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 […]
Starting fresh with a new math curriculum was the goal for Gloucester Township Public Schools in fall 2013. The K-8 district, which is located 14 miles southeast of Philadelphia in New Jersey and serves 6,400 students, had a new curriculum and instruction department team charged with the task of updating outdated materials. "We did not […]
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 […]
Educators generally agree that we are testing too much. On the heels of No Child Left Behind, we've had 15 years of often misguided national and state accountability policies that have only just been rolled back. Driven by a robust parental "opt out" movement, Congress' latest action puts more authority back with the states. But […]
The 3,000 students in rural Maine's Regional School Unit 19 begin compiling electronic portfolios of their schoolwork in pre-K, when the district issues every child a Google account. In the elementary years, teachers snap and upload digital photos of handwritten work. In the upper grades, students accustomed to electronically documenting their school lives habitually upload […]
Lyceum Academy offers a rigorous, fully integrated AP® and honors-based curriculum at New Hanover High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. This 200-student "school within a school," part of the most diverse school in New Hanover County, attracts students ready to face an educational challenge. Because all Lyceum students must take AP exams, it is critical […]
The opt-out movement shows no signs of slowing in the midst of this year's spring testing season. An estimated two-thirds to three-quarters of a million students could chose not to take state standardized tests this school year, according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing. In 2014-15, more than 640,000 students skipped state […]
From testing problem-solving skills in the survivalist block-building adventure Minecraft to reinforcing science concepts in SimCityEDU, educators are integrating games in the classroom at an increasingly rapid rate. Game-Based Learning occurs when students play a game with defined learning outcomes. In this special section, District Administration analyzes exactly what qualifies as Game-Based Learning, and identifies […]
A wealth of choices. Accessible at home or at school. Both fiction and nonfiction options. Those were the qualifications for new ELA software for the 37,000 students of West Ada School District in western Idaho. "We had other instructional reading tools, but they were very expensive and did not provide content at the time" says […]
