At 1:30 a.m. on the Friday before Labor Day, the Beaverton School District's fire suppression system deployed explosively into the room that housed the heart of the district's computer network. An error in the fire-sensing system sent gases spewing through ceiling nozzles. The chemicals destroyed much of the equipment, leading to the eventual failure of […]
Every weekday during the academic year, more than 50 million children across the United States enter public school buildings, says Lori Peek. Many of these buildings are so dilapidated and poorly designed that children's health and safety are at risk. In a New York Times editorial, Peek called these schools "deathtraps" a term intended to […]
Statewide teacher strikes and walkouts in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado and Kentucky left students out of school for days while superintendents scrambled to communicate with parents, to make up missed class time and to reschedule state tests. In West Virginia, all schools in the state's 55 districts were closed for nine days in February […]
A frustrated student cries out "I can't do it." A teacher redirects: "You can't do it, yet." This may be the simplest way to define "growth mindset" the increasingly popular learning approach in which K12 leaders affirm their students'—and their staff members'—lifelong capacity to boost intelligence. "An individual with a fixed mindset has a fear […]
Pressure to raise achievement test scores has become the driving force behind what is taught and how. Worse, the results from these tests reveal only a fraction of the overall picture of whether students are learning—and whether teachers are effective in their jobs, says Daniel Koretz. As one of the nation's foremost experts on education […]
Schools fail to adequately teach the history of American slavery, partly because teachers lack the preparation to cover it, according to a recent study from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Also, students have little basic knowledge about the role slavery played in shaping the nation: Only 8 percent of high school seniors surveyed could identify […]
Whether it's a small district with just a few schools or a mammoth operation that spends billions of dollars, one thing is certain: getting tech support in the right place at the right time is mission critical. This not only requires having trained staff to fix problems, but maintaining careful coordination and communication between the […]
If you've visited a classroom lately, you've likely noticed a remarkable difference in how teaching and learning happens. Computers and devices are staples in most classrooms, and you're far more likely to find students working in groups than a teacher at the front of the room lecturing. Though the teacher continues to play a crucial […]
States must provide more information than what's required on federally mandated school report cards to give administrators and parents a clearer view of the education culture, according to a recent report from the nonprofit policy organization Data Quality Campaign. Since No Child Left Behind, states have had to create report cards detailing the academic performance […]
The next generation of IT infrastructure, hyperconvergence is a framework that combines computing, storage and networking into a single, simplified, automated and easy-to-use system. It's a perfect fit for school districts, which have limited budgets and few staff members to maintain and operate their IT systems. In fact, hyperconverged IT infrastructures—even in large and complex […]
