Investing in Shared Leadership
This post is part of a series of posts related to the 2015 report, Implementing Competency Education in K-12 Systems: Insights from Local Leaders, which looks at implementation strategies districts are using to convert traditional education systems into environments for dynamic personalized learning. This post looks at the need for superintendents and principals to develop collaborative… Read More ›
America After 3 PM
The hours after school offer opportunities for academic and personal growth outside of the classroom, but many students lack access to quality after school programs. The report, America After 3PM, written by the Afterschool Alliance spans a decade of data. It highlights the trends of afterschool program participation, documents the benefits associated with participation in afterschool… Read More ›
How Can Schools Prioritize For The Best Ways Kids Learn?
This video and corresponding article from the former English teacher Will Richardson’s presentation at the 2016 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is on the need to match our beliefs and the research about how kids learn best with the reality of teaching and learning practices. Mr. Richardson looks to the types of learning students do… Read More ›
Teaching the Whole Child: Instructional Practices That Support Social-Emotional Learning in Three Teacher Evaluation Frameworks
This research-to-practice brief explores teaching practices that promote social-emotional learning (SEL) and positive learning environments. The author begins with an overview of SEL and discusses action steps policymakers and educators can take to support it. Next, the brief provides an overview of 10 teaching practices that encourage the development of SEL. These practices were identified… Read More ›
Constant Learning and Creative Response: Charting the Course in Personalized Learning
In this article, guest bloggers Janice Vargo and Mike Wolking from Education Elements discuss the ways their organization is helping districts measure success in implementing personalized learning. Education Elements, which provides consultation services to districts, has shifted its approach to evaluating progress to better mimic the personalized mindset they help schools enact and to embrace… Read More ›
How to Help Principals Do a Better Job? Train Their Bosses
This article discusses the changing role and new demands on principals. Districts nationwide are trying to figure out how to better support principals on the job and improve their effectiveness. It also describes the work in Oakland, where consultants are training superintendents and other district administrators at the top to do a better job of… Read More ›
Social Emotional Learning in High School: How Three Urban High Schools Engage, Educate, and Empower Youth
This research series from the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education documents practices at three small urban high schools that effectively leverage a systemic school-wide focus on social and emotional learning to educate and empower their students. These schools work to educate the “whole child” by building their ability to know themselves, grow and… Read More ›
Social and Emotional Learning in Schools From Programs to Strategies
This report explores a more integrated approach to teaching social and emotional skills in schools. While well-implemented SEL programs have shown positive results, this issue of Social Policy Report proposes that schools should consider a new approach: integrating the teaching and reinforcement of SEL skills in their daily interactions and practices with students. It explains… Read More ›
Seizing the Moment: Realizing the Promise of Student-Centered Learning
This policy brief presents a series of recommendations for building public will in support of student-centered learning, including policy priorities that can help to expand its practices more broadly at the local, state, and federal level. It incorporates profiles of schools and programs which illustrate the power of student-centered learning in action. A growing body… Read More ›
Redesigning School Accountability and Support: Progress in Pioneering States
In a report presented by the Learning Policy Institute and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE), “Redesigning School Accountability and Support: Progress in Pioneering States” examines the variety of ways these 10 states – including New Hampshire and Vermont – have tackled the challenge of redesigning their accountability systems to create educational… Read More ›
The Culture of Data Use Workshop Toolkit
The Culture of Data Use Workshop Toolkit helps school and district teams apply research to practice as they establish and support a culture of data use in their educational setting. The field-tested workshop toolkit guides teams through a set of structured activities to develop an understanding of data-use research in schools and to analyze examples… Read More ›
Five Things for Big Districts to Think About
This post shares a few thoughts the author has developed on how big districts can make the transition to competency-based education. Much of the first wave of districts making the transition to competency-based education have been small districts. They’ve been able to engage their communities at the district level. They often asked teachers to vote before they… Read More ›