Curriculum & Instruction

Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education Viking Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader on creativity and human potential, proposes a transformation of the nation’s schools from an outmoded industrial system to a highly personalized, organic model. Robinson’s approach draws on today’s unprecedented technological and professional resources to engage all students, develop their love […]

A physical education program that brings commercial-grade fitness equipment to under-resourced schools—along with a curriculum based on boosting confidence and fun—dramatically increases students’ performance on California’s standardized physical fitness test, according to a UCLA study titled “Targeting the Body and the Mind: Evaluation of a P.E. Curriculum Intervention for Adolescents.” The UCLA Health Sound Body […]

The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards (ISLLC) are now available. The seven standards, redrafted after the public comment period ended last fall, identify areas that school leaders should be able to demonstrate competency. An initiative of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the final versions yield some significant changes in wording, but […]

Sandy Grove Middle School, part of Hoke County Schools in North Carolina, is the first energy-positive school in the nation to be financed by its own expected energy savings. The 74,000-square-foot school opened to students in fall 2013, and was designed as a net-zero facility that produces more energy than it consumes. It will also […]

Public outcry over new standards-aligned tests led some states to cut funding, changing the exam landscape for 2015-16. In 2012, nearly every state was part of either PARCC or the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. As of this July, just 18 states remained in Smarter Balanced, and 10 (plus Washington, D.C.) had stuck with PARCC. Twenty-two […]

How can districts use the Common Core-aligned assessments to improve education if the results won’t be available until later this fall, after the current school year is well underway? That’s the question district administrators have been asking themselves for months, ever since millions of American students took the first round of Common Core-aligned assessments earlier […]