Replace standardized tests with educationally superior forms of evaluation
Monty Neill

The damage to teaching and learning caused by over-reliance on standardized tests includes narrowed curricula, teaching to the test, and one-size-fits-all instruction. Many districts are eliminating the bulk of No Child Left Behind-style punitive sanctions. This provides an opening to adopt assessments that support more high-quality, in-depth and engaging learning. Read more>>

Sponsored by SAT School Day

Want to expand access and increase opportunity at your high schools? In spring 2018, your schools can administer the SAT in school and on a weekday so that you can extend college and career opportunity to every student. See the difference one day can make. Read more>>

How school leaders can attend to the emotional side of change
KQED

Creating a school culture that encourages productive conflict is particularly hard because the qualities that make someone a great teacher—nurturing, extending beyond themselves, pulling out the best in people—are not typically the characteristics of someone who is skilled at adult conflict. Read more>>

Sponsored by Discovery Education

In response to the opioid epidemic sweeping the nation, the DEA and Discovery Education have joined forces to create free science-based, age-appropriate curriculum for the classroom and home. Provide students with the tools to make smart, informed choices around prescription opioids with Operation Prevention. Read more>>

Learning how bullying happens in order to prevent it
NPR

One in four students report being bullied, but not all say they are bullied the same way. And some students are more likely to experience bullying than others. That's what one new survey found after posing questions to more than 180,000 students. Read more>>

Sponsored by Schools of TechXcellence

When Stony Brook Middle School built a makerspace in the library, no one realized how it would impact the entire school. Launched in 2016, the Stony Brook Innovation Lab, open every morning and Wednesday afternoon, serves nearly 700 students in grades 6 through 8. Read more>>

When body meets mind in learning
Hechinger Report

Using our bodies and gesture to teach is something parents and preschool teachers do instinctively. But the benefits can extend to teaching advanced and abstract concepts. As education depends more on technology and virtual instruction, it will be vital to capture aspects of human interaction that engage both body and mind. Read more>>

Teachers’ expectations matter
The Daily Telegram

As powerful as it is to understand the impact of positive self-image on helping students succeed in difficult disciplines, it’s important to note that teacher perceptions become realities as well. A teacher’s confidence that a student will complete college actually increases the student’s success at doing so by 3 percent, a study found. Read more>>
Published by District Administration