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 […]
Injecting the arts into science, math, engineering and technology encourages students to think creatively and critically in traditional STEM subjects that, until the recent and widespread adoption of new standards, didn't often encourage students to think outside the box. The rising popularity of blended STEAM programs reflects a nationwide K12 push to develop the next […]
Injecting “social responsibility” lessons into social studies classrooms better prepares students to become informed citizens eager to participate in a democracy. Educators will learn about the many ways to reach this goal at this year’s National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference, which carries the theme “celebrate social responsibility.” Various presentations at the conference […]
Despite fewer unaccompanied minors arriving from Central America, many U.S. K12 schools still struggle to adapt to the challenges of educating this diverse set of immigrant students. During the 2014 fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security reported that 57,496 unaccompanied minors arrived in the United States. In the first eight months of fiscal year […]
Some say that for principals, every day is their first day on the job. Alongside day-to-day building management issues such as hiring teachers, overseeing finances and student discipline, principals now guide teachers through new state standards and testing. As principal evaluations become a more common practice, district leaders need to provide them with a PD […]
Following a change in leadership in the Puyallup School District during the summer of 2012, we committed to align the work of the district with professional learning for leaders and staff to serve each student. Working with the board of directors, "Improvement of Instruction, Student Growth and Achievement" became the central focus of the district, […]
The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards (ISLLC) are now available. The seven standards, redrafted after the public comment period ended last fall, identify areas that school leaders should be able to demonstrate competency. An initiative of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the final versions yield some significant changes in wording, but […]
Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) in Maryland was challenged to increase student engagement and to use technology to facilitate learning. The DigitalHARFORD initiative was established two years ago to help infuse the right digital tools and content into newly created active learning environments to inspire all students in the district's 54 schools. To fulfill that […]
How can districts use the Common Core-aligned assessments to improve education if the results won't be available until later this fall, after the current school year is well underway? That's the question district administrators have been asking themselves for months, ever since millions of American students took the first round of Common Core-aligned assessments earlier […]
