The organizational tendency of many large school districts is to divide elementary and secondary education into separate departments. Dearborn Public Schools’ central office followed this model for decades. During tough financial times there was a history of competition for limited district resources between elementary and secondary central office staff and building administrators. This led to […]
Giftedness is not just a test score. How many students have we seen who did not have a test score to qualify for a gifted program but became an expert in an area of passion and interest? This broader definition of giftedness is one I learned from Joseph Renzulli, a longtime professor of educational psychology […]
A teacher’s time is precious—I can attest to that as a former teacher and school principal. School years are jam-packed with teaching, planning, data analysis, testing, and supporting students as they meet their learning goals. Throughout, teachers make time to hone their skills and to stay current in their subject areas through observation, feedback and […]
New math. Scary words for parents raised on long division and memorization of times tables. Even educator Paige Bergin, who had spent two years teaching fifth-grade math out of a traditional textbook, wasn’t so sure when she was introduced to a new program 13 years ago. So Bergin started researching the algorithms taught in Everyday […]
A custom-made mobile tech lab brings tech and internet access to the neighborhoods of low-income students in La Joya ISD (7,000 students) on Texas’ Mexican border. “In our predominantly low socioeconomic level area, parents don’t have access to basic educational support at home” says Clemencia Garza, the district’s instructional resources and technology director. “They don’t […]
Verona Public Schools is dedicated to cultivating learning environments that nurture the natural curiosity of children. As Albert Einstein said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” A year after we launched our pilot program in inquiry-based science, feedback from surveys shows a higher level of student […]
Educators know that most dyslexic students will need interventions and accommodations throughout school, but best practices continue to evolve as more is learned about this reading disability.
At four elementary schools in Idaho's Boise School District, families in need can go to specially designated community rooms to pick up food, clothing and other necessities.
When it was time for North Kansas City School District in Missouri to adopt a mathematics resource for its elementary school students, a select pool of teachers was asked to evaluate several resources. Eventually, Everyday Mathematics from McGraw-Hill Education was selected as the resource. “According to all of the professional development that our teachers received […]
E ducators in Bradley County Schools in Cleveland, Tennessee, were faced with some staggering numbers: 48 percent of third-grade students were reading on grade level. That meant five out of every 10 were not. “We were above the state average of 43 percent” says Terri Murray, supervisor of Federal Programs/Media Services for the district where […]
