Whirling fidget spinners invaded classrooms across the country this past spring, but with many schools banning them as a distraction, their future as a potential remedy for students with attention difficulties is in doubt. Classroom impact Teachers from districts including Mt. Pleasant City School District in Michigan and Catawba County Schools in North Carolina, were […]
Educators have offered instruction that goes beyond the rote for many years, but the concept of deeper learning has recently grown in scope as higher education and the economy demand a more complex blend of intellectual and social skills. Today’s deeper learning proponents urge schools to focus on six competencies: mastering rigorous academic content; thinking […]
When Polk County Public Schools started its wellness program back in the late 1980s, the district hoped to get employees moving with weekend fun runs and weight-loss challenges. “Everybody thought it was fluff” says Debbie Zimmerman, who today manages the wellness program for the 96,000-student school district in Central Florida. “How are you going to […]
High school students in the tiny Magazine School District in Arkansas receive three hours of sex education a year in grades 9 through 12—an approach that Superintendent Brett Bunch acknowledges is inadequate.
In the wake of a divisive presidential election, hundreds of students from about a dozen high schools in Oakland, California, cut class last November to voice their discontent with President-elect Donald Trump. Rather than demand students return to school, faculty at Oakland USD supported the peaceful demonstration, where students could express their feelings, says David […]
Patricia Baltzley Board chair, Gardiner School District (Mont.) “The way high schools are currently designed—both with architecture and teaching and learning—needs to be revisioned in all high schools, not just those considered innovative. Instructional needs of the students are different and will continue to be different. We need to get out of the Industrial Age […]
More districts are adding seat belts to their bus fleets, following the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s 2015 recommendation that “every child on every school bus” needs a seat belt. Some districts are piloting seat belts on a handful of buses, while others are taking steps to outfit their entire fleet. But there’s no federal […]
As we face a new year with a new president, Newsletter Editor Ariana Fine looked back on 2016 to consider the biggest and most influential stories in K12 education. Will they continue to be important in 2017? Will school leaders find better solutions? Will we see improvements? Here is a sample of what she found […]
The suicide rate among 10- to 14-year-olds is on the rise. While the statistics are dire, a solution seems to be taking shape. Prevention may be in the hands of the students themselves. Dan Cohen, a University of Missouri doctoral candidate specializing in suicide prevention, cites a 2015 study titled “Saving and Empowering Young Lives […]
Students in districts across the nation have been harassed and intimidated based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual identity in the wake of the presidential election, according to the nonprofit organization Southern Poverty Law Center. Much of the harassment was directed against immigrants. Black, LGBT, Muslim, female and Jewish students also have been targeted. […]
