Principals shifting their roles from building manager to instructional leader need more extensive PD to ensure top performance from teachers and students, according to a new policy brief from ASCD. Race to the Top's requirements linking teacher evaluations to student test scores is largely responsible for the change in the principal's responsibilities, says Susan Race, […]
With many assessment mandates rolled out by Ohio in recent years, the 6,000-student Plain Local School District ended up in a challenging situation. “Like others in the state, each time a mandate came out, we fulfilled it with a new assessment,” says Cassandra Sponseller, Director of Teaching and Learning and Director of Gifted Programs for […]
Murky state policies leave administrators in the lurch as more parents opt their children out of Common Core testing, according to a March report from the Education Commission of the States. In many states, education departments remain silent on how districts should handle parent requests for opting students out of PARCC or Smarter Balanced testing, […]
Providing students with the right academic resources is crucial to their success. Whether it's finding printed books, e-books or other research materials, new software can help librarians organize materials and make them easy to find. The software also gives students access to these materials on phones, tablets and other mobile devices. Destiny Library Manager Follett […]
While blended learning has become a common topic of discussion and an increasingly common district-level strategy for driving student achievement, strategies for successfully making the transition to this new model of learning are often ignored. In this web seminar, originally broadcast on March 17, 2015, presenters explored best practices and lessons learned from blended learning […]
It's crucial for today's students to develop foundational technology skills that can be applied to their core subject learning. To accomplish this goal, districts need to coordinate the efforts of technology and academic staff to embed digital learning into the curriculum. In this web seminar, originally broadcast on March 10, 2015, a district technology leader […]
No matter the grade or skill level, the newest mathematics tools and programs aim to make learning various math concepts an adventure. Being adaptive, engaging and fun, products try to meet the needs of individual students while aligning with the Common Core and other state standards. Here are some of the latest math tools in […]
A cadre of students trained in IT support are providing teachers with Johnny-on-the-spot resources and bolstering the responsiveness of districts' lean tech staffs for routine requests. The eager students provide districts with an inexpensive and much-needed tech resource; and the students gain experience, new skills, and confidence, districts say. On any given day, teachers are […]
Vision: The First Critical Step in Developing a Strategy for Educational Technology Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Authors Darryl Vidal and Michael Casey provide administrators with a structured methodology for developing an educational technology vision that benefits all stakeholders and supports school and district strategic plans. This book discusses technology in a non-technical manner, and addresses […]
Education advocacy group ASCD is calling for a two-year moratorium on using standardized test results for teacher or school evaluations. The move represents a growing push nationally to cut back on testing and limit its use as an accountability measure because it may not accurately reflect a teacher's classroom performance. "We're not saying Á¢†˜Don't test,' […]
