Student Success

Traditional parent-teacher conferences may go the way of dial-up internet as administrators experiment with innovative family engagement programs to increase student achievement, experts say. “Parents are really interested in activities and events that involve interaction with teachers,” says Elena Lopez, associate director of the Harvard Family Research Project, a national platform for family and community […]

Tucked among the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia is a high-poverty school district that looks a lot like the United Nations. It was something Harrisonburg City Public Schools Superintendent Scott Kizner was most proud of. “These refugee students feel like a part of the social fabric,” Kizner says. “And every day all students at this district […]

Fewer than half of high schools and only one-fifth of middle schools offer comprehensive sex education, according to a December report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). No federal requirements exist for sexual education. Decisions about health curricula are usually made at the district level, and vary widely from state to state […]

New York University education professor Jonathan Zimmerman’s new book looks at the history of sex ed and how schools can use technology and connections with community groups to give students the information they want about healthy behaviors. Last fall, the tiny town of CaÁ±on City, Colorado, was the focus of unwelcome national attention when more […]

Guilford County Schools in North Carolina raised $35 million last year to help fund every high school student’s college education in full. The effort is part of the district’s recent partnership with Say Yes to Education, a nonprofit that also works communitywide in Syracuse and Buffalo, New York, to provide scholarships and social services. Say […]

Anonymous apps popular among high school students continue to create problems for administrators looking to root out cyberbullying and threats of violence. In 2014, Yik Yak drew concern over its ability to connect users within a 10-mile radius to an anonymous message board. In 2015, the app After School grew rapidly, allowing more than 2 […]