wave" throughout process. Rat brain wave after forming habit: deep gulf in middle of "wave" (peaks at start when door opens and at end at excitement of finding chocolate). 2. Claude Hopkins, famous ad executive in early 1900s, figured out how to sell Pepsodent (new toothpaste). Dental care was atrocious at this time, and poor dental care for many enlisted men in WW1 was considered national security risk. Pepsodent used in 7% of households but shot to 65% in one decade b/c Hopkins figured out a CUE (there's a film on your teeth!), a ROUTINE (you must brush every day!), and a REWARD (added a minty aftertaste that people liked...other toothpastes hadn't tried that). Same w/ Febreeze (CUE = you just cleaned, ROUTINE = spray Febreze, REWARD = perfumey smell). Febreze sales shot up when they went from "smell eliminator" to "cleaning reward." 3. Habit = CUE, ROUTINE, REWARD. To change a habit, change the routine (AA: instead of going to the bar, go to AA meeting). You also need to believe, and believing is easier w/ help of a group (AA). 4. Keystone habits are the central routines of a successful organization that are key to its culture (i.e. Paul O'Neill and safety at Alcoa). Ensuing transformation of culture can lead to other improvements (i.e. since workers felt comfortable talking about safety, they felt comfortable talking about other ideas like centralizing the paint tint machinery for aluminum siding). 5. Starbucks "teaches" willpower in training program to modify routine ("cues" can range from long lines to angry customers) and has employees write down what they will do in specific situations (instead of getting angry as the "routine"). Cue (can't change that, going to happen), - Routine (in your control) - Reward (great service, happy customer). 6. A crisis can compel organizations to change habits (i.e. Rhode Island Hospital's record of mistakes and high number of complications, as well as volatile doctor / nurse relationships). 7. If you want to develop a new habit, mix in the "new" thing with the old (WW2: shortage of meat since it was going to the fronts, so government pushed women to use organ meats...women mixed it in with meats they were already using until it became a staple; radio: "Hey Ya" (new sound) sandwiched b/w two reliable hits; Target: database on customers predicts pregnant customers but awkward to send baby coupons only, so they mixed them in w/ other deals). 8. Movements happen largely b/c of social patterns and peer pressure (influence by close friends as well as "weak ties"...people you don't see often but still influence behavior...i.e. Rosa Parks had HIGH number of "weak ties"...involved w/ a ton in community). Montgomery bus boycott: you wouldn't want to be the only black person sitting on the bus! 9. Are we responsible for our habits? Brian Thomas killed his wife accidentally during a night terror, but jury found him not guilty b/c he had no prior pattern of aggression during the night terrors...truly out of his control, he was unconscious. Angie Bachmann gambled her life away and sued Harrah's saying she was constantly contacted by Harrah's with casino deals, but suit dismissed b/c she was conscious and had multiple opportunities to seek help (i.e. get on Harrah's "no call" list). Key difference.

The Knowledge Gap (Natalie Wexler)

1. Recent nationwide test of 8th graders: 18% proficient in US History, 23% civics, 27% geography. 2. Random students at Texas Tech unable to answer who won Civil War, who Vice President is, what country we gained independence from. 3. One survey: only 25% of American adults could name three branches of government, more than 1/3 couldn't name any rights of 1st amendment. 4. Accountability measures (NCLB & ESSA) led to more focus on reading, but misguided...comprehension skills over knowledge. 5. Study (like Leslie & Recht) focused on preschoolers from a variety of SES. They were read a book about birds, a subject they had determined the higher SES children knew more about than the lower SES. When they tested comprehension, the researchers found that the wealthier kids did significantly better. But then they read a story involving a subject neither group knew anything about: made-up animals called "wugs." When the kids' prior knowledge was equal, their comprehension was essentially the same. In other words, the gap in comprehension wasn't a gap in skills. It was a gap in knowledge. 6. Coleman Report (60s) put emphasis on poverty (for poor education outcomes)...reformers eschewed that but critics brought report up as reforms failed...need to focus on reading instruction moving forward. 7. France: national curriculum until 1989; by age 10, disadvantaged kid in Pre-K by age 2 caught up to wealthy kid in Pre-K by age 4; tremendous decline from 1987-2007 when national curriculum abandoned. 8. Need rich vocab early - low-income families less likely to have experiences outside home, rich conversation at table, constant "back and forth" with kids; wealthy spend 9x as much on kids. 9. Writers assume a lot of knowledge which is why speaking has increased comprehension than reading (you can ask questions to speaker...you can't ask a book to clarify...). Can't always "look it up" - interrupts flow of learning and context matters (may look up wrong definition). Must build schema! 10. "Why Johnny Can't Read" (1955) sparked reading wars. Reading First discontinued in 2008 (phonics push) b/c it didn't lead to comprehension gains (but it wasn't designed for that!). 11. Balanced literacy = whole language in disguise. Unmerited focus on skills and strategies ("find main idea" vs. "ask questions as you read"). F&P and Calkins didn't account for background knowledge with leveled texts. Joel Klein piloted CKLA and saw higher scores in K-2 pilots, but Carmen Farina went back to Calkins. 12. John Dewey ("progressive"), Rousseau (discovery, child-centered, author of Emile), Horace Mann (creator of first ed schools, recruiting women - usually uneducated - b/c they were more nurturing), constructivism (students naturally discover things) have all led to a focus on pushing children to learn from their own experience and eschew teacher-driven rigor and knowledge / facts. 13. National history curriculum, worked on by Lynne Cheney, failed b/c of politics (who do students study? which historical figures?); Nation at Risk (1983) prompted schools originally to start thinking about this. Standardized curriculum is a great idea to pursue b/c it allows access to cultural knowledge and capital for many low-income students. People mistake Hirsch for conservative "dead white males" when really he wants access for low-income kids. 14. Common Core created in mid 2000s to promote rigor and tests created to go with them, but major public push-back (tests too hard, dictating to states, etc.). Hirsch pushed for inclusion of knowledge building, but only gets vague little-known mention (too political to dictate exactly what to teach). Thus, Common Core treated in practice like skills-based. 15. Write about content, not personal feelings, thoughts, or experiences. Most writing in life is not narrative. Content inextricably linked to quality writing. Writing needs to be explicitly taught, focusing on sentences first and always.

The Make or Break Year (Emily Krone Phillips)

1. Students do not always drop out of high school for stereotypical reasons (i.e. 50s greaser, 60s flower child, 90s pregnant teen). Often, students drop out because they stop identifying with school and they don't receive the help they need. 2. "Dis-identification": students either see themselves as "school kids" or "street kids"; must establish relationships early to ensure students identify with school. HS much harder than elementary...shock for some. Takes patience and empathy to get/keep kids on track. 3. If you earn one F freshman year, your chance of graduating HS decreases significantly (make or break year...). If you pass all classes, chances increase significantly. 4. In 2000s, students in CPS were just as likely to drop out as graduate! 5. Prefrontal cortex not fully formed in teenage years...youth make dumb decisions! 6. "Solutionitis" (Bryk) - we tend to jump to solutions/reforms in education before starting small, learning fast to see if something actually works. 7. Chicago: those with top quartile test scores but off track unlikely to graduate, but those with bottom quartile test scores but on track more likely to graduate (31% difference)...not all about test scores! GPA is better indicator of HS graduation. 8. 9th grade on-track 81% likely to graduate, off-track 22% likely to graduate; studies showed divergent rates for similar schools in similar settings...schools have some control over on-track rates and graduation. 9. Attendance has HUGE impact on on-track rates. 10. Dropping out rarely comes down to a singular event; more often it is the culmination of many small moments of struggle where intervention may have been possible. 11. Difference b/w measures of accountability and measures of improvement; on-track is latter...can't use MOA to improve, only judge. 12. Important to establish networks using on-track to share best practices and galvanize around a cause.

The Knowledge Deficit (E.D. Hirsch)

1. U.S. schools spend too much time on abstract "reading comprehension skills" and not nearly enough time on building vocabulary and knowledge. 2. To critically think about something, you must possess a tremendous amount of knowledge about that "thing." Critical thinking skills are not transferable between distinct domains. 3. Against "naturalism" - schooling should not proceed from individual experiences...rather, children are mini-adults that need molding, like clay. 4. Against "formalism" - schools should not attempt to inculcate generalizable skills (inferring, information-gathering, etc.)...rather, children should learn bodies of content knowledge. 5. Texts, even common newspapers, assume a tremendous amount of knowledge, idioms, etc. If you don't know these, you will struggle to comprehend much of what you read. 6. Reading tests = knowledge tests in disguise.

Learn Better (Ulrich Boser)

1. Value You learn more when you care about something (i.e. the guy who built with Lego bricks...creations became more and more complex) 2. Target Determine what exactly you want to learn and when you want to learn it by (instead of "I want to get better at basketball," "I want to have a better jump shot."). Push self a little past current ability. 3. Develop Seek feedback and use proven strategies (ask self questions after reading instead of re-reading and highlighting, give prompt instead of answer when struggle occurs). 4. Extend Go beyond basics and apply what you know. Ask self questions, probe for deeper understanding, ask others' questions. 5. Relate Think about relationships between concepts by using concept maps, Venn diagrams. think about hypotheticals and analogies ("What if Romeo and Juliet didn't die and the Montagues and Capulets had continued feud?", Gutenberg invented printing press after seeing wine press). 6. Rethink Continually revisit previously learned knowledge through retrieval practice. Space out learning to be most effective. We forget fast! Thinking evolves and changes over time and we are often overconfident in how much we know and understand.

Made to Stick (Chip & Dan Heath)

6 traits that make ideas stickier: 1. Simple (i.e. "Southwest will be THE low-fare airline.") 2. Unexpected (i.e. the Nordstrom employee who ironed a man's shirt he had just bought for meeting) 3. Concrete (i.e. "By the end of this decade, we will land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth...") 4. Credible (i.e. Wendy's ad suggested the burgers at Wendy's were larger than other chains..."Where's the beef?") 5. Emotional (i.e. "Don't Mess with Texas" slogan for TDOT campaign to reduce highway litter) 6. Story (i.e. In June '95, a health worker in a tiny town in Zambia went to the website of the CDC and go answer to question about malaria treatment. One of the poorest countries in the world, 600 km from capital city! Imagine if that knowledge was available everywhere. -Curse of Knowledge!

Seven Myths About Education (Daisy Christodoulou)

7 Myths: 1. Facts prevent understanding. (need to know math facts before doing fractions...) 2. Teacher-led instruction is passive. (students, especially those in low-income areas, need leadership and guidance of teachers) 3. The 21st Century fundamentally changes everything. (see quote below) 4. You can always just look it up. (even when you look it up, lack of background knowledge stifles understanding) 5. We should teach transferable skills. (skills do not transfer, expertise is domain-specific) 6. Projects and activities are the best way to learn. (is the project focused on content, or cutting/pasting/collages/etc.?; how do you ensure the focus is on what's important?) 7. Teaching knowledge is indoctrination. (there is a body of knowledge that all [Americans] should know to be members of productive society) "It is quite patronising to suggest that no one before the year 2000 ever needed to think critically, solve problems, communicate, collaborate, create, innovate, or read...It probably is true that in the future, more and more people will need these skills, and that there will be fewer economic opportunities for people who do not have these skills. But that would suggest to me that we need to make sure that everyone gets the education that was in the past reserved for the elite. That is not redefining education for the twenty-first century; it is giving everyone the chance to get a traditional education."

Radical Candor (Kim Scott)

Care personally, challenge directly. 1. Radical Candor (whisper "your fly is down!") 2. Obnoxious Aggression (shout, "look, his fly is down!") 3. Manipulative Insincerity (silent, worried about own feelings, lazy and don't want to deal w/ discomfort) 4. Ruinous Empathy (silent, worried about others' feelings, hurts others in long run...don't get feedback) 5. Superstars (growth), rockstars (stability), falling star (improvement plan or let go) 6. Steve Jobs reprimanded employee once who backed down from argument and later turned out to be right...Jobs didn't want him to back down b/c of own authority 7. Tim Cook and "quiet listening" - long, drawn out silences to get other people doing talking Backstory: Scott was manager at Google; Sheryl Sandberg took her aside after presentation and complimented her on overall presentation; she then said Kim said "um" too often, but Scott didn't take it too seriously; Sandberg noticed and told Scott saying "um" made her sound dumb; that caught Scott's attention

Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)

Explores why some social trends soar and others wither away. 1. Law of the Few: the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts...80/20 Principle (80% of the work done by 20% of participants) A. Connectors: people who know people (Paul Revere, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon) B. Mavens: information specialists who accumulate knowledge and want to solve problems C. Salesman: persuaders, charismatic people with negotiation skills 2. The Stickiness Factor: specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable (Blues Clues, Sesame Street...educational but entertaining) 3. The Power of Context: human behavior is sensitive to and influenced by its environment ("zero tolerance" efforts to combat minor crimes in NY subway led to decline in more violent crimes citywide; bystander effect...more people around, less likely you are to help)

UChicago Reports (varied authors)

For practical applications, use "Freshman On-Track Toolkit" document (July 2017) - saved in files 1. On-track indicator better predictor of HS graduation than 8th grade test scores or student background characteristics. 2. Original indicator: accumulated five full course credits, enough to be promoted to 10th; and no more than one semester F (one-half of a credit) in core subject. 3. Interestingly, 25% with high 8th grade test scores off-track, and 40% with very low 8th grade test scores on track (2003-04). 4. Controlling for variables (race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc.) illustrates that there are significantly different on-track rates at different schools. Schools play a role in on-track. 5. Early Warning Indicator & Intervention System (EWI) - collaborative approach among educators, administrators, parents, and communities to use data effectively to keep students on the pathway to graduation (rapid identification of off-track, rapid intervention targeted at immediate need for support) 6. ABCs (Attendance, Behavior, Course Performance) or BAG (Behavior, Attendance, Grades) - most highly predictive factors of dropping out. 7. Chicago, 3rd-8th grade predictive indicators: 1) C or higher in both math and reading, 2) 92% attendance, 3) Fewer than 3 misconducts [OSS]. 0 indicators = 78.4% graduation rate, 3 indicators = 12.9% graduation rate. 8. About 75% of students graduate high school (has stayed pretty steady). 9. In 2018, only about 27% of HS graduates were ready for college-level intro courses (students that met benchmark in all 4 subjects). 10. Increasing percentage of jobs that require post-secondary training; widening gap b/w HS graduates and non-graduates. 11. Grades drop ~1/2 of a letter grade from 8th to 9th grade. 12. 9th grade performance is a better predictor of HS graduation than 8th grade test scores, race, gender, sex, or other background characteristics. 13. In HS, effort, attendance, and monitoring by teachers tend to decrease (grades don't drop b/c classes are harder). 14. Without strong teachers who monitor students consistently and intervene right away, students disengage. Relationships are vital. 15. Some students interpret new freedom in HS as choices rather than responsibilities (i.e. attending class, completing work). Big difference b/w 8th and 9th grade (8th grade - monitored closely by teachers, not much freedom; 9th grade, teachers expect you to just get stuff done). 16. Strongest predictor of future test scores is past test scores (more so than grit, background characteristics, grades, etc.) 17. Most predictive indicators (currently): HS graduation = course grades, failure rate, & attendance; college readiness = course grades 18. High school standardized test scores predict college access, not necessarily college performance (GPA better indicator) 19. Must be careful when grades rise due to on-track being tracked for accountability - could be inflation, but can look at test scores too to see if those are changing (if increasing, may be student growth as opposed to inflation). 20. Higher standardized test scores correlated with freshman grades. 21. Strong relationship b/w 9th and 11th grade GPA (11th grade is vital for college apps). 22. 9th grade GPA strongly predictive of college enrollment and predictive of test scores. 23. More data needed to see if behavior is strong indicator...research findings have been inconsistent, likely due to the vastly different ways cities and schools deal with misbehavior. 24. Relationship b/w HS GPA & college graduation is strong and consistent (though GPAs vary across schools), while relationship b/w ACT scores & college graduation is weak and less consistent (though ACT is a standard measure across schools).

When Can You Trust the Experts? (Daniel Willingham)

How to sift out good science from bad. 1. Strip It and Flip It Take out all the hyped-up, vague, or emotional language that persuaders put in. Simply try, "If I do X, there is a Y percent chance that Z will happen." For example, when a hamburger is advertised as 85% lean, it also means it's 15% fat, which doesn't sound as good. 2. Trace It Dig under the surface..."experts" are often not actually experts. The claim may be based on a kernel of truth from a valid study, but expert may overstate claim (i.e. 93% of communication is nonverbal, learning styles). 3. Analyze It Think about sample size and statistical significance. "If a claim sounds like a breakthrough, it's probably a sham, because unheralded breakthroughs in science are exceedingly rare." 4. Should I Do It? Go through a checklist to decide whether to implement the change, buy product, etc.

Getting Around Brown (Gregory Jacobs)

Late 1700s/Early 1800s: NW Ordinance of 1787 and 1st Ohio Constitution prohibited slavery, but laws passed by state legislature in 1804 stripped blacks and multi-racial persons of most citizen rights. Blacks needed a $500 bond guaranteeing good behavior to live in the state, couldn't vote or hold office. 1812: Landowners from Franklinton offered tract of 1200 acres for Ohio capital, beat out Dublin, Lancaster, Newark, Westerville, Zanesville. 1829: Blacks couldn't attend property-tax funded schools, so they built their own (Long and 3rd). 1831: Canals opened up development to Columbus. 1833: National Road constructed. 1850: Railroads through Columbus. 1869: Industrial boom due to coal in SE Ohio and railroad construction. 1870-1900: population of C-Bus quadrupled and manufacturing tripled, but still landlocked. Wolfe family exerted economic and political power. Not much immigration, pretty quiet town. 1870: Black male suffrage. Golden age of Af-Am politics (Reverend James Poindexter, 1st black city councilman). 1900s: "Block-busting" - secretly sell home in white neighborhood to black family, whites leave, rent to blacks at exorbitant rates. 1907: OSU President William Oxley Thompson said races should be educated separately. 1909: All-black Champion Elementary opens, all black teachers. 1941: Curtiss-Wright aircraft plant opened (WW2), brought southern blacks and white Appalachians to city. "Metropolitan Committee" began to invest significantly in infrastructure (Vets Coliseum, Port Columbus) 1950s: Mayor Sensenbrenner annexed huge amount of land, city had monopoly on water and sewer, so city shared services with new developments in exchange for annexation. City staved off suburban encirclement. However, school district lines not necessarily redrawn to meet physical boundaries of city. 1955: Push for local control, growing suburban clout, and white racial fears led to state changing course: annexed municipalities were able to maintain their local school district even as they technically became part of city. Thus, CPS denied partnership in city's growth. 1954: Brown vs. Board rules segregation of public schools is unconstitutional. Columbus essentially ignores it. 1960s: South desegregated quickly (1.2% attended school with whites in '64, 32% in '68, 85.6% in '70, 91.3% in '72). 1964: Civil Rights Act (civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.) 1965: Voting Rights Act (signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 1970: Nixon says deliberate (de jure) segregation not okay, but segregation based on housing patterns (de facto) no reason for fed involvement. 1972: Columbus Public Schools passed bond levy providing revenue for building program. Black school board members saw opportunity for racially-mixed schools. Whites balked. 1974: Milliken vs. Bradley. Supreme Court ruling clarified distinction b/w de jure and de facto segregation, confirming segregation was allowed if it was not considered an explicit policy of each school district. Response to planned desegregation busing of public school students across district lines among 53 school districts to metropolitan Detroit. 1974: Busing pushed by liberals in North when plaintiffs challenged urban segregation. This let loose a white backlash (Louise Day Hicks in Boston, Louisville, Dayton), gave votes to Nixon, and led to division b/w working-class Democrats and suburban liberals who shook fingers at busing opponents but sent kids to private schools. 1977: "Schools w/o Schools" during Blizzard of 1977 showed that C-Bus could bus kids around if they needed to. 1977: Penick vs. Columbus Board of Education: Judge Robert Duncan ("Jackie Robinson" of Ohio Judiciary) decided Columbus City Schools was segregated and the Columbus Board of Education knowingly kept white and black students apart by creating specific school boundaries. Led to court-ordered busing. 1979: Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist issued stay on forced busing; however in 1979 Supreme Court upheld original Duncan decision. Late 1970s: City avoided violence because business elite wanted to maintain moderate image of town and compelled quiet acquiescence. 1985: CPS released from Penick decision and officials scaled back busing to keep whites in district. 1986: "Win-Win": existing school boundaries made permanent, unincorporated land annexed by Columbus in future went to CPS, Columbus schools share tax revenue from new industrial and commercial development in "common areas" but schools don't transfer. Suburbs keep students and tax base, city schools guaranteed territory in future annexations and cut from new construction. Late 1980s: Les Wexner got around Win-Win for New Albany by contracting with city for water/sewer but only annexing cheaper lots to CPS (kept executive lots in Plain Local). Plain Local was not good district - he chose poor white over poor black. General: Penick accelerated white flight, and undermined black control of limited resources segregation left to blacks (their own schools). "Common areas" were a refuge for whites...Columbus taxes, suburban schools. Residential development was huge influence: city provided infrastructure for new housing (water/sewer), even when houses built in suburbs whose schools were locally controlled. They exacerbated racial fears and advertised the districts their homes were in (i.e. Dublin schools, Columbus taxes). They also didn't build inside the district.

Reader, Come Home (Maryanne Wolf)

Letter 1: parallel b/w Greek shift from oral to written culture and our written to digital culture. Letter 2: when you read a single word, you activate very high number of neurons Letter 3: deep reading increases empathetic abilities (transports us to new worlds/cultures....can't travel everywhere!), need background knowledge to develop critical insights Letter 4: being informed by a daily deluge of information can drown out our ability to analyze our complex reality Letter 5: the digital age is impacting children and the future, need to preserve what reading does for intellectual, social-emotional, ethical formation Letter 6: don't move too fast from laps to laptops; build vocabulary, knowledge, good habits by reading to children Letter 7: must instruct teachers on how to best teach reading (i.e. phonics over whole language) Letter 8: next generation must code-switch b/w literacy-based reading circuit and digital-based circuit. Letter 9: what does it mean to be a "good reader" - reflective, contemplative state that may be harder since we're used to more stimuli

Learning to Improve (Anthony Bryk, et al)

Rather than "implement fast and learn slow," learn fast to implement well." 1. Make the work problem-specific and user-centered. "What specifically is the problem we are trying to solve?" 2. Variation in performance is the core problem to address. The critical issue is not what works, but rather "what works, for whom, and under what set of conditions." Advance efficacy reliably at scale. 3. See the system that produces the current outcomes. Go and see how local conditions shape work processes. 4. We cannot improve at scale what we cannot measure. Embed measures of key outcomes and processes to track if a change is an improvement. Anticipate unintended consequences and measure those too. 5. Anchor practice improvement in disciplined inquiry. Engage rapid cycles of PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) to learn fast, fail fast, and improve quickly. That failures is occur is not the problem; that we fail to learn from them is. 6. Accelerate improvements through networked communities. Embrace the wisdom of crowds. We can accomplish more together than even the best of us accomplish alone.

The Coddling of the American Mind (Haidt and Lukianoff)

Recent problems on college campuses originate from three "Great Untruths" that have been increasingly included as part of American childhood and education. 1. What doesn't kill you makes you weaker. (cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] improves mental health by focusing on challenging and changing unhelpful cognitive distortions...thoughts, beliefs, attitudes) 2. Always trust your feelings. (words do not constitute violence...exposure to opponent's ideas and arguments can make one's own ideas and arguments stronger...learn how to deal with adversity) 3. Life is a battle between good people and evil people. (UC Berkeley "Milo Riot" for Milo Yiannopoulos, Charles Murray debate at Middlebury, etc.; the "heckler's veto" shouldn't always win) *Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child. *Your own worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded. *The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. *Limit and refine device times. More time outdoors.

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)

Two systems in brain fighting for control of behavior and actions, which can lead to errors in memory, judgement, and decisions. 1. System 1: fast, automatic, emotional, unconscious, crucial to survival (i.e. eating entire bag of chips in front of TV when only want a bowl, turn toward door when somebody sketchy enters) 2. System 2: slow, calculating, infrequent, conscious, aware, and considerate, helps exert self-control, helps us succeed in today's world where priorities have shifted from getting food to earning money, supporting family, and making complex decisions (i.e. meeting a friend and spotting her in crowd, leading a meeting, etc.) 3. Brain is lazy - keeps you from using full power of intelligence (baseball bat and a ball cost $1.10...bat costs $1 more than ball...how much does ball cost?); system 1 can't handle it, you make mistake 4. When making decisions about money, leave emotion at home (homo oeconomicus - man or woman who only acts based on rational thinking - doesn't resemble us) 5. Loss aversion: We're more afraid to lose what we already have than keen on getting more. (see below scenario); in winning people also place greater value on a change from 0%-10% (impossibility to possibility) than say 45%-55% and greatest value from 90%-100% (possibility to certainty) Op 1: You're given $1,000. You have choice between receiving another, fixed $500, or taking a 50% gamble to win another $1,000. Op 2: You're given $2,000. Then you have the choice between losing $500, fixed, or taking a gamble with a 50% chance of losing another $1,000. *Most people take fixed in Op 1 and gamble in Op 2 even though odds are same. 6. Reference points: started at $2,000 makes you think you're in a better starting position...want to protect. We get less sensitive about money the more we have. Loss of $500 when you have $2,000 seems smaller than gain of $500 when you only have $1,000, so more likely to take chance. 7. Overconfidence: people overestimate how much they understand about the world and underestimate the role of chance; excessive certainty of hindsight - when an event appears to be understood after it has occurred or developed 8. Four-fold: 95% chance to win $10K = accept unfavorable settlement (fear of disappointment); 95% chance to lose $10K = reject favorable settlement (hope to avoid loss); 5% chance to win $10K = reject favorable settlement (hope of large gain); 5% chance to lose $10K = accept unfavorable settlement (fear of large loss); "He is tempted to settle this frivolous claim to avoid a freak loss, however unlikely. That's overweighting of small probabilities. Since he is likely to face many similar problems, he would be better off not yielding." If the city litigates 200 frivolous lawsuits (5% chance for $1 million loss), it will lose 10, for a total loss of $10 million. If the city settles every case for $100,000, its total loss will be $20 million. 9: Two selves: remembering self and experiencing self; remembering self does not care about duration of pleasant/unpleasant experience and by way it ends...it dominates person's conclusion (i.e. divorce...end was rough, but most of marriage was experienced pleasure); "life satisfaction" polls poor indicator of happiness because it relies on remembering self...better way is to focus on experiencing self (i.e. "Helen was happy in the month of March." if she spent most of time engaged in activities she would rather continue than stop) Heuristics *Halo effect: impression created in one area influences opinion in others ("He is nice!" can lead to "He is smart!" when you don't know that) *Substitution: "Linda problem" (subjects were told about imaginary Linda - young, single, outspoken, very bright, deeply concerned with discrimination and social justice...more probable that Linda is a bank teller or bank teller and an active feminist...overwhelming response was "feminist bank teller" which violates rules of probability (every feminist bank teller is a bank teller...); mind substituted easier question - "Is Linda a feminist?" *Anchoring: we may be influenced by irrelevant numbers (i.e. setting an "anchor" during a negotiation, asking whether Gandhi was more or less than 35 years old when he died will drive down estimates compared to 100) *Availability: making judgement about the probability of events based on how easy it is to think of examples (i.e. how likely a mass shooting is) *Optimism bias: illusion of control, that we have substantial control of our lives; planning fallacy: overestimate benefits and underestimate costs (i.e. 2002: kitchen remodeling averaged $38,769, people expected $18,658); WYSIATI (mind relies on phenomena it has already observed, rarely considers "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns") *Framing: subjects were asked whether they would opt for surgery if the "survival" rate is 90%, while others were told mortality rate is 10%...first framing increased acceptance, even though situation was same

Decisive (Chip & Dan Heath)

WRAP Widen your options (think AND not OR). Look for bright spots. Reality-test your assumptions. Confirmation bias leads to collect skewed, self-serving information. Must ask dis-confirming questions. Zoom out and zoom in. OOCH (small experiments to teach us more). Attain distance before deciding. Short-term emotion tempts us to make choices that are bad in long-term. 10/10/10 (how will I feel 10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years from now?). Remember stainless steel bolts...use on Navy ships now because 21-year-old sailor realized they don't rust and need repainted. Prepare to be wrong. We are overconfident and should prepare for bad outcomes. Set tripwires that snap us to attention. David Lee Roth brown m&m, Zappos $1000 offer.

Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)

We make split-second decisions and judgments - good and bad - and that ability both makes us more likely to read a dangerous situation quickly but also be unconsciously racist/sexist/etc. 1. Experts can make intuitive, accurate judgments (i.e. Getty Museum..."that statue doesn't look right...") 2. "Thin slicing" - the unconscious mind's ability to find patterns and meaning (i.e. psychologist ability to predict with 95% accuracy whether couple will still be together in 15 years) 2. "Priming" - process by which behavior is changed through subtle environmental triggers (i.e. classical music played in subway system in Spain which decreased vandalism and litter) 3. "Dark side of thin-slicing" - unconscious mind tend toward prejudices that influence conscious decisions (i.e. Warren Harding...tall, dark, handsome...but one of worst Presidents) 4. "Paul Van Riper's Big Victory" - retired Marine Corps officer who led underdog "Red Team" to victory in Millennium Challenge in 2002 (war game) with decentralized, intuitive decision-making in times of urgency 5. "Kenna's Dilemma" - Kenna loved by critics but fails to get a record deal b/c music doesn't test well in marketing surveys (experts "thin slicing" differs markedly from mass market) 6. "Mind-Reading" - cops gunned down Amadou Diallo outside his own apartment building because people can read (or misread) others' facial expressions...cops are prone to this in stressful situations 7. National Symphony Orchestra - use blind auditions to cut down on gender and other kinds of bias (listen w/ ears rather than eyes)

Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)

What contributes to high levels of success? 1. Disproportionate number of elite Canadian hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year (bigger, stronger) 2. Bill Gates gained access to a computer in 1968 while still in high school, allowing him to hone skills far before average person had any familiarity with computers. 3. Genius not only thing that leads to success...must have exposure to educational opportunities (Christopher Langan vs. Robert Oppenheimer)