Howard County Public School System in Maryland considers offering early retirement incentives a pretty effective cost-saving strategy. Administrators at the district of 76 schools twice contemplated—and decided against—offering an incentive in the last decade, before finally crafting a buyout plan in the 2014-15 school year that would save the district an estimated $11.4 million over […]
More than 50 percent of curriculum directors anticipate a significant conversion from print to digital materials within the next three years. And it appears this shift is about to get a big boost from the Every Student Succeeds Act. K12 education is making strides in the digital shift. According to MDR's 2015 EdNET Insight survey, […]
Every spring, students in Michael Nocella's chemistry class at Niles West High School in Illinois design a hot air balloon. But they set goals beyond carrying the most passengers or flying the farthest. Students work in groups to create a balloon that meets a societal or environmental need, such as fuel efficiency. Weaving this kind […]
Efforts to address the achievement gap have taken an innovative path in Connecticut. In response to the call from legislatures disgusted with 25 years of NAEP data trends that showed little improvement in closing gaps, a task force was created to examine the disparities. Simple innovation This is where the innovative path came in. The […]
The bad news seems to be everywhere. The School District of Philadelphia had 190 teaching vacancies in October. From New York to California, enrollment in teacher-preparation programs has fallen by double-digit percentages. The president of Nevada's Board of Education called her state's teacher shortage "horrific" according to published reports, warning that, if conditions don't improve, […]
Á¢Klint W. Willert Superintendent, Brookings School District, South Dakota Topic: Testing & assessment Trend: Student achievement is measured by more than a single assessment score. The trend of moving toward multiple measures, not just a test score, to determine the quality of a teacher, a school, and district will continue to resound with the voting […]
Students three years from now will use two or three mobile devices in the classroom compared to the current ratio of one device to every two students, according to a survey of districts by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). The steady decline in cost and expanding capabilities of mobile devices make them more viable […]
A first-of-its-kind Connecticut law allows parents to include their child's paraprofessional in school planning and placement team meetings that create individualized educational programs. Districts must also inform parents of their right to involve the paraprofessional in all portions of the "PPT" meeting, according to the law passed last July. "This is an important revision, as […]
More and more high school graduates are choosing to study STEM-related fields after graduating, thanks to the wealth of career opportunities that require those skills. As such, it's vital for educators to understand how to integrate STEM into the classroom. But while most teachers are aware of the importance of STEM, strategically integrating it into […]
Teaching research skills once meant asking students to turn stacks of library books into essays on the poetry of Emily Dickinson or the causes of the Civil War. But today, it's just as likely to mean asking second-graders to design a museum exhibit on the physics of flight, encouraging a 10th-grader to make the case […]
