Beth Schiavino-Narvaez has led Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut for two years. But it's been two decades since a landmark state court case—Sheff vs. O'Neill—ruled that Hartford schools had violated the U.S. Constitution by isolating children based on race and socioeconomics. And despite new budget woes, Schiavino-Narvaez continues to fight for better schools. The school […]
Meria Carstarphen is a team player—literally. She has played football in the hot summer sun alongside varsity players at Atlanta Public Schools. The district superintendent also gives her personal cell phone number to staff and students alike. They can text her or call her—any time. In addition, they follow each other on Twitter. Meria Carstarphen […]
In Baldwin Community Schools, students had been returning from summer break having lost more than six weeks of learning—two weeks more than is typical. The district is located in the lowest-income county in rural Michigan, where 94 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Superintendent Stiles Simmons resolved the learning loss issue in […]
Burdened by demands to show outcomes and achievement, early education classrooms are often reduced to scripted lessons and meaningless craft work that imparts little learning. In her book The Importance of Being Little (Viking, 2016), Erika Christakis shows how the ever-increasing pressure to deliver has caused teachers to inadvertently stifle children's natural sense of wonder […]
More than 50 percent of curriculum directors anticipate a significant conversion from print to digital materials within the next three years. And it appears this shift is about to get a big boost from the Every Student Succeeds Act. K12 education is making strides in the digital shift. According to MDR's 2015 EdNET Insight survey, […]
Tucked among the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia is a high-poverty school district that looks a lot like the United Nations. It was something Harrisonburg City Public Schools Superintendent Scott Kizner was most proud of. "These refugee students feel like a part of the social fabric," Kizner says. "And every day all students at this district […]
Efforts to address the achievement gap have taken an innovative path in Connecticut. In response to the call from legislatures disgusted with 25 years of NAEP data trends that showed little improvement in closing gaps, a task force was created to examine the disparities. Simple innovation This is where the innovative path came in. The […]
Recently, educators, parents, politicians and pundits have begun to question the investment of billions of dollars over six decades in district, state, national, and international testing. Their skepticism is well deserved since there is scant evidence that these once-a-year standardized tests have increased student achievement or have provided the motivation to learn. But that doesn't […]
A northern Iowa principal has set aside time for teachers to dig into test data so they can adjust instruction and improve achievement on state tests. Principal Steve Kwikkel of Clear Lake Middle School, part of Clear Lake Community School District, gave extra time to teachers during the school day to examine student testing data […]
On the walls of Tim Cline’s office hang samples of outstanding work completed by students in Interior Distance Education of Alaska (IDEA), the public school program he runs. Visiting parents are often impressed. Nothing unusual about that??except that IDEA’s students are homeschoolers who may never enter a public school classroom, and those impressed parents are […]
