George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Education Trends

What needs are emerging and being identified? How are forward-thinking educators meeting them? Follow the early adopters here.

  • Why Recess Should Never Be Withheld as Punishment

    Experts argue that recess is necessary for a child's social and academic development, and skipping it as punishment for misbehavior or to accommodate more seat time is a serious mistake.

  • Lessons From the Cigarette Wars: Harness Student Voices Against Vaping

    The number of kids who are vaping has risen dramatically in the last year—and the addictive habit has now claimed its first lives. It's time to let kids know we’ve seen this all before.
    Stephen Merrill

  • What’s Lost When We Rush Kids Through Childhood

    The author of "The Importance of Being Little" on the costs of our collective failure to see the world through the eyes of children.
    Emily Kaplan

  • A Public School Makes the Case for ‘Montessori for All’

    A Title I public school in rural South Carolina is proving that Montessori education can work well anywhere.
    Nora Fleming

  • Flexible Seating and Student-Centered Classroom Redesign

    How a visit to Starbucks inspired a change to flexible seating—and then some changes in teaching philosophy.
    Kayla Delzer

  • Multiple Intelligences Theory: Widely Used, Yet Misunderstood

    One of the most popular ideas in education is applied in ways that its creator never intended.
    Youki Terada

  • 2018 Education Research Highlights

    Researchers studied students’ brains as they learned and took another look at the marshmallow test, learning styles, and growth mindset.
    Youki Terada

  • Dintersmith: Trust Teachers—They’re the Experts

    The best-selling author of What School Could Be shares his thoughts on what needs to come next in American education.
    Emily Kaplan

  • New Research Casts Doubt on the ‘Summer Slide’

    Under closer scrutiny, the idea of dramatic learning loss over the summer doesn’t seem to hold up, according to a recent study.
    Youki Terada

  • Do No-Zero Policies Help or Hurt Students?

    No-zero policies spur serious—and productive—debate among teachers. We look at the big insights on both sides of the argument. 
    Emelina Minero

  • Will Letter Grades Survive?

    A century-old pillar of the school system is under fire as schools look to modernize student assessment.
    Laura McKenna

  • 8 Myths That Undermine Educational Effectiveness

    Certain widely-shared myths and lies about education are destructive for all of us as educators, and destructive for our educational institutions. This is the subject of '50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools: The Real Crisis in Education,' a new book by David Berliner and Gene Glass, two of the country’s most highly respected educational researchers.
    Mark Phillips

  • Visualizing 21st-Century Classroom Design

    These five steps are essential in creating a 21st-century classroom: establishing zones, ensuring resource accessibility, encouraging mobility, igniting inspiration, and fostering respect.
    Mary Wade

  • Suspensions Don’t Teach

    Restorative practices—an alternative to punitive justice—keep kids in school, where they can learn how their behavior affects others.
    Ryan Wheeler

  • Using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor

    Categorizing tasks according to the complexity of thought they require is one way for teachers to create a rich learning environment.
    Gerald Aungst