The growing evidence showing that students learn better when they get a chance to move has inspired K12 designers to create classroom furniture and playground equipment that keep youths active, even as they learn. Flexible seating options allow learners to get more comfortable in the classroom while sensory-based learning tools expand the possibilities of play […]
Combatting the nation's opioid crisis is one of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's top priorities. The prevention of opioid misuse is a part of SAMHSA's Strategic Initiative to Prevent Substance Abuse and Mental Illness. The following is a list of programs: Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success State and Tribal Initiative […]
Sharing superintendents is becoming smart business in Iowa. In 2007, the state introduced a program that provides financial incentives to districts that share administrative personnel. The popular program has expanded from 16 shared superintendents in its first year to 52 in 2016-17, or 19 percent of the state's full-time superintendents, according to state Department of […]
Positive public relations experiences are critical to our survival as public entities and, unfortunately for many school leaders, we face an uphill climb. According to a June 2016 Gallup poll, only 30 percent of Americans feel "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in public schools, down from an equally disheartening 36 percent […]
Fast disappearing from schools are internet "lock and block" policies that keep students off social media and restrict them to carefully curated websites. Even with sophisticated filters and firewalls, today's learners carry all the access in the world in their back pockets. "We're past trying to stay ahead of the digital native" says Morgen Larsen, […]
Every K12 IT manager wants all school software to work together seamlessly, but incompatible programs often prevent the sharing of key data. From notebooks unable to run the most popular software to communication failures between learning management systems and key learning programs, incompatibility can result in a mess where expensive technology designed to revolutionize instruction […]
Five years ago, Windsor Locks Public Schools in northern Connecticut was designated an Alliance District, meaning it was one of the 30 lowest-performing academic districts in the state and needed help. The good news was that the designation came with funding to improve instruction, inspiring district leadership to go in a new direction—doing away with […]
Across the country, thousands of school districts are building and publicizing summer meal programs, components of a 48-year-old, federally funded effort to keep low-income children from suffering the health and cognitive effects of summer hunger. Wichita Public Schools worked hard last summer to sell children on free food. Those attending the first week of the […]
The latest K12 school designs in classrooms favor versatile and adaptive spaces to support blended and project-based learning, as well as other progressive education techniques. Despite the financial challenges districts face, an estimated $41 billion was spent in 2016 on K12 construction and renovation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Renovation projects outnumber new building […]
When it comes to boosting the nutritional and academic value of school meals, Janet Poppendieck certainly offers food for thought. A nationally recognized scholar and activist whose work focuses on poverty, hunger and food assistance in the United States, Poppendieck is the author of Free for All: Fixing School Food in America (University of California […]
