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We share evidence-based K-12 learning strategies that empower you to improve education.

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School Transformation Through Arts Integration at Bates Middle School

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Bridging the Gap: College Tuition for Every High School Graduate

Anne OBrienJune 17, 2011

Tags Achievement Gap, Teacher Development, All Grades, New York

Few would disagree with the notion that low-income children face enormous challenges outside the traditional school system in achieving academic success. Research has confirmed the role of everything from health to summer learning opportunities, along with school-based factors including teacher and principal quality, in student achievement.

But tough budgets mean tough choices when it comes to serving children, and many communities are focusing the little money they have on in-school factors related to student performance, at the expense of the other components we know to be crucial to student success.

New Models for Education: Maker Faire and the Young Makers Program

Michelle HlubinkaMay 17, 2011

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Michelle Hlubinka, the Education Director for Maker Faire and Make magazine.

Maker Faire is a combination DIY festival and project showcase, sponsored by Make magazine, where "makers" of all ages convene to show off a spectacular array of projects that combine science, art, performance, creative reuse, and technology in varying degrees. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of educators are getting involved in these events which are currently held in the Bay Area, Detroit and New York. There are also many independently organized Mini-Maker Faires around the country. Maker Faire Bay Area is this weekend, May 21 - 22nd.

Hotter Than You Think: The Brave New World of Student Assessment

EdutopiaFebruary 9, 2011

Tags Comprehensive Assessment, Middle (6-8), High (9-12), New York

Edutopia's first Schools That Work installment about comprehensive assessment focuses on a New York City school that has changed the game of student assessment. Think: more rigorous, more relevant, more fun.

While that may not sound terribly sexy, don't be fooled. These techniques -- and what New York's Manhattan-based School of the Future has achieved with them -- have the potential to change the way we understand and learn from our successes and failures.

How?

The TEAMS Model: Unifying Arts, Academics, and Career and Technical Education

Jim Brodie BrazellAugust 6, 2010

Tags Dropout Prevention, Integrated Studies, Project-Based Learning, Technology Integration, Middle (6-8), High (9-12), All Grades, Math, Florida, Science, Visual Arts, New York, Texas

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Jim Brazell, a technology forecaster, author, public speaker, and consultant. It is the second in a five-part series on the convergence of STEM education and the Arts (TEAMS).

Personalized Learning and the School of One

EdutopiaJune 11, 2010

Tags Classroom Management, Dropout Prevention, Integrated Studies, Primary (K-2), , Technology Integration, Upper Elementary (3-5), New York

Personalized learning has been a lot on our minds at Edutopia lately. We just launched some major coverage on Forest Lake Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina -- a kind of "little school that could" for differentiated instruction. It's an earnest, humble place (except for the slew of awards touted on the façade) full of earnest, humble people who are simply determined to teach each child as a unique individual. Through strong leadership, dogged grant-writing and constant collaboration, they've done it.

How to Reform a School without Firing the Faculty

Claus von ZastrowMarch 16, 2010

Tags Professional Learning Network (PLN), Teacher Development, New York

Editor's note: Anne O'Brien is our guest blogger today. She is a project director at the Learning First Alliance, a Teach for America alumna, and a former public school teacher in the greater New Orleans area.

The Obama administration has made turning around America's lowest performing schools a cornerstone of its education agenda. And with good reason -- all children should have access to an excellent education.

What it Takes: America's Best High Schools

Suzie BossJanuary 13, 2010

Tags Teacher Development, Technology Integration, High (9-12), New York

When U.S. News & World Report released its latest edition of "America's Best High Schools," Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Alexandria, Virginia, topped the list for the third straight year.

The Games Pupils Play

Owen EdwardsOctober 19, 2009

Tags Game-Based Learning, Technology Integration, New York

There comes a time in every parent's life -- and in most teachers' lives, too -- when we discover that those we are raising and teaching are better at certain things than we are.

Students Take Action in the Community

Suzie BossMay 28, 2009

Tags After-School Learning, Project-Based Learning, , All Grades, New York

When New York City's 1.1 million public school students return from summer vacation, they can look forward to rolling up their sleeves and getting busy improving the world, or at least their corner of it.

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