A Space to Be Heard
Flying for the first time to Orlando, Florida all the way from Portland, Maine was an adventure in education empowerment. I was en route to Big Picture Learning’s (BPL) 2016 Big Bang Conference, where I would be sitting on a panel of fellow students and superintendents to discuss student voice in education decision making. To… Read More ›
Why Student Voices Matter
Originally posted on ewa.org on August 11, 2016 Here’s why I attended this year’s Education Writers Association National Seminar: As a high school student, I wanted to gain a new perspective on public schools and what is being done to improve them. And as an aspiring journalist, I was hoping to learn more about news coverage… Read More ›
Educators’ Social and Emotional Skills Vital to Learning
This article focuses on teachers’ own social and emotional learning. It asserts the importance of social and emotional skills within the teaching profession and the needed and difficult cultural shift to more openly address this type of skill development within a school. The article describes promising interventions to support teachers’ social and emotional skills 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 ›
Putting Students in Charge of Their Own Learning
This post can be originally found on the Education Writers Association website, as part of their Educated Reporter series led by Emily Richmond. Imagine you’re a student: You walk into school and check an electronic board for your name and where you go for the day. At the assigned station, you and a small group of fellow students… Read More ›
Goodbye, Linear Factory Model of Schooling: Why Learning is Irregular
This article explores three key points to consider as the country is challenged to meet the needs of Generation Z. Dwight Carter, New Albany High School principal at New Albany Plain Local Schools in Ohio, explains that the rate of change during the Information Age has increased exponentially due to the rapid creation of new… Read More ›
Digital Portfolios Position Students for Success in the Workforce
This op-ed, by Heather Hiles founder of Pathbrite, an e-portfolio platform, and someone who has spent her entire professional life committed to helping students optimize their academic outcomes and obtain meaningful employment, explains why digital portfolios are so beneficial to students who are embarking on a job search. According to a study from CareerBuilder, 81 percent… Read More ›
Connecting Learning to Careers
In this article, Hamutal Bernstein, research associate at the Urban Institute, explores the many ways that Connected Learning is a personalized approach to learning that is beneficial to students in today’s classrooms. Young people are living their lives in densely connected, media-saturated contexts, connecting to peers through social media. Connected Learning aims to harness this… Read More ›
Looking Under the Hood of Competency-Based Education
American Institutes for Research (AIR) recently released Looking Under the Hood of Competency-Based Education: The Relationship Between Competency-Based Education Practices and Students’ Learning Skills, Behaviors and Dispositions. This is one of the first valuable studies we have had looking at the impact of competency-based education. The Framework of Learning Skills, Behaviors, and Disposition AIR created… Read More ›
Popularity of Ed Tech Not Necessarily Linked to Products’ Impact
This article explores the different methods of using technology and whether those methods are improving our schools or hindering them. Digital learning tools that fit well within existing classrooms and don’t disrupt the educational status quo tend to be the most widely adopted, despite their limited impact on student learning. This pattern in K-12 raises… 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 ›
The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions
This research report, published in 2011, is a frequently cited document in the field of social-emotional learning (SEL). The study looked at 213 school-based SEL programs designed for students in kindergarten through high school. Compared to controls, students who participated in these SEL programs demonstrated improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance.… Read More ›