Going into his third year as principal of Sunset Elementary School near Spokane, Washington, Ty McGregor feels more confident that he has prepared his building for an intruder or active shooter. While school was out this past June, a group of staff members, students and emergency responders conducted drills on two potentially devastating scenarios: a […]
Not long ago, I was visiting with a highly capable, senior-level district administrator when he said to me, "There are so many STEM initiatives, resources and vendors out there. I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but I am not even sure of the right questions to ask." As I considered this administrator's confusion—and […]
Teachers today have more control over how and when they receive professional development. Whether the learning is self-paced, online or partially in-person, more districts measure PD based on the new skills teachers can display in their classrooms rather than on how long they spend listening to an instructor. For example, veteran social studies teacher Kurt […]
One month before the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, Turlock USD was still short five speech-language pathologists. The salary offered by the Central California district was high by area standards, but even so, the positions remained unfilled. In fact, no one had even applied. Alice Solis, Turlock's director of special education, struggled to hire […]
Educators in a school district that conducts well-designed formative assessments should be able to accurately predict how students will perform on midterms, finals and high-stakes exams. A growing number of experts and administrators insist that if a district excels at formative assessment, its students shouldn't have to sit through so many high-stakes tests. "We don't […]
In New York, an aggressive opt-out movement—wherein about 60 percent of third- through eighth-graders skipped high-stakes tests—has forced many districts to rethink their assessment methods. Hauppauge Public Schools on Long Island set out to become "self-sufficient" on testing through the use of adaptive learning software and 20-minute, in-class assessments given on iPads and other devices, […]
Joseph V. Erardi Jr. served as superintendent of Newtown Public Schools in Connecticut from 2014 until his retirement in August. During his tenure, the district implemented NaviGate Prepared as a component of a broad safety and security initiative undertaken in the aftermath of the 2012 tragedy there. Talk about preparation versus prevention when it comes […]
Over a span of two years, Warren Township Schools in Warren, New Jersey, first hired a new superintendent and then replaced the principal at Warren Middle School. Both came from other districts. While Matt Mingle is the K8 district's third superintendent in roughly seven years, George Villar succeeded a principal who retired after 23 years […]
The PTA at an elementary school on New York's Upper East Side raised nearly $1 million in one school year—about $1,260 per student. In a wealthy suburb of Boston, an elementary school PTA brought in $1,680 per student that same year, while a Washington, D.C., school's PTA intake totaled $2,220 per student. These extreme cases […]
Public educators find themselves in something of a Catch-22 situation these days. When we celebrate the great things that are going on in our schools, we are told that we are simply slaves to the status quo who don't recognize the struggles that our system is facing. When we articulate the challenges that our schools […]
