Curriculum & Instruction

Harrisonburg City Public Schools in Virginia incorporates a technical- and engineering-based STEM curriculum starting with kindergarten and continuing right through high school. The nation needs more STEM-focused youths, as only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a STEM career, according to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). […]

Research suggests a diverse teaching force can improve students’ learning experiences. That’s the goal of a three-year, $16 million program called NYC Men Teach, designed to add 1,000 black, Latino and Asian men to the city’s teaching rosters by 2018. Male students of color account for 43 percent of New York City public school enrollment, […]

Deeper family engagement and PD are among the top priorities for educators, according to the second annual Educator Confidence Report from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Fifty-eight percent of the more than 1,000 educators surveyed desire more parent and family engagement while 84 percent spend their own money on professional learning opportunities. Educators also continue to use […]

Teaching is losing its magic. Every year, the profession loses some of our most effective colleagues prematurely. Moreover, we fail to attract enough college graduates who have the talent and passion for teaching. Many of us blame the education reform movement for this. Leaders may be well intentioned, but they ignore the reality that successful […]

Students can step inside an astronaut’s’ boots to experience life and research onboard the international space station with online science courses offered by the Virtual High School, which supplements public and private school instruction. One course, the Middle School Space Station Academy, teaches students about Earth science, life science, physical science and engineering. They learn […]

Growing up, Eric Osborne never considered a career in the technology industry. “The message we got in school was that it just wasn’t something African-American people thought about or did” Osborne says. Besides, computer science classes didn’t exist in the Florida schools where he grew up and there were no mentors pushing Osborne toward STEM […]