Invasive fish species can harm Florida's waterways. And now students from Miami-Dade County's BioTECH @ Richmond Heights work with Zoo Miami scientists to monitor the invaders and their effects on local lakes. The conservation-biology-focused STEM high school—which opened in 2014-15 with help from an $11 million federal grant—focuses on zoology, botany, genetics, ecology, chemistry and […]
Students in a Spanish 3 class at Bethlehem Central High School may live in upstate New York, but they look for new homes in Spanish-speaking countries around the globe. After discovering her students were fans of HGTV's 'House Hunters International,' Bethlehem Central School District Spanish teacher Jessica Westervelt developed a lesson in which her class […]
While detention remains a staple of student discipline across the country, many school leaders are looking at ways to modify the practice, or even replace it, with approaches that may be more effective in actually reducing bad behavior. Classic detention, where bored students sit silently and unproductively in classrooms after school, has limited value as […]
Burdened by demands to show outcomes and achievement, early education classrooms are often reduced to scripted lessons and meaningless craft work that imparts little learning. In her book The Importance of Being Little (Viking, 2016), Erika Christakis shows how the ever-increasing pressure to deliver has caused teachers to inadvertently stifle children's natural sense of wonder […]
The arts survive in American education, despite pressures placed on school leaders to focus on high-stakes tests in math and English. As of March, 27 states identify the arts as a core academic subject. And 49 states and the District of Columbia have adopted elementary and secondary standards for the arts, according to the "State […]
Teachers at Southwest High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina, allowed students to bring their smartphones to class to watch short math videos. The 'a-ha' moment came when the students used the phones to record each other solving math problems, and then created a repository of problem-solving videos. Teachers at Southwest High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina, allowed […]
American history could be in trouble. Decades of reliance on contentious textbooks and rote memorization have driven students away from the subject, despite its influence on contemporary issues. American history could be in trouble. Decades of reliance on contentious textbooks and rote memorization have driven students away from the subject, despite its influence on contemporary issues. […]
From testing problem-solving skills in the survivalist block-building adventure Minecraft to reinforcing science concepts in SimCityEDU, educators are integrating games in the classroom at an increasingly rapid rate. Game-Based Learning occurs when students play a game with defined learning outcomes. In this special section, District Administration analyzes exactly what qualifies as Game-Based Learning, and identifies […]
The results of a national survey of more than 1,500 high school students call into question the effectiveness of staff responses to bullying. The survey conducted last October by our Embrace Civility in the Digital Age project provides helpful insights into causes of hurtful behavior, but shows that a majority of students hold positive values. […]
By all accounts, Marysville School District in Michigan is a high-success, high-performance district. While the average state graduation rate hovers at about 78 percent, Marysville graduates 95 percent of its students. It's a point of pride that students exit Marysville—a suburban community located 55 miles northeast of Detroit—prepared to meet the rigorous demands of higher […]
