Measuring the impact: Schools struggle from multiple angles with incarceration

Schools face the challenge of educating children with incarcerated parents and reintegrating students after they have entered the juvenile justice system themselves.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 17, 2016

Los Angeles schools plan credit recovery changes

After posting the highest graduation rate ever in the nation’s second-largest school district, thanks in part to questionably rigorous credit recovery options, the district is taking a second look.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 17, 2016

Texas schools shift to earlier start time after new law

Going beyond requiring a 180-day school year, a new Texas law mandates 75,600 minutes of instruction per academic year, and some schools have responded with earlier starts.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 17, 2016

Gamified computer science courses help expand access

Schools that don’t have trained computer science teachers can start with CodeCombat’s game-based platform, which teaches students to code as they progress through a game.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 17, 2016

Schools using robots for collaboration, deeper learning

An Oklahoma elementary school won $50,000 for its collaboration with East Central University ed tech instructors, while English teachers are finding unlikely uses for the machines.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 17, 2016

Educators could take page from machine learning handbook

While early programmers gave machines specific instructions, today’s engineers teach computers algorithms that help them make sense of new inputs on their own.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 17, 2016

Solution for Utah's extreme teacher shortage has other states wary

The Utah State Board of Education unanimously approved a measure that allows schools to hire teachers with no prior training or experience to fill empty spots. 

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 16, 2016

Football stadiums a boon for some high schools

A handful of school districts nationwide have pro-style stadiums that seat more than 10,000 fans and generate advertising revenue, community pride and serve as a communal resource.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 16, 2016

Is writing instruction too dependent on 'paint-by-numbers' approach?

Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews expresses dismay at an Education Trust review of middle school assignments, but sees reason to hope for better writing instruction in certain schools.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 16, 2016

Ohio auditor suggests performance-based funding for virtual schools

The state’s largest online charter school, ECOT, currently is paid based on enrollment like other charters, but Auditor Dave Yost wants to change that.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 16, 2016

Flipped classrooms can reshape student learning metrics

Flipped classrooms can set the stage for personalized learning, assessments based on competency mastery and a shift toward standards-based grading.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 16, 2016

Five fun ways to introduce electronics into your classroom

Teaching abstract electronics concepts to students can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be.

Aug. 16, 2016

Schools try range of strategies to achieve equity

Districts nationwide are turning to community organizations to support the nonacademic needs of students, offering school choice, incorporating blended learning and addressing bias. 

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 15, 2016

Opt-out activists also oppose test-based evals, privatization

A study out of Teachers College at Columbia University examines the demographics of the opt-out movement and the motivations of its activism.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 15, 2016

Study highlights limitations of Ohio's virtual school

Research from NYU professor June Ahn, published by the Fordham Institute, argues Ohio's statewide virtual school cannot serve as an alternative to traditional schooling.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 15, 2016

Texas high school finances STEM wing via Office Depot partnership

The office supply store chain helped design and fund the 28,000-square-foot addition with 12 classrooms, two engineering labs, five computer labs and an incubator space. 

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 15, 2016

Alabama appoints non-educator state superintendent

Michael Sentance started his career as a lawyer and went on to work in various state government positions in Massachusetts before joining the Alabama Department of Education.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 15, 2016

Principals should be literacy leaders in their schools

Strong leadership improves teacher quality and supports a continued focus on literacy as the gateway to every other academic subject.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 12, 2016

Poverty, MOOCs and resignations: The week's most-read education news

Stay ahead of the class with the latest on how MOOCs are being used as tools for equity in underserved high schools and more right here!

By Roger Riddell • Aug. 12, 2016

Arts educators look to tests for sense of legitimacy in schools

The nation’s schools have focused on reading and math to the exclusion of other subjects as standardized tests have dominated accountability, but what about art?

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 12, 2016

Blended learning contributed to culture shift in DC schools

Public schools in the nation's capital are four years into an initiative that has changed the way educators teach and even think about organizing their classrooms.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 12, 2016

Safety precautions a must when students take devices home

Google's built-in protections, combined with teacher-administered browser limits and additional software, can keep students and devices safe after school.

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 12, 2016

Students with extended school years are already back to class

Boston-area charter schools with 192-day school years have reopened weeks ahead of their neighbors in hopes of using the extra time to better prepare students for college and life. 

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 12, 2016

Melinda Gates wants foundation to be 'neutral broker' in ed reform

The Gates Foundation has been a loud voice in education policy throughout the Obama administration,

By Tara García Mathewson • Aug. 12, 2016

Education has part to play in police-community relations

Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, teachers in Illinois will be required to set aside instruction time to teach students the do’s and don’ts of interacting with police, but is that enough?

By Autumn A. Arnett • Aug. 11, 2016