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 […]
How can district leaders guarantee that they will get accurate and actionable results from SEL assessments? What are the biggest challenges? "You need to ensure that you have a consistent behavior that you're measuring throughout the whole school. You don't want pockets of teachers measuring one thing and other teachers measuring something else." —Stefan Kohler, […]
To give students experience flying larger drones, educators at Duval High School near Washington, D.C., got creative. Federal Aviation Administration security restrictions limit unmanned aeronautic flights over sensitive locations. "We are building an addition to the school that will allow us to fly drones inside" says Christina Howland, coordinator of the four-year Aerospace Engineering and […]
Students at Sunnyside High in Fresno, California, can now enroll in a multimedia and marketing course, thanks to a recently remodeled CTE classroom that promotes hands-on learning. CHALLENGE: Educator Tamela Ryatt had taught traditional black-and-white photography for 16 years before Fresno USD shifted the course's focus. The original photography classroom—which housed a large processing sink […]
When North Carolina adopted the Common Core in 2012, Principal Sherry Robinson and her staff at Bald Creek Elementary School spent the year feeling at a loss. The rural Title I school was facing its usual host of challenges—a high achievement gap, a transient population and at-risk students—but now it lacked the resources to shape […]
The recent success of Won't You Be My Neighbor?, the documentary about Fred Rogers and his groundbreaking children's television program, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, has educators returning to the program's social-emotional lessons. The recent success of Won't You Be My Neighbor?, the documentary about Fred Rogers and his groundbreaking children's television program, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, has educators returning to […]
Today's schools often have no lead indicators other than state tests to answer, "How are we doing?" There's another way. "School brand defines each school's values, culture and personality" says Enrique Parada, cofounder of Project 77, a teacher sharing and engagement platform. "Data informs school staff about how a school can powerfully brand itself." In […]
Embedding language instruction into CTE programs can help close what some educators see as an "opportunity gap" faced by students learning English. And participating in the hands-on projects of CTE can be an effective way of accelerating language acquisition. In October 2017, 30 percent of the students in Boston Public Schools' CTE programs qualified as […]
Most public school teachers still have access to a state-funded pension plan. But for the majority, their retirement benefits will be worth less than what they contributed during their years in the classroom, according to an analysis by the Fordham Institute. The study, which examined the largest school districts in each state and in Washington, […]
As a longtime elementary school teacher, Jolene Rude has seen her share of students struggle with—and sometimes abandon—difficult math problems. After using Everyday Mathematics 4, however, even struggling students are learning challenging math concepts, along with life skills, says Rude, an elementary CORE math teacher at Johnston Community School District, located in a northern suburb […]
