An Education Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Book excerpt: Discover how education innovations can produce astonishing results in student success both in and out of school. The educators featured in this book were motivated by the conviction that even the best status quo education was not serving current student needs. They responded with radical changes that tap into recent ideas about educational transformation: personalization, student-driven curriculum, student agency and co-ownership of learning direction, school-sheltered student entrepreneurship, student-led civic projects, creativity education, and product-oriented learning. Readers will find carefully researched and detailed stories of on-the-ground models where students learn empathy, cooperation, creativity, and self-management, alongside rigorous academics. Together these stories provide insight into the process of innovation and the elements that can make change successful. An Education Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste will inspire educators in ordinary situations to take extraordinary actions toward a new paradigm of education in which all students can flourish. “Zhao has, again, written an education book that one cannot put down. He has a profound ability to describe how the world is changing, and that schools should as well.” —Larry Rosenstock, CEO, High Tech High “This is a must-read for school teams seeking seeds of proven success that will ignite truly transformative change.” —Grant Lichtman, internationally recognized thought leader and author