It shouldn’t take another suicide or school shooting to get districts to embrace the power of social-emotional learning. In light of tragic events that have put a recent focus on school safety issues, it’s more important than ever to understand the value of students’ social and emotional learning (SEL). While districts are starting to talk … Continue reading SEL Should Be an Easy Sell for U.S. Schools & Districts
The Technology for Education’s Moonshot is Here K-12 education is long overdue for its moonshot, that amazing technological breakthrough—like the actual lunar landing or the recent development of the self-driving car—that will take student learning to the next level and close the achievement and opportunity gaps once and for all. Consider the self-driving car for … Continue reading Will Machine Learning Change the Path of K-12 Education?
As educators, we understand data’s vital role in providing insights that can lead to better student outcomes. But too often, academic, behavioral, and cultural data stays in the system it’s housed in and never gets a chance to drive a holistic approach to educating students. With no easy way to access so-called data “silos,” … Continue reading Breaking Down Silos to Turn Data into Action
Visualize your performance data for quicker, more informed decision-making across your educational community. Data dashboards are popular in the corporate world, because they give executive decision-makers a clear window into real-time business performance. Dashboards pull data from different systems—such as customer relationship management, website analytics, inventory, logistics—and serve it up to show the results of … Continue reading Data Dashboards: Important Insights to Ensure Every Student Finds Their Spark
What if we thought of student performance in the same way prospective buyers thought about purchasing a home? For the home buying process, many consumers perform a ton of research related to the prospective home, including relevant details about community, the quality of neighborhood schools, and the city’s crime rate. This is all completed before … Continue reading The Importance of Multiple Measures in Educating Today’s Learners & ESSA
The issue of meeting the needs of our Long-Term English Learners (LTEL) and English Language Learners (ELL) is challenging and complex. Let’s start by considering some facts. LTEL and ELL students currently represent the fastest growing segment of school-age population in the U.S. Yet, the numbers are showing that many of them are struggling in … Continue reading Meeting the Needs of Our English Language Learners
There are reports that U.S. schools are dealing with yet another teacher shortage. It seems that many districts are facing the challenges of trying to fill classrooms with qualified teachers—with no easy fix in the horizon. This is a significant shift from when teachers were being laid off 10 years ago, including the years after … Continue reading Why Are Teachers Quitting? Finding Ways to Deal with Recruitment & Retention
Educators are starting to see that the traditional student information system (SIS) is no longer cutting it. There’s an ongoing shift towards systems that are modernized and focused on comprehensive student growth, with features to truly engage districts and promote student success. Typically, the SIS is defined to address (but is not limited to) seven … Continue reading Addressing the Focus, Data & Usability of a Modern SIS
Classrooms consist of a broad array of diverse learners. Each student comes to school with diverse learning needs, and teachers are being asked to satisfy those needs based on various factors: a student’s home language and culture, student prerequisite skills and knowledge, and learning styles. To support teachers in delivering a high-quality instructional program that … Continue reading Steps for Teachers & Site Leaders to Apply Differentiated Instruction
When it comes to measuring teacher effectiveness, educators often wonder how students are performing in relation to their peers. How do they know which students are achieving higher relative to their academic peers? How do they determine if certain students are progressing at a higher rate relative to other students? In today’s classroom, it’s … Continue reading Measuring Student Learning with Student Growth Percentiles & Student Growth Targets