Teachers who have taken on school leadership roles across New York state gathered this past June for the first time to refine initiatives designed to improve their schools. Twenty teacher teams participated in the inaugural New York Teacher Leadership Summit, which was hosted in New York City by Teach to Lead, a project of the […]
The fault line running along the Cascade Mountains from British Columbia to northern California is long overdue for an earthquake many scientists believe is all but inevitable. Engineering studies have shown that if a major quake does strike, it could take weeks to repair utilities, six months or more to restore water and years to […]
The earthquake-susceptible Seaside School District in Oregon—which covers the communities of Gearhart, Cannon Beach and Seaside—faces an estimated $99.7 million bond referendum November 8 to move its schools out of a tsunami zone on the Pacific Ocean. Seaside has three schools with 1,500 students in the tsunami inundation zone, says Douglas C. Dougherty, former schools […]
Media specialist Samantha Edwards wants noise in her library—and she hears it. Last fall, Edwards, the librarian at Fogelsville Elementary School in Parkland School District in Pennsylvania, opened a modest self-publishing center in the library outfitted with an iMac, a printer and a machine to bind books. She noticed how excited her students were to […]
Historic schools in Boston, built before World War II, are finally receiving a facelift. On the other side of the country, Carmel USD in California found that controlling and maintaining lighting in nine sites spread over 600 square miles can save energy and maintenance hours.And a 10-year deferred maintenance plan in Sycamore Community Schools in […]
Kaya Henderson will step down in September as chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools after serving in the position for more than five years. She says she will spend time with family before considering other offers in education, published reports state. During Henderson's tenure, the once-troubled district has stabilized and seen marked improvements […]
More than five years after many states implemented Common Core, the impact on student achievement remains unclear—though some states show small academic gains, with persistent achievement gaps. "Common Core is alive and well" says Adam Ezring, policy director of the Collaborative For Student Success, a nonprofit that supports use of the standards. "While it's still […]
As the 20th largest school district in the nation and the sixth largest school district in Florida, Duval County Public Schools has special challenges with integrating technology in every classroom. The district had projectors and interactive whiteboards, but there was no across-the-board standard for the school's core classroom equipment. Additionally, the equipment was aging. Projector […]
Few teachers receive individualized professional development, though many are expected to personalize learning for students. Microcredentials—digital badges that teachers earn by learning a skill and demonstrating mastery through student results—offer a PD pathway designed to be highly differentiated and engaging. The microcredentialing process starts with teachers choosing a skill they want to develop. They take […]
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 […]