Beth Schiavino-Narvaez has led Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut for two years. But it's been two decades since a landmark state court case—Sheff vs. O'Neill—ruled that Hartford schools had violated the U.S. Constitution by isolating children based on race and socioeconomics. And despite new budget woes, Schiavino-Narvaez continues to fight for better schools. The school […]
What do teachers think of their profession? How do they feel about government intrusion into what they teach and how they conduct themselves in the classroom? A report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy is meant to put a spotlight on their opinions. Titled, "Listen to Us: Teacher Views and Voices" the survey […]
The concept of "going virtual" has been gaining traction in the IT world for years, beginning in data centers with server virtualization. Today, school district CIOs who have taken the next step—the virtualization of desktop computers—see a new range of benefits, including increased flexibility for users, cost savings, stronger security, and more frequent updates of […]
Literacy changes taking hold in schools recognize the subject's expansion from traditional textbooks to online readings, images and audio. New learning standards ask students to read more closely and write more analytically, meaning teachers must adapt curriculum to get students reading earlier, says Jennifer Serravallo, International Literacy Association speaker and author of The Reading Strategies […]
Upon receiving a special School Improvement Grant to implement a Tennessee-approved turnaround model in 2013, leaders for Shelby County Schools in Memphis selected seven sites to transform. These schools, designated by the district as i-Zone schools, fall in the bottom 5 percent in the state. Douglass K8 Optional School is one of the selected schools. […]
Any public district transitioning to an integrated digital curriculum needs time, patience and support from top leadership. Let's face it, digital content—from the Khan Academy to streaming videos to adaptive learning applications—has enveloped K12 education. While some district leaders have only begun replacing printed learning materials with the new technology, other districts are going entirely […]
When it comes to racism in our public schools, many people pretend it doesn't exist, says Pamela Lewis. In her new book, Teaching While Black, Lewis says a misplaced focus on test scores hides the true causes of underperforming inner-city schools: poverty and race. When it comes to racism in our public schools, many people […]
Children across the nation learned downward dog, the tree and the frog, among many other yoga positions and movements this past spring. The first Kids' Yoga Day rolled out at 11 a.m., on April 8 with more than 25,000 children in 46 states and 21 countries. Teresa Ann Powers, a yoga instructor and author of […]
While detention remains a staple of student discipline across the country, many school leaders are looking at ways to modify the practice, or even replace it, with approaches that may be more effective in actually reducing bad behavior. Classic detention, where bored students sit silently and unproductively in classrooms after school, has limited value as […]
Blended learning can support a more personalized approach to education. You've no doubt heard of the teaching approach in which students spend part of the day learning online at their own pace and part of the day receiving instruction from a classroom teacher. But there are still a number of misconceptions about what blended learning […]
