In the 2010-11 school year, the Harrison School District Two in Colorado Springs began one of the most rigorous pay-for-performance plans in the nation: Called "Effectiveness and Results" this overhaul of the human capital management system was a risk worth taking because the status quo failed to adequately serve students. We tied the evaluation and […]
Five years ago, Windsor Locks Public Schools in northern Connecticut was designated an Alliance District, meaning it was one of the 30 lowest-performing academic districts in the state and needed help. The good news was that the designation came with funding to improve instruction, inspiring district leadership to go in a new direction—doing away with […]
Across the country, thousands of school districts are building and publicizing summer meal programs, components of a 48-year-old, federally funded effort to keep low-income children from suffering the health and cognitive effects of summer hunger. Wichita Public Schools worked hard last summer to sell children on free food. Those attending the first week of the […]
KANSAS CITY, Kansas—Superintendent Cynthia Lane learned the cello a few years ago, but not to fulfill some lifelong dream of soloing with the local symphony. The leader of Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, who played clarinet in high school, now performs alongside fourth- and fifth-graders in their annual spring strings concert. Fifth-graders also spend months […]
Dennis R. Maple, President, First Student, Inc. How do you build a workforce culture centered around safety? School bus drivers carry the nation's most important assets: our children. And with the types and numbers of decisions school bus drivers make daily, drivers must make safety their core value. With more than 25 million children riding […]
The growing and dangerous perception among some that America is a post-racial society is fueling the transition back to separate but equal schools, says Bryan Joffe, project director of education and youth development for the School Superintendents Association. "Some people would say this case is indicative of a Southern problem, when I think this is […]
The great majority of school violence prevention programs do not work. This is demonstrated by bullying continuing at unprecedented rates. Also, rampage school shootings—which the National Research Council calls a "new and unique violence"—continue to periodically shock the nation. It is critically important to address this violence effectively because schools are crucibles of the future. […]
If educators in Chicago's Noble Network of Charter Schools get their way, they will soon compose the largest unionized charter school network in the nation. The Noble charter network operates 17 schools across Chicago, employing about 800 teachers and staff. In March, Noble educators joined together to begin the unionizing process, saying it would help […]
Longtime Superintendent Bill Harrison started recruiting teachers from abroad in 1997 in the face of a shortage in North Carolina. "We thought international teachers would not only fill a slot but add a cultural component" Harrison says. The then-superintendent of Cumberland County Schools contracted with a company called Visiting International Faculty. Twenty years later, Harrison […]
Syracuse City Schools in New York took a stand in 2015 to protect students from what leaders saw as a prejudice in the college application process. The district stopped releasing the graduates' disciplinary records to colleges, a practice that continues in many other districts nationwide. Syracuse schools also had been under pressure from New York's […]
