National Youth Leadership Council
This organization works to promote service learning in schools across the country. Through service-learning projects, students apply academic skills and knowledge to a real community need, accelerating student achievement by strengthening academic, civic, and character outcomes. To achieve this goal they develop student leadership, encouraging student voice for meaningful change; support educators with customized professional development… Read More ›
Generator School Network
The online community, managed by the National Youth Leadership Council, is for educators and youth interested in service-learning experiences that allow students to apply classroom knowledge and skills to a real world community need. This free resource includes a large number of tools, research, and online learning communities. Of particular interest is the Generator, a… Read More ›
Restorative Justice: A Different Approach to Discipline
This article, from a teacher’s perspective, provides an overview of the rise of restorative practices in schools. It then discusses how one teacher works with students to build a respect agreement in the classroom. The same teacher discusses how using restorative discipline practices in the classroom helps her build relationships with students and allows them… Read More ›
School-Family Partnership Strategies to Enhance Children’s Social, Emotional, and Academic Growth
This article provides an overview of five essential social emotional (SEL) competencies. The authors assert the importance of family-school partnerships in the development of a positive culture of learning. Whether social or academic, students’ skills grow when they are supported and reinforced both at home and at school. This article presents ways schools can involve… Read More ›
Finding the Right Fit: 6 Things to Look For in Districts Ripe for Community Engagement
When the Nellie Mae Education Foundation launched its regional school-community engagement initiative in July 2014, we made an important decision: instead of selecting districts through a traditional request-for-proposals (RFP) process, we developed—in collaboration with the Great Schools Partnership, our intermediary partner—a comprehensive “engagement process” that entails a series of conversations, interviews, and in-person meetings with… Read More ›
5 Big Ways Education Will Change By 2020
This article asks the world’s most innovative companies in education about the future of the classroom, and shares their predictions for the next five years. Some of the predictions include schools and classrooms in which students interact remotely with others, utilize more individualized learning, have a greater voice with opportunities for feedback, and feel respected. This article could be a… Read More ›
What’s Next for Maker Education
This guide, “What’s Next for Maker Education” was developed by EdSurge and explores a range of maker-related topics, including: How can we help making become more equitable and inclusive? How can maker education embrace traditional technology, including computer science? What are the benefits of a maker education, and how do we measure them? Included in the guide are also tips… Read More ›
College, Career, and Civic Readiness: The Case of the Missing ‘C’
This article by Stephen Hamilton, Dean of the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, discusses his observation of the neglect of the idea of “civic readiness” in conversations about preparing students to succeed. He asserts that if career readiness is often neglected, civic readiness is all but forgotten. He also asserts that civic readiness somehow seems… Read More ›
When Kids Lead Their Parent-Teacher Conferences
This article is on the student-led parent-teacher conferences at Pittsfield Middle High School.Student-led parent-teacher conferences happen twice a year and have replaced the old format of parent-teacher conferences at Pittsfield Middle High School, a rural New Hampshire campus that takes a “student-centered learning” approach to schooling. With this model, students are given more freedom to… Read More ›
Making the Shift from Community Engagement to Community Collaboration
This article explores how leaders are helping to pilot a new way of working with the community that embraces collaboration in an effort to shift the tide. Over time, community engagement has largely become a one-way mechanism for districts to push out information about initiatives and programs into the local community. Along the way, a… Read More ›
The Importance of High-School Mentors
This article stresses the importance of role models. When it comes to helping young people succeed, education experts and nonprofits are embracing the idea that a broad web of formal and informal role models is key. This video from The Atlantic documents the power that mentors can have at a defining juncture in the lives of… Read More ›
Blended, Project-Based, and Social Emotional Learning at Thrive Public Schools
This article explores how Thrive Public Schools in San Diego is creating a student-centered learning environment for its students. Thrive, a 200 student K-8 school, has a makerspace where students build stuff and work out marble trajectories, and gives a glimpse into the future of learning—blended, personalized, and competency-based. The article includes tools, ideas for implementation… Read More ›