While visiting a classroom where the teacher had introduced a new topic in mathematics, I asked her how the children’s understanding of the topic was progressing. She said that she did not know because the children had not written the unit test. Her response perplexed
Contributed by Dave Nagel Part 7 in an 8 part series: Part 1: Identifying the Hibernating Student Part 2: Waking Up the Hibernating Student Part 3: Identifying the Perspiring Student Part 4: Cooling Off the Perspiring Student Part 5: Recognizing the Imagining Student Part 6: Helping Turn Imagination Into Reality In our previous 6 installments, we have taken
In Chapter 3 of Noguera and Blankstein’s new book Excellence Through Equity, contributor Carol Corbett Burris details the much-lauded detracking effort that was enacted across the Rockville Centre School District and virtually eliminated achievement gaps. Detracking by getting rid of the lowest track was the strategy
This post was also published on ZacarianConsulting.com and Smart Blog on Education. Many are using social networking to get word out that the US Departments of Education and Justice recently released guidance and tools about teaching English learners. The two agencies remind us all that ELs
Resiliency is the set of qualities and characteristics that enable people to adjust to, adapt to, and recover from change, personal trauma, and the dramas of life. Resiliency is elasticity of character. Once broken or damaged, you need reconstruct yourself. And in order to do
In Chapter 2 of Excellence Through Equity, the eagerly-anticipated, new work by Alan Blankstein and Pedro Noguera, contributor Michael Fullan steps back from the “cacophony of education reform” by focusing on the key factors that, in combination, can help whole systems achieve the moral imperative
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T.S. Eliot Cultural Proficiency has often been defined as an approach to addressing issues of diversity, inclusion,
Many people associate the term “formative assessment” with something teachers do to gauge student understanding and adjusting instruction accordingly, mostly through embedded instructional tasks. While this is an important part of formative assessment, the real “bang-for-your-buck” with formative assessment comes with implementing a host of
Read "Time for a Revolution," an excerpt from Mark Barnes's new book, Assessment 3.0. Assessment 3.0: Throw Out Your Grade Book and Inspire Learning Most educators take for granted that “A-through-F” grades are the best measure of learning. But Mark Barnes’s formula for feedback, titled SE2R (Summarize, Explain,
This article was originally posted on SmartBlog on Education. School climate has rightfully emerged as an essential element of any school improvement initiative. The goal of improving a school’s climate should be universally accepted by every member of that school’s community, but it is often met