When the next president takes office in January, he or she will preside over major shifts in the K12 education landscape—from implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act and Common Core, to the rollout of nationwide STEM initiatives, to the simmering battles over charters, school choice and teachers unions. When the next president takes office […]
Harrisonburg City Public Schools in Virginia incorporates a technical- and engineering-based STEM curriculum starting with kindergarten and continuing right through high school. The nation needs more STEM-focused youths, as only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a STEM career, according to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). […]
Young refugees who have fled foreign war zones, religious violence and dire poverty represent some of the country's most "at-risk" students. In one New York district, for instance, refugee students who recently heard alarms during a fire drill worried the school was being bombed. About 61,000 refugees age 17 and younger entered the U.S. between […]
As one of today's most promising models for instruction, blended learning is growing rapidly across the country. But what really is blended learning, and how can educators use it to improve student outcomes? In a blended learning environment, students learn through a combination of online instruction—with some element of student control over time, place, path […]
In the 2013-14 school year, there were more than 1.3 million homeless students, a 7 percent increase from the previous year and more than double the number in 2006-07. While that number is troubling, researchers believe it's only the tip of the iceberg. Erin Ingram, chief author of "Hidden in Plain Sight: Homeless Students in […]
A quarter of California students have never seen a dentist by the time they complete fifth grade, according to a recently completed six-year study by the University of the Pacific. Paul Glassman, the director of Pacific Center for Special Care, a program of the university's dentistry, established dental care in various high-needs schools in 2010. […]
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 […]
DeRay Mckesson is the interim chief human capital officer for Baltimore City Public Schools in Maryland, managing personnel, staffing, benefits and other related issues. The civil rights activist and former Baltimore mayoral candidate returns to the human capital office, where for 2 1/2 years he oversaw key reforms as a strategist and special assistant. He […]
When public school students in Detroit return to classrooms this fall, they'll be attending a new district, created by the state's legislature this past summer. In early June, lawmakers approved a $617 million bailout for Detroit Public Schools to restructure nearly $4 billion in crippling debt. The plan will divide the schools into an "old" […]
I am not a big advocate of movies. I tend to think of them as a 100 plus minute escape from reality. Moreover, movies tend to condition some minds for the oddness that will likely occur in the future. Despite my general disdain of movies, I was recently compelled to watch in its entirety, Bennett […]
