Unconscious Bias in the Classroom: Evidence and Opportunities
This report looks at the contribution of unconscious bias (UB) to the troubling achievement gap for women and minority students, especially in Computer Science and STEM courses. The report indicates that exposure to UB can change stereotyped groups’ behaviors to conform to the stereotype, even when it was initially untrue. It details existing research studies… Read More ›
Let’s Celebrate Personalization: But Not Too Fast
This article, from Educational Leadership Magazine, is an illuminating probe to reassesses what personalized learning truly means. It discusses what a shift to personalization will actually take in terms of mindsets, resources and time. It explores provoking questions such as: How will old and new paradigms coexist? What supports will teachers need? What aspects of your educational… Read More ›
Communications Planning for Innovation in Education
This guide was designed to help districts build support for personalized learning through the development of a communications plan to reach a variety of stakeholders. The guide lays out clear steps within four key phases of communications planning: planing and aligning, looking at your foundations, designing your plan, and reflecting. Each section includes short profiles of… Read More ›
Course Access: Improving Student Access to Advanced Coursework
Many students, especially those from underserved communities, face significant inequities in access to the courses needed for success in college and careers. Course access is a promising response which provides public school students with expanded course offerings across diverse learning environments and accountable providers. Through programs like this students can gain equitable access to a variety of courses in a… Read More ›
Massachusetts Early College Initiative Launch
This event will mark the launch of the Massachusetts Early College Initiative. This initiative will support the expansion of high-quality early college programming in the Commonwealth. Attendees will join state education leaders and early college pioneers to learn about this new policy initiative from keynote speaker Governor Charlie Baker. The event is sponsored by the state of Massachusetts,… Read More ›
RI Personalized Learning Initiative
The Rhode Island (RI) Personalized Learning Initiative was launched in September 2016 by the Rhode Island Office of Innovation with the Rhode Island Department of Education, Highlander Institute, and other partners. It supports educators and administrators statewide in the development, piloting, and growth of new models for personalized learning; and facilitates the sharing of best practices and… Read More ›
Maine: Making the Most of High-Leverage Strategies
This article provides an overview of the progress the state of Maine has made towards competency education. It outlines the steps taken to build school capacity and public and policy support for student-centered education. These steps resulted in the 2012 passage of Act LD1422, which requires districts to begin awarding proficiency-based diplomas. It reviews the implementation timeline… Read More ›
2017 STEM + Entrepreneurship Conference
The 2017 STEM + Entrepreneurship Conference is a student-organized, online event which will feature keynote speakers and crowd-sourced presentations by students in grades 6-12 and college. The online conference provides an international forum for the presentation, discussion, and sharing of best practices in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and entrepreneurship in schools and other academic settings, including: Fostering a better understanding… Read More ›
How to Address Executive Function Skills in the Classroom—and Why You Should
This article, written from a teacher’s perspective, explores the idea that increasing student achievement may lie in teachers awareness of the cognitive processes that enable students to manage information and complete tasks. She asserts that sometimes the best way to approach an instructional challenge is to take a step back to consider how the brain functions… Read More ›
What Learning to Code Means for Students
“Coding is the new literacy. To thrive in tomorrow’s society, young people must learn to design, create and express themselves with digital technologies.” –Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media Lab Professor What does “coding is the new literacy” really mean? As programming languages evolve, what students learn today won’t be applicable within a decade or less. Coding… Read More ›
Personalized Learning in Practice: How a Risk-Taker Tailored Learning in Her District
This in-depth article, from EdWeek’s Leaders to Learn from series, features Patricia Deklotz, superintendent of the Kettle Moraine School District in Wales, WI. Over 17 months, Deklotz and a task force of 25 educators transformed the small district of 4,100 students to a personalized learning model. The article shares the process of this transformation, including what motivated her… Read More ›
Research Collaborative: Where the Journey Goes from Here
In my previous post, I wrote about the Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative and its goal to break down silos so that educators, researchers, and policymakers can collaboratively examine, apply, and share knowledge about student-centered learning so that we can elevate learning outcomes, particularly for underserved students. Now, let’s talk about how we do this. Our… Read More ›