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 […]
What do teachers think of their profession? How do they feel about government intrusion into what they teach and how they conduct themselves in the classroom? A report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy is meant to put a spotlight on their opinions. Titled, “Listen to Us: Teacher Views and Voices” the survey […]
Literacy changes taking hold in schools recognize the subject’s expansion from traditional textbooks to online readings, images and audio. New learning standards ask students to read more closely and write more analytically, meaning teachers must adapt curriculum to get students reading earlier, says Jennifer Serravallo, International Literacy Association speaker and author of The Reading Strategies […]
Gail Pletnick, superintendent of Dysart Unified School District 89 in Surprise, Arizona, was elected president of AASA for 2016-17. The 2016 Arizona Superintendent of the Year and a member of AASA’s digital and personal learning consortia, Pletnick will focus on reshaping the national public education agenda and empowering district leaders through advocacy, networking and PD. […]
Starting fresh with a new math curriculum was the goal for Gloucester Township Public Schools in fall 2013. The K-8 district, which is located 14 miles southeast of Philadelphia in New Jersey and serves 6,400 students, had a new curriculum and instruction department team charged with the task of updating outdated materials. “We did not […]
Upon receiving a special School Improvement Grant to implement a Tennessee-approved turnaround model in 2013, leaders for Shelby County Schools in Memphis selected seven sites to transform. These schools, designated by the district as i-Zone schools, fall in the bottom 5 percent in the state. Douglass K8 Optional School is one of the selected schools. […]
Any public district transitioning to an integrated digital curriculum needs time, patience and support from top leadership. Let’s face it, digital content—from the Khan Academy to streaming videos to adaptive learning applications—has enveloped K12 education. While some district leaders have only begun replacing printed learning materials with the new technology, other districts are going entirely […]
Yoga in one Georgia district is under fire. In March, Bullard Elementary School in Kennesaw made national headlines when parents opposed yoga in school—being used to relieve stress and increase focus among students—because they said it promotes a Far East religion. After a public meeting, Principal Patrice Moore made changes. In a letter to parents, […]
The 3,000 students in rural Maine’s Regional School Unit 19 begin compiling electronic portfolios of their schoolwork in pre-K, when the district issues every child a Google account. In the elementary years, teachers snap and upload digital photos of handwritten work. In the upper grades, students accustomed to electronically documenting their school lives habitually upload […]
Blended learning can support a more personalized approach to education. You’ve no doubt heard of the teaching approach in which students spend part of the day learning online at their own pace and part of the day receiving instruction from a classroom teacher. But there are still a number of misconceptions about what blended learning […]
