Eighth-graders in Maine in the 2017-18 school year will be the first to adhere to proficiency-based standards. The initiative is the latest implementation phase of a 2012 state law requiring standards-based assessment by 2021. Under the law, districts have leeway in how to best provide support for students in achieving proficiency. Students can expect to […]
District leaders and experts weigh in on the four steps to having a successful intervention. – Plan ahead. Every system drifts. Perform regular audits of your intervention system. "If you want to have any initiative survive, you need to plan forward." — Jim Wright, author and RtI trainer Link to main story: Intervention strategies evolve […]
When Gary Brantley began his career as an IT leader 14 years ago, he primarily provided technical support and made sure the hardware was running. "It had everything to do with techy stuff" he says. Since then, Brantley's role as chief information officer at DeKalb County Schools in Georgia has expanded significantly. He now spends […]
Disruptive Classroom Technologies: A Framework for Innovation in Education Sage Publications Ltd. Schools continuously fund technology for classrooms but not always with a clear plan. This book lays out a framework for the T3 system, which categorizes technology as "translational" to help educators perform tasks more efficiently, "transformational" as a way of reinventing old tasks […]
The number of young people suffering from depression has increased almost 40 percent in the last three years. And, as the Hamilton Southeastern School District has found, mental health issues are hardly limited to teens. After the city of Fishers, an Indianapolis suburb of about 90,000, had 13 suicides in 2016, city officials launched a […]
Middle and high school students in Providence, Rhode Island, can earn badges—and class credit—for skills learned in after-school programs. The Providence Afterschool Alliance offers badges to its 2,000 students for completing STEM activities and for displaying skills such as problem-solving, communication and perseverance. "We work to give value to learning beyond the school space" says […]
Districts have several options when introducing a badging program. For students, the process tends to be more intricate because these badges, often awarded for soft skills and career-preparation activities, contain metadata that details what students did to earn the badges. Such higher-tech "open badges" can be shared on social media and live on an online […]
It’s generally understood that integrating ed-tech into schools can be complex, but what’s less often discussed is that it represents one of the most universal pain points for administrators and educators today. And when you look at larger, more densely populated school districts ÁÁ¬ in urban markets like Los Angeles, Philadelphia, or Chicago ÁÁ¬ district […]
P rior to Aileen Parsons becoming director of human resources for Pleasanton USD in northern California, she was a school principal in the district. The memory of hiring paperwork was fresh in Parsons' mind when she switched jobs in November 2015. "We had to generate a form and then send it to the district office […]
