Students in seventh-grade math classes are not necessarily ready for seventh-grade math. They may be rusty in concepts taught in sixth grade, or ready for high-level applications covered in high school. That is why the ALEKS¬Á personalized learning program from McGraw-Hill Education is an integral part of the math curriculum in Oak Creek-Franklin middle schools, […]
Environmental science teacher Jamie Esler takes his Idaho high school students outdoors for hands-on learning about climate science and climate change. They take core samples from trees, measure declining snowpack and calculate carbon dioxide levels. This hands-on field work is more impactful than a slideshow packed with data and graphs, Esler says. Before students step […]
Atomic absorption spectrometers. Electroporators. Nano-injectors. Micro-manipulators. These high-tech tools are not normally found in a high school science class. Yet, in Georgia, students in Paulding County High School's biotechnology career pathway program use these and other advanced equipment to analyze chemical elements, transform organisms and much more as part of their project-based research classes. AR […]
How closely is professional development linked to student achievement? Professionalism expects learning to be in the collective. We should think of our own learning and growth as part of a mutually beneficial ongoing professional development process. A big part of that idea is that we share and become more transparent in our practice as educators. […]
School districts know that "sit-and-get" professional development isn't working and can have extreme consequences, such as high teacher turnover and poor student performance. To combat this, across the country there is an ongoing, rapid evolution of professional development to be more personalized. While change in education is often slow, this long-overdue advancement is quickly taking […]
BARTLETT, TENNESSEE—Only a handful of superintendents have launched a brand-new district. Even fewer have done it only months after being involved in a large-scale merger. Meet David Stephens, superintendent of Bartlett City Schools in a middle-class Memphis suburb. Stephens—whose father, grandfather, aunt and uncle all taught in Tennessee school districts—was chosen in 2013 to lead […]
Twelve of Nashville's largest high schools in November began piloting an online test that assesses ninth-graders' job aptitudes along with their career interests. Many states, including Washington and New Jersey, have created similar career-oriented middle and high school exams that are based on interests rather than skills, says Katie Fitzgerald, senior associate of communications of […]
Districts are increasingly tasked with providing options for at-risk and underserved student populations to address persistent achievement gaps. While nationwide gains in closing achievement gaps have been made, research shows that underserved student populations still achieve at lower rates than their peers in many areas. Black and Hispanic students graduate at lower rates than white […]
Until recently, the quality of classroom instruction relied almost entirely on a teacher's resourcefulness, motivation and intelligence. Soon, it will also depend on artificial intelligence—with lessons based more on what students need to learn than on traditional methods of instruction. "Even with PCs, projectors and the internet, the way students are taught hasn't changed that […]
I believe in the validity of vocational programs. However, I do have concerns about the context of what is being taught to these students in a rapidly changing economy. Vocational education at the secondary level has a long and storied tradition in the history of the United States. It is an institutional framework that meets the needs […]
