KANSAS CITY, Kansas—Superintendent Cynthia Lane learned the cello a few years ago, but not to fulfill some lifelong dream of soloing with the local symphony. The leader of Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, who played clarinet in high school, now performs alongside fourth- and fifth-graders in their annual spring strings concert. Fifth-graders also spend months […]
CIOs can play a key role in their district's efforts to increase parent engagement as part of wider initiatives to advance equity. Providing multilingual content on school websites and apps presents these outreach opportunities—as well as costs and challenges. "The overall benefit is to get the conversation started" says Jason Olsen, communications officer for Salt […]
For common communications, such as early dismissal notices, some schools create generic translated versions in key languages, with spaces for teachers to fill in custom information such as the date and time. These templates enable school personnel to send translated documents home quickly and easily. Here are other important documents that require a nimble translation […]
Lunch shaming is the sort of term that never existed until this past spring, when it was seemingly everywhere. It refers to cafeteria policies advocates say punish students who are unable to pay for their meal, such as by taking the lunch away, or having them stand in a separate line from their peers for […]
Educators have offered instruction that goes beyond the rote for many years, but the concept of deeper learning has recently grown in scope as higher education and the economy demand a more complex blend of intellectual and social skills. Today's deeper learning proponents urge schools to focus on six competencies: mastering rigorous academic content; thinking […]
Many districts across the country struggle with increasing demographic homogeneity more than 60 years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. But the Morris School District in northern New Jersey has been hailed as a model for successful integration, in part due to its community's affordable housing and teacher […]
Albemarle County, Virginia—A snake bit Pam Moran in front of her class on her first day of teaching 40 years ago. Moran, now a superintendent in Virginia, had no one to blame but herself on that fateful day in 1975. Thinking it would be an unconventional way to introduce herself, Moran had brought a garter […]
School superintendency is a family business for the Prusators. Todd Prusator leads Community Consolidated School District 231 in a small community 70 miles west of Chicago. His two brothers, Bob and Jeff, also are Illinois superintendents, all within about 30 miles of each other in the northwest corner of the state. The three brothers, who […]
Superintendent Yolanda Valdez takes messaging seriously. Not emoji-filled texts or IMs, but messages that convey a goal for 4,000-plus students at Cutler-Orosi Joint USD in rural California: That they will attend college. Superintendent Yolanda Valdez takes messaging seriously. Not emoji-filled texts or IMs, but messages that convey a goal for 4,000-plus students at Cutler-Orosi Joint […]
For centuries now, we have come to believe that there is only one way for students to learn—come to school, sit at a desk, be taught by a teacher, and be tested. We’ve operated schools as if they were industrial factories, with teaching and learning practices that mimic assembly-line and batch-processing manufacturing. But we can […]
