Six Springfield, Massachusetts, middle schools, flagged as close to failing by the state two years ago, seized an unusual opportunity to run themselves. Six Springfield, Massachusetts, middle schools, flagged as close to failing by the state two years ago, seized an unusual opportunity to run themselves. Now they form the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership, an […]

Is cursive writing doomed to become a long-lost art? Not if some educators have anything to say about it. After decades of remaining a main component of elementary education, cursive is up for debate under the Common Core standards. Its detractors argue that cursive is an antiquated form of writing that’s not necessary in the […]

After the Great Recession, the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township in Indianapolis knew it had to prepare students for a new world of work skills and knowledge. Leaders decided that the district’s McKenzie Career Center had to morph from a traditional vocational training facility into a school that would equip students with future-ready skills, […]

The E-rate program, which is entering its 20th cycle and is worth about $4 billion, is still giving. It can still help districts connect their school buildings to the internet—unbeknownst to some leaders, says John Harrington, CEO of Funds for Learning consulting firm. Almost all of the physical infrastructure necessary to wire a school building […]

While online curricula platforms have propelled personalized learning to new levels, Coppell ISD in north Texas takes the concepts a step further. Using IBM’s MobileFirst iPad app, teachers tap into the internet of things to instantly see all the data collected throughout the school year on any student in class, including test scores, homework and […]

When the central Connecticut town of Cheshire moved to reduce power use, it upgraded six of its eight public schools with the latest internet of things technology. The plan combined energy-efficient LED fixtures with sensors and cloud-based servers that automatically turn the lights off in an empty room or adjust brightness. The district cut its […]

Many districts across the country struggle with increasing demographic homogeneity more than 60 years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. But the Morris School District in northern New Jersey has been hailed as a model for successful integration, in part due to its community’s affordable housing and teacher […]

Susan German is a science teacher at Hallsville Middle School in the Hallsville School District, northeast of Columbia, Missouri. German, named the NSTA’s distinguished teacher in 2011, teaches eighth-grade science. During her 20-year career, German has taught science and math in grades 6 through 12. We asked her for words of wisdom. Q: What do […]