Jennifer Wheary
Jennifer Wheary‘s research and writing focuses on the future middle class, demographic change, educational access, economic opportunity, and the strategic development of human capital for the 21st century. Her articles have appeared in the New York Daily News, Newsday, and other newspapers around the country.
Prior to joining Demos, Jennifer worked in the academic, non-profit, and private sectors. She consulted for schools in both Colombia and Brazil, designed and launched a successful online science journal, co-founded an adult literacy program, helped build a new business division at an Internet startup, and headed interactive research for the largest Spanish-language media company in the U.S. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Testing “Performance” in Science
Fourth and Eighth-graders across New York State are in the midst of taking their 2012 standardized “science performance tests.” With some exceptions (see the May 2012 memo issued by the [...]
Failing with Grace
It is truly a pleasure to see good policy ideas in action. That was my experience this weekend when I attended a FIRST LEGO League Robotics Scrimmage, sponsored by the New York [...]
Girl Scouts Heart Science Education
This article first appeared on February 15th, 2012 on the Demos Blog PolicyShop. It is reprinted here with permission of the author. I celebrated Valentine’s Day yesterday by attending one [...]
Steve Jobs’ Higher Calling and Higher Education
More than once in his lifetime, Steve Jobs’ success was cited as evidence that higher education is not only unnecessary for some individuals, but often acts as a detriment to [...]
Khan Academy – A Teaching Revolution
Here is a revolutionary idea for improving education: Focus on the learning process rather than prepping kids for standardized tests. This idea, discussed in a recent Economist article, is getting [...]
Hope, Public Schools, and New Ideas
One of the most refreshing aspects of writing about education is that there is no shortage of ideas, opinions, and the good sense to keep them in check. Hotly contested [...]
Cami Anderson: An Unusual Leader for Newark Schools
Announcements about administrative appointments in public education often contain overblown promises of positive change. This week’s naming of Cami Anderson to head Newark public schools may be a hopeful exception. [...]
The Politics of Problem Solving
An Economist published last weeks talks about a new trend in business thought: The Failure Fashion. The article observes that both the April issue of Harvard Business Review and the [...]
High-Stakes Testing: A, B, C or None of the Above
In a post last week I asked what would change if discussions about educational policy focused more on what children should know and be able to do. It seems natural [...]
FIRST LEGO League and the Building Blocks of Learning Success
Originally posted on Policy Shop | The Demos Blog: Ideas for the Common Good on March 31, 2011. Reposted with the author’s consent. I spent last weekend amidst screaming crowds, multi-colored [...]
