This article was co-authored with Katya Mocalis. For more resources or if you have any questions, please contact her at kmocalis@illuminateed.com or Dr. Gail Thompson at gthompson@illuminateed.com. ***** A high school teacher in Southern California was shocked one day to learn that one of her students had used a permanent marker to draw a swastika on … Continue reading What You Can Do When the Swastika Appears in Your Classroom
Since the 1980s, much has been written about student engagement and how to improve it. While various psychological theories contribute to the overall picture of what makes students interested in learning, little has been done to organize the research into a coherent model that students, parents, and educators can use to improve academic outcomes. School … Continue reading Creating a Community of Engaged Learners
Back when I was in jail and probation—serving as an assistant principal for a charter school network based within the system—I saw a lot of students from various backgrounds shuffling through. Since I was the AP, referrals were pretty consistent. The reasons were like how the ol’ saying goes, “If I only had a dime … Continue reading Ditch “The Book” & Use Restorative Principles for Interventions
Why did we build an Accountability Dashboard? Despite what you’ve heard in the news, ESSA is still around. Even our U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is saying that we should honor the timeline that was already set in place. So, we’re going to keep moving forward, and all the individual states are still moving forward … Continue reading How to Track Progress & Growth with an Accountability Dashboard
Santee Education Complex is a high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), located in South Central Los Angeles. It was built in 2005 with the special distinction of being the first new four-year high school to open in LAUSD in over 35 years. Immediately after its opening, Santee dealt with issues around … Continue reading How a Low-Achieving School Uses Data to Drive Success
The importance of measuring and teaching social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies cannot be overstated. In fact, it is clearly emerging as one of the most effective ways to develop psychologically healthy and productive young people and adults. Furthermore, the extent to which we ignore SEL, we increase the likelihood that students will further disengage … Continue reading Start Gathering Social & Emotional Data Now—Here’s How
October is National Bullying Prevention month, and we want to do our part in tackling an issue that affects more than 30% of our young people across the nation. In our request for community members to share a personal story or experience, we were touched by one story in particular. The following story is from Lorri Borgeson, a current … Continue reading Overcoming My Personal Battle with Bullying
At a time when many Americans are preoccupied with the “war of words” between presidential candidates, a different news story captured my attention. For days, I read everything that I could about it. And the more I read, the sadder and angrier I became. The story took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it contains powerful … Continue reading How to Identify & Combat Child Abuse
During a recent flight that I took from Charlotte to Phoenix, one of my seatmates who was a neonatal unit nurse told me a troubling story about her older brother. She said her brother was a brilliant, functional alcoholic: one who, unfortunately, was never able to recover from a traumatic experience that happened in the first grade. Her … Continue reading Making Schools Safer by Tackling Bullying
The reality in today’s schools is that students are absent and missing out on opportunities to learn—and it’s happening at an alarming rate. According to research by the U.S. Department of Education, over 6 million students have missed 15 or more days of school in 2013-14. This equates to one in every eight students, or … Continue reading Missing Millions: The Impact of Chronic Absenteeism on Ethnic Minorities