In a classroom in New Hampshire, second-graders pull out iPads to film themselves discussing the characters of a book they are reading. Such video selfies increase students' understanding of the story's characters and how those characters resolve problems, says Amy Riley, who teaches at Stratham Memorial School in School Administrative Unit 16 in Exeter. "The […]
A large gap between the number of computer science graduates and available jobs has led an increasing number of districts to boost instruction in computational thinking. The concept refers to the thought process of expressing a solution to a problem with a series of sequenced steps, like in a recipe. It's a critical part of […]
Across the country, youngsters in all grades are connecting with senior citizens on projects that transcend community outreach to provide students with true curricular value. While doing research for National History Day, students in Tea McCaulla's Florida high school stumbled upon Women's Airforce Service Pilots and Letters from Home, a book by World War II […]
When Hopatcong Borough Schools started a 1-to-1 project that distributed 1,450 Chromebooks to its students and staff in 2016, leaders in the northern New Jersey district wondered whether they had enough bandwidth to satisfy the expected demand. They worried the district's 300Mbps connection would slow down or crash, making the new computers about as pedagogically […]
In his previous book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, journalist Paul Tough looked at how non-cognitive personal qualities like perseverance, self-control and conscientiousness play a critical role in children's success. Now, in the follow-up to that book, Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why (2016, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Tough […]
Allowing students to explore news articles that spark their curiosity can provide a bigger literacy boost than having them read nonfiction texts about random topics far removed from a youngster's interests. At Lancaster Middle School near Buffalo, New York, students read news articles to help write stories for a classroom magazine and to prepare for […]
Going from rhetoric to reality in the era of outcomes. Elliott Levine is HP’s Director of Education & HP Distinguished Technologist. What are school districts doing right, and what are they doing wrong, when it comes to education technology? School districts want to see change happen and they seem to be willing to put a […]
The forensic biotechnology pathway at James C. Enochs High School in Modesto City Schools, California, incorporates the science behind the popular CSI TV show to excite students about a career in the science behind criminal investigations. Nearly 350 students participate in the four-year program that combines fictional and real-world cases with hands-on research. Ninth-graders start […]
Preschool math performance predicts future academic achievement more consistently than reading or attention skills, according to new research from New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. "STEM Starts Early" reports that preschool math knowledge predicts math achievement into high school, and a randomized study of McGraw-Hill's Building Blocks curriculum, which embeds […]
When beginning kindergarten, Latino students are three months behind in math literacy when compared to their white peers, says a 2017 study conducted by Child Trends, a nonprofit research organization that works to improve the lives children and families. The study, "Making Math Count More for Young Latino Children" cites poverty in Latino households as […]