The New Orleans-based Healthy School Food Collaborative grew out of the challenges charter schools in Louisiana faced while recovering from Hurricane Katrina. At the time, James Graham was working as director of operations for KIPP, a charter management organization running eight schools in the city. In the wake of the storm, the state looked to […]
Years ago, it was easy for districts to ignore what high average daily-attendance numbers can conceal: kids, sometimes lots of them, who miss weeks of school every year. The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act has changed that calculus. For the first time, the law requires states to report chronic-absenteeism rates, and more than two-thirds of […]
Greene County Career Center (Ohio) Initiative: A truancy interventionist helps students cope with life challenges such as daycare for their children, homelessness and driving parents to chemotherapy appointments. Result: Truancy court referrals fell from 24 to one in just two years. Meriden Public Schools (Conn.) Initiative: District leaders asked school-based behavioral teams to monitor attendance. […]
YONKERS, N.Y.—Brian Schulder, the security and safety director at Yonkers Public Schools, considers himself an educator, first and foremost. He's not some hardened, former city beat cop or detective—he's spent a majority of his 20-plus years in this large urban district teaching and coaching. "I think being an educator lets me see things from a perspective […]
Today's most progressive language instruction covers more than speech. Educators now work to build students' fluency in the culture behind the words. Global competency, also called "interculturality" has emerged as a priority in districts seeking to develop students' understanding of both their own and other cultures, says Jacqueline Van Houten, world language instructional lead for […]
Their surroundings may be idyllic, but educators in one Cape Cod district found themselves confronting the struggles experienced by systems across the nation. Barnstable Public Schools (5,300 students) had over several years seen an uptick in at-risk students and children with complex needs. This, along with promising research from organizations such as the Collaborative for […]
When securing edtech infrastructure, district leaders must concentrate on six "layers": physical, network, applications, content, endpoint and cloud/data centers, according to a 2017 report by the Council of the Great City Schools. "More than ever, schools are a 'wink-wink' among the industry when it comes to cybersecurity vulnerability" says Robert Dillon, director of innovative learning […]
Play is not a luxury; it is a necessity. In many districts across the United States, recess in elementary school is being questioned, reduced and even eliminated to increase instructional time. Students need ample time for recess and brain breaks to help them to develop social competencies and attention to learning.
A1,100-student school district in Minnesota had been purchasing food supplies through a buying group of five other school systems—but it wasn't efficient. "We would have to meet quite often" says Director of Food Service Sandie Rentz of Wadena-Deer Creek Public Schools. "We wrote our own bids and market basket. Then we would go out for […]
You know the names. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Columbine High School, Santa Fe High School and many more. These examples of domestic terrorism have heightened our awareness, making us feel vulnerable when entering a school. Students are trained what to do if a shooter opens fire in classrooms, corridors and […]
