Courageous Conversations About Race in Schools
These short videos are designed to prompt a deeper, more authentic discussion about issues of racial equity in schools. State Teachers of the Year and other educators at the 2017 National Teacher Leadership Conference, speak candidly about equity, sharing their experiences and ideas on how to move forward. The videos are accompanied by discussion guides… Read More ›
Highlighting Deeper Learning Competencies in New Hampshire
This blog was originally posted by CompetencyWorks on March 12, 2018. It is hard to argue the importance that being a strong collaborator, an articulate communicator, a self-directed learner, and a creative problem solver has on a person’s success in today’s world. In fact, a recent analysis by Valerie Strauss from the Washington Post on… Read More ›
How Closing My Competency-based School Led to Learning What Works
This article was originally posted in Youth Today on March 15, 2018 I closed the doors to Missouri’s first competency-based high school after just three years. Our school, based in St. Louis and on the campus of the city’s technical college, served young people ages 17-21 who wanted to finish high school but couldn’t succeed… Read More ›
Makerspace Successes, Makerspace Challenges
Maker culture is here and it is alive and thriving in schools and public libraries across the United States and beyond. While each makerspace is a reflection of its own learning community, there are valuable lessons we can take away from maker facilitators: successes, challenges, surprises, do-overs, and “I wishes.” In this edWebinar, Michelle Luhtala,… Read More ›
2018 NSAESC National Convening
The National Student Attendance, Engagement, and Success Center (NSAESC) has the mission to disseminate evidence-based practices and build and facilitate communities of practice to help students attend every day, be engaged in school, and succeed academically, so that they graduate high school prepared for college, career, and civic life. The 2018 National Convening will be… Read More ›
The 5th ‘C’ of 21st Century Skills? Try Computational Thinking (Not Coding)
In this commentary, the author asserts the importance of computational thinking, the ability to solve problems like a computer scientist. Like critical thinking and communication, this skill is needed for academic and career success across disciplines. The article explains how computational thinking relates to coding/programming and lays out the skills needed to become computational thinker.… Read More ›
How to Ease Students Into Independent Inquiry Projects
This post is an excerpt from the book, Inquiry Mindsets: Nurturing the Dreams, Wonders, and Curiosities of Our Youngest Learners. Trevor MacKenzie first describes a powerful passion-based, free inquiry project completed by an introverted student in his H.S. English course. Next he describes the type of scaffolding students need in order to take on such inquiry projects.… Read More ›
When It Comes to Universal Design for Learning, Don’t Wait to Be an Expert
This article provides a great overview of how to apply Universal Design for Learning principals in the classroom. The author describes his journey to introduce UDL in his 5th grade classroom. He describes how adapting the delivery of content, introducing assistive technology, or granting assessment accommodations for an individual student usually proved helpful to many… Read More ›
Research Collaborative Seminar: Messaging Personalized Learning
In the latest installment of the Research Collaborative Seminar, Karla Phillips, Policy Director for ExcelinEd, discusses revealing findings from ExcelinEd’s recent message testing survey on personalized learning. Watch now to hear what messages resonated (or didn’t) with voters across the country and what we can do to clarify terms and support best practices. Download… Read More ›
Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative 2018 Convening
Join JFF’s Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island on October 10th and 11th to share new evidence for student-centered practices, gain insights about what works and may be worthy of scaling, and advance the field’s attention to equity. In attendance will be the vanguard of leading researchers, educators,… Read More ›
Restorative Justice: Resources for Schools
This resource page focuses on restorative justice practices. This student-centered approach to discipline moves away from punitive zero tolerance discipline policies and gives students more agency and responsibility for their actions. Restorative justice can contribute to a positive school climate and build students’ social and emotional skills. This resource page provides a clear definition, case… Read More ›
Student-Centered Learning with Kasie Giallombardo
2017 Lawrence W. O’Toole Award winner Kasie Giallombardo is a social studies teacher at Nokomis Regional High School in Maine. A strategy she employs to empower student voice in learning is to act as a coach. She encourages students in class with probing questions to lead them deeper in their analyses. She approaches each lesson with… Read More ›