Deeper family engagement and PD are among the top priorities for educators, according to the second annual Educator Confidence Report from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Fifty-eight percent of the more than 1,000 educators surveyed desire more parent and family engagement while 84 percent spend their own money on professional learning opportunities. Educators also continue to use […]
Teaching is losing its magic. Every year, the profession loses some of our most effective colleagues prematurely. Moreover, we fail to attract enough college graduates who have the talent and passion for teaching. Many of us blame the education reform movement for this. Leaders may be well intentioned, but they ignore the reality that successful […]
A third-grader studying the Spanish settlement of California found a virtual tour online and shared the trip with her classmates by slipping a smartphone into a Google Cardboard viewing device. Such limitless online resources represent a big, blended leap beyond the essays students in Coalinga-Huron USD in Central California used to write. Blended learning for […]
Growing up, Eric Osborne never considered a career in the technology industry. "The message we got in school was that it just wasn't something African-American people thought about or did" Osborne says. Besides, computer science classes didn't exist in the Florida schools where he grew up and there were no mentors pushing Osborne toward STEM […]
Big high school football stadiums in Texas have come under scrutiny from local fiscal watchdogs, but pushback is just part of the story about sports facility finance—where expenditures and potential revenue sources have grown more complex and potentially lucrative. Critics say palatial athletic facilities prioritize sports over the classroom and waste taxpayer money. But supporters […]
Equity in K12 education doesn't mean the same thing as equality. In fact, achieving true equity often requires providing lower-income schools and students with more resources than are given others in the same district, says Joel Boyd, superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools in New Mexico. "Fair student funding means some students are funded at […]
Like many teachers, I've been grateful throughout my life for the professionals I've called upon for vital services and expert guidance. Similarly, students and parents rely on me every day. Yet many teachers find themselves isolated in classrooms without the right training or support. Others receive only one or two afternoons of PD per year. […]
Many districts teach formal keyboarding instruction as early as second grade—a shift that requires new approaches to a skill that was once taught only in high school. Today's software feature gamification, captivating graphics and extensive reporting components. Many districts teach formal keyboarding instruction as early as second grade—a shift that requires new approaches to a skill […]
For a few weeks in early 2016, a computer program helped educators teach the finer points of writing to students in a Fort Worth ISD high school. Like so many schools nationwide, R.L. Paschal High School—under pressure from new state standards—has been working hard to improve writing instruction so students can express their ideas and […]
Media specialist Samantha Edwards wants noise in her library—and she hears it. Last fall, Edwards, the librarian at Fogelsville Elementary School in Parkland School District in Pennsylvania, opened a modest self-publishing center in the library outfitted with an iMac, a printer and a machine to bind books. She noticed how excited her students were to […]
