In the latest round of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam, given to more than 500,000 15-year-olds in 72 nations, students in the U.S. once again scored in the middle of the pack—and below average in math—raising concerns and sending educators looking for answers. The search often turns to the top of the […]
Andrew Smith, chief strategy officer in North Carolina's Rowan-Salisbury School System, is leading a digital-first initiative that three years ago aimed to give an iPad or a MacBook Air to all students—and their teachers—from grades 3 through 12. Rowan-Salisbury became 1-to-1 by the 2014-15 school year. Three years into a digital-first initiative, Andrew Smith, chief strategy […]
Patricia Baltzley Board chair, Gardiner School District (Mont.) "The way high schools are currently designed—both with architecture and teaching and learning—needs to be revisioned in all high schools, not just those considered innovative. Instructional needs of the students are different and will continue to be different. We need to get out of the Industrial Age […]
More districts are adding seat belts to their bus fleets, following the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's 2015 recommendation that "every child on every school bus" needs a seat belt. Some districts are piloting seat belts on a handful of buses, while others are taking steps to outfit their entire fleet. But there's no federal […]
Ken Montgomery knows what his school looks like to outsiders. "We have people who come in and say, 'Oh, we could never do that,'" says Montgomery, executive director of Design Tech High School, or d.tech for short. But he says looks can be deceiving. The charter school, which opened in 2014 and is authorized by […]
With nearby manufacturing plants struggling to find skilled workers, Desert View High School in Tucson, Arizona, launched a precision manufacturing program in 2012. The Academy of Aerospace iSTEM and Digital Technology at the high school gives students hands-on training in software and equipment used in high-precision machining and engineering. Students can earn up to 13 […]
As in years past, this new year will bring all sorts of new technology to schools. The question for educators is: To what degree do these technologies enhance education? "Figuring out which tech belongs in education is just the start" says Kelly J. Calhoun, research director at Gartner Research, a Connecticut-based market analysis firm. "The […]
High-quality instruction in science, math, engineering and technology requires both teaching expertise and content knowledge. Yet, at the elementary school level, many teachers haven’t had specialized education or training in science. At the secondary level, studies show that about 33 percent of middle school math and science teachers and 30 percent of high school chemistry […]
Education faces no shortage of important challenges in the quest to improve our nation's schools. Whether it's the debate over testing, racial issues, learning standards or shrinking funding, 2017 promises to be a year of change—for better or worse. We asked education thought leaders and experts to identify a single issue in K12 education where […]
Classroom environments must keep pace with technology, including 1-to-1 devices, digital curriculum and personalized learning tools, as well as students’ varied learning styles. Student desks and classroom furniture need to promote better metabolic health, greater student engagement and natural collaboration. To achieve the vision of an optimally productive classroom, furniture that has been designed to […]
