Rethinking school curriculum for a new world Tim Goral In his new book, Education To Better Their World, Marc Prensky—an authority on the connection between learning and technology—says our current education system is wrong for the future, not because we haven’t added technology and 21st century skills, but because we have the wrong ends or goals in mind. Read more>> Join for a Blended Learning Leaders forum in your state Sponsored by Fuel Education Designed with you in mind, the Blended Learning Leaders events around the country are hands-on, interactive and collaborative workshops. Attendees explore the crucial steps of designing and building an effective blended learning program that helps meet the challenges facing districts and students. Read more>> Building a positive school culture to combat teacher turnover Huffington Post Ask anyone working in education and you are likely to hear many recommendations on how to change teacher turnover. But there are two other big causes of teacher transfers and turnover that are largely missing from the national conversation: unsupportive leaders and toxic school cultures. Read more>> Ready students outperform their peers and show increased proficiency Sponsored by Ready A recent study of 1.1 million students shows that Ready students outperform their peers on state assessments. Schools using Ready had significantly higher percentages of students achieving proficiency on the 2014 Common Core-based state assessment than schools that did not use Ready. See the research. Read more>> Students face challenges outside the classroom, survey shows U.S. News & World Report The largest disparities among high-poverty and low-poverty schools exist in parent engagement and access to necessary resources at home. Of educators in high-poverty schools, 69 percent say their students lack access to books at home, compared with 20 percent of educators in low-poverty schools. Read more>> Why an enterprise LMS is the key to successful K12 digital transformation Sponsored by itslearning Effective change management is critical to the success of any digital transformation project in K12 education. Read what effective change management looks like in three leading U.S. school systems. Find out why an enterprise LMS is at the heart of these efforts. Read more>> Greater effort needed to recruit women superintendents Times Leader When the majority of teachers are women, this particular glass ceiling becomes suspect. School districts should re-evaluate how they approach filling the top job. Do they mentor women employees interested in leadership roles? Do they harbor unrealized bias? The goal is not to appoint more female superintendents; it is to ensure we are not missing out on what they could bring to the job. Read more>> Do we really want commercial billboards on public school campuses? Los Angeles Times Marketing on school campuses has had a checkered career. Ultimately, the real villain in these marketing-run-amok situations is the chronically insufficient funding of education, which gives schools incentives to pander to big companies and wealthy advertisers. Campuses shouldn’t have to erect billboards in order for kids to get textbooks. Read more>> | 