While national graduation rates hit an all-time high of 82 percent in 2014, the trend for students with disabilities remained flat at nearly 63 percent, according to the most recent data. In Georgia, Nevada and Mississippi, students with disabilities graduated from high school at half the rate of their non-disabled peers. Students with disabilities who […]

In many partnerships that bring businesses and schools together, a private or nonprofit third party serves as a bridge to the most successful collaborations. For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) offers extracurricular STEM activities, including an international high school robotics competition, to more than 400,000 K12 students nationwide, with mostly school-based robotics […]

In 2015-16, states increased pre-K funding for the fourth consecutive year, according to a recent report from the Education Commission of the States. Total state funding for preschool programs rose by $767 million, to a total of nearly $7 billion—a 12 percent increase over the prior year’s spending levels. In the 2015-16 budget year, 32 […]

At Banneker High School in College Park, Georgia, dedicating a wing of six classrooms, an office and a conference room to just 139 ninth graders and their six teachers is an exercise in innovation. The wing is the foundation of a Junior Achievement (JA) pilot program called JA Magnet Business Academy, JA-MBA. Junior Achievement is […]

First-time Superintendent Bilal Tawwab started work at Flint Community Schools in September, prepared to take on the district’s budget deficit of $10.5 million and a number of poor-performing schools. The city’s infamous water crisis erupted during his first month at the helm of the district of 7,000 students. Tawwab, formerly assistant superintendent at Detroit Public […]

Leadership is never more critical than when creating and sustaining a data-centric learning culture, as Lane Mills advises in a white paper on how districts can access and integrate data to make informed, proactive decisions. A smart “what-why-how” framework can illuminate the mission of a new culture: What is a data-driven culture? Why is there […]

Leaders in Johnston County Schools in central North Carolina knew they needed to find more effective ways to help struggling students, close the achievement gap and meet their core instructional priorities. So they carefully planned a pilot program to choose the best adaptive learning system for the district’s 25,000 K8 students and their educators. “We […]

The push toward digital learning in Meriden Public Schools in Connecticut started about six years ago with a simple premise: Learning doesn’t stop when school ends. Superintendent Mark D. Benigni understood that advancing off-campus education would require a strong and engaging digital reading program. Soon he knew he had a winner with myON, which provides […]