Growing up, Eric Osborne never considered a career in the technology industry. "The message we got in school was that it just wasn't something African-American people thought about or did" Osborne says. Besides, computer science classes didn't exist in the Florida schools where he grew up and there were no mentors pushing Osborne toward STEM […]
Equity in K12 education doesn't mean the same thing as equality. In fact, achieving true equity often requires providing lower-income schools and students with more resources than are given others in the same district, says Joel Boyd, superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools in New Mexico. "Fair student funding means some students are funded at […]
Many students at Oxnard Elementary School District in Southern California have a dual challenge in gaining reading proficiency. Not only do they struggle with developing literacy skills, but over 56 percent of Oxnard's 17,000 pre-k through 8 students are learning English as a second language. To help these students overcome their literacy deficiency, in 2014 […]
For a few weeks in early 2016, a computer program helped educators teach the finer points of writing to students in a Fort Worth ISD high school. Like so many schools nationwide, R.L. Paschal High School—under pressure from new state standards—has been working hard to improve writing instruction so students can express their ideas and […]
When Heidi Sipe, superintendent of Oregon's poor, rural Umatilla School District, asks her elementary-age students what they want to be when they grow up, she no longer gets the answers she once did: football player, firefighter, nurse. Now the students tell her they want to be engineers. Sipe attributes the change to the district's four-year-old […]
At Napa Valley USD in northern California, classroom technology integration has been a priority since 1997, when the district opened the country's first New Technology High School. So bringing in digital books in order to provide easily accessible content to the 18,000 students and faculty in 34 schools was a natural—and important—step. "The challenge was […]
Kaya Henderson will step down in September as chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools after serving in the position for more than five years. She says she will spend time with family before considering other offers in education, published reports state. During Henderson's tenure, the once-troubled district has stabilized and seen marked improvements […]
As the 20th largest school district in the nation and the sixth largest school district in Florida, Duval County Public Schools has special challenges with integrating technology in every classroom. The district had projectors and interactive whiteboards, but there was no across-the-board standard for the school's core classroom equipment. Additionally, the equipment was aging. Projector […]
The New Media Consortium (NMC), together with the Consortium for School Networking (COSN), released its annual K12 Horizon Report, which can be very useful for educators contemplating how much they have accomplished or where to go next with their technology initiative. The full report can be accessed here.Although the 2015 K12 Horizon report largely speaks […]
Meeting students' psychological needs, improving STEM programs and fueling college and career access exemplify innovative solutions increasing student achievement nationwide. The 24 school systems honored in this round of District Administration's Districts of Distinction national recognition program found creative ways to raise graduation rates and to build up administrative effectiveness. These districts, representing 16 states […]
