Upon receiving a special School Improvement Grant to implement a Tennessee-approved turnaround model in 2013, leaders for Shelby County Schools in Memphis selected seven sites to transform. These schools, designated by the district as i-Zone schools, fall in the bottom 5 percent in the state. Douglass K8 Optional School is one of the selected schools. […]
Any public district transitioning to an integrated digital curriculum needs time, patience and support from top leadership. Let's face it, digital content—from the Khan Academy to streaming videos to adaptive learning applications—has enveloped K12 education. While some district leaders have only begun replacing printed learning materials with the new technology, other districts are going entirely […]
In what appears to be an average classroom, students from Pullman School District 267 in Washington wear devices that measure their pulse, eye movements and brain waves as a teacher gives a lesson. The classroom is part of the Neurocognitive Science Lab at Washington State University, which opened this year. The lab, funded by the […]
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. […]
The education technology market might have become easier for district leaders to navigate, thanks in part to a new nonprofit group, Technology for Education Consortium (TEC). Led by CEO and former New York City Schools Chief Information Officer Hal Friedlander, the group provides leaders a place where they can give spending limits on certain tech […]
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 […]
Parents and educators hailed FERPA, COPPA and the Student Privacy Pledge as significant steps toward securing student data. But the Electronic Frontier Foundation believes that Google, a prominent player in edtech, is already violating those measures. In December, the foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group based in San Francisco, filed a complaint with the Federal […]
Old computers may not be trendy, but as school tech budgets shrink or stagnate, many administrators try to squeeze the most life out of their aging devices. Recycling and retrofitting, and hooking up to the cloud, allow districts to delay or even abandon established schedules for buying brand-new equipment. In 2015, 8.9 million laptops and […]
In the name of saving money, K12 administrators are also discovering that reconfiguring grade levels offers unique education advantages. School leaders nationwide are exploring innovative group-level groupings and thinking beyond the typical K5 elementary school, grades 6 through 8 middle school and grades 9 through 12 high school model to figure out how to continue […]
