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 […]
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 […]
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo plans to bring computer science courses to every school in the state by the end of 2017. To ease concerns over a lack of teachers trained to teach the subject, the state has formed the Computer Science for Rhode Island (CS4RI) initiative to supply the needed PD. That professional development […]
In Baldwin Community Schools, students had been returning from summer break having lost more than six weeks of learning—two weeks more than is typical. The district is located in the lowest-income county in rural Michigan, where 94 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Superintendent Stiles Simmons resolved the learning loss issue in […]
The digital classroom is no longer a new concept—half of school districts nationwide believe they've completed their 1-to-1 initiatives and the infrastructure required, according to the annual Digital School Districts Survey from the Center for Digital Education, published in March. The survey, which was open to all U.S. public school districts, reported that personalized learning […]
Why settle for one superintendent when you can have three? It's happening at District 49 in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. Peter Hilts is chief education officer. He considers himself the visionary. Jack Bay is the "practical" chief operations officer who handles transportation, construction activities and IT. And as chief business officer, Brett Ridgway […]
The recent racial upheaval in places like Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere illustrate just how far apart we have drifted as a people. Somehow, we must find a way to repair the damage that has been done and the trust that has been lost. We must begin closing the gap between the white community and the […]
Increasing the use of digital library content was one of the goals outlined in the North East Independent School District's (ISD) instructional improvement plan starting in the 2013-14 school year. The San Antonio district, which enrolls 68,000 students, had many eBooks and digital audiobooks, but most students were simply not using the content. "It is […]
The arts survive in American education, despite pressures placed on school leaders to focus on high-stakes tests in math and English. As of March, 27 states identify the arts as a core academic subject. And 49 states and the District of Columbia have adopted elementary and secondary standards for the arts, according to the "State […]
