Expertise: Practice

Integrated STEM Education through Project-Based Learning

This paper outlines the research underlying successful project-based STEM education and refers educators to a unique curriculum that supports teachers to implement a project that encourages students to solve problems in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. It includes an overview of a project-based learning process that takes students through the reflection, research, discovery,… Read More ›

Talk to Teachers: Students Share How and Why They’d Change Education

This article describes a lesson in persuasive writing for high school juniors developed by an Oakland, California teacher. After studying an historic essay written by James Baldwin, students were asked to write persuasive essays detailing how they feel education could be changed to better fit their needs. The article links to audio files of six… Read More ›

To Reform a Struggling High School, try this Rhode Islander’s Approach

This article describes the work of Principal Alan Tenreiro to turn around Cumberland High School in Cumberland, Rhode Island, improving school culture, student achievement, and teacher professional development. His approach included blended learning, personalization, and commitment to the common core standards. Alan Tenreiro was named the 2016 National Principal of the Year by the National… Read More ›

Keeping the Focus on Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom

This article provides concrete steps to keep learning at the center such as dressing learning goals first, scaffolding learning, and assessing content not product. In a proficiency-based classroom, technology is often used to help students demonstrate mastery of a skill or concept. However, in some cases students and educators can get caught up in the excitement… Read More ›

Searching for Clarity on Formative Assessment

This article explores the various definitions of formative assessment in the field and the impact of differing understanding of the term on practice. The author asserts that while everyone agrees on its power to provide information about what students are learning in the moment,”beyond that it gets fuzzy, fast”. The article also includes links to many… Read More ›

Pittsfield Summer Academies Embrace Learning Outside of the Classroom

  Ross Morse, the Community Liaison for Pittsfield School District, shares his involvement as a member of the Design Team for the Pittsfield Summer Academies. Be sure to also read our “Applying the Framework” summary that connects Ross’ story to the Students at the Center Framework.   As part of our student-centered district approach, Pittsfield… Read More ›

Students at the Center Hub Recommends: Smart Parents

The Students at the Center Hub team occasionally finds something that makes our lives much easier: a fantastic resource aligned with our framework, that we consider a go-to for a large portion of our audience. Smart Parents, a blog series on the site Getting Smart, provides people invested in their children’s education with a series… Read More ›

Global Education Conference

The Global Education Conference is a free week-long online event bringing together educators and innovators from around the world. The event is a collaborative, inclusive, world-wide community initiative involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels. It is designed to significantly increase opportunities for building education-related connections around the globe while supporting cultural awareness and… Read More ›

Uncommon Learning: Creating Schools That Work for Kids

Schools traditionally have been designed to work well for adults, but the conventional school design hasn’t always served our learners. Students today need to be empowered to take ownership of their learning in relevant and meaningful ways to prepare them for a constantly evolving world. In this webinar, Eric Sheninger will explore how to cultivate… Read More ›

In My Creative Classroom

In this monthly webinar series, Adobe Education Community members will inspire you, and your students, by sharing their own experiences in the creative classroom. Each presenter will open their classroom door and give you a view of their creative teaching process. You’ll learn how they develop, implement, and assess creative activities in their classroom. They’ll… Read More ›

Making Time for Instructional Leadership

This three-volume report describes the “SAM process,” an approach that about 700 schools around the nation are using to direct more of principals’ time and effort to improve teaching and learning in classrooms. Research has shown that a principal’s instructional leadership is second only to teaching among school-related influences on student success. But principals often… Read More ›