In most of the developed world, high-stakes tests make or break a student's future, sometimes before the age of 12. Many countries use national benchmarks to assess students, and construct tests to gauge understanding of the core curriculum. This was an original goal of the Common Core, but in the U.S., standardized tests have become […]
What does the routing process look like at First Student? We provide transportation services to more than 1,000 school districts in the U.S. and Canada. We pride ourselves on having a customized approach to a district's unique transportation needs. At its core, successful routing is still the process of getting all students to school and […]
The school psychologist shortage rages on, with one federal study predicting deficits of more than 10,000 full-time psychologists by 2025. But districts have been exploring nontraditional options to provide comprehensive care to all students. "The shortages are significant and severe, to the point where we're in somewhat of a potential crisis" says Eric Rossen, director […]
Consider what the world will be like in 2031 when today's kindergartners graduate high school. "We don't know exactly what it'll look like, but there are a couple things we do know" says Randy Ziegenfuss, superintendent of Salisbury Township School District (Pennsylvania). "For people in that world to be successful, they're going to have to […]
Play is not a luxury; it is a necessity. In many districts across the United States, recess in elementary school is being questioned, reduced and even eliminated to increase instructional time. Students need ample time for recess and brain breaks to help them to develop social competencies and attention to learning.
During Noel Petrosky's 12 years at different Saint Marys Area School District elementary schools, she saw assessment data accurately predict student performance on state tests and inform instruction that led to student growth. That wasn't the case at Saint Marys Area Middle School when she became principal two years ago. "I thought, 'I can't go […]
Why is personalized learning so important? Marcy: It leverages a student's interests, their strengths, then tailors instruction to their specific needs and goals. Rich: It gets into predictive analytics. Traditionally the analytics type of reporting is a look at what has been happening. Personalized learning is looking at what is going to happen. How can IT officials […]
Robert Sexton has worked with school-based tech for more than 15 years, so there's not much he hasn't seen. "Kids are pretty ingenious; keeping up with them is a challenge" says Sexton, currently the director of technology for Olentangy Local School District, just north of Columbus, Ohio. That challenge is mitigated by the district's secret […]
Ware County School District in Georgia has downsized its inventory of assistive technology. Thanks to a slew of technological advances, many of the specialized tools their special education students had used to communicate and learn are now redundant. "We don't need portable keyboards or word processors anymore" says Barbara Sonnier, the district's assistive technology coordinator. […]
