Key strategies for education leaders to boost morale

Key points:

In the current educational environment, there seems to be extremely high levels of staff stress, burnout, and generally low morale. In education, where the success of students is intricately linked to the motivation and dedication of faculty and staff to go the extra mile, elevating employees’ well-being is not only a humane thing to do, but a crucial component of improving employee morale.

As a new assistant principal, one of the tasks delegated to me was to manage the staff recognition program. The school had historically recognized one or two faculty for outstanding work at the end of the school year. These faculty were generally nominated by their department chair or one of the assistant principals. There was a need for more widespread recognition.…Read More

3 simple strategies to supercharge student growth

Key points:

Differentiation is an essential part of effective teaching. As educators, we recognize that each of our students is on their own unique learning journey. Some are following their interests, others are preparing for a future career, while many more are just trying to figure out who they are and where they fit in the world.

Any teacher hoping to meet their students where they are and help them grow into active learners cannot rely on a one-size-fits-all method of instruction. Differentiation must play a key role in their teaching philosophy.…Read More

Savvas Announces New Math and Reading Solutions that Engage and Inspire Students While Giving Educators the Resources to Help All Learners Achieve

PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY — Savvas Learning Company is excited to announce new and enhanced math and reading solutions that engage and inspire students to learn, while giving educators the evidence-based instructional resources they need to accelerate learning and help all students achieve.

“At Savvas, we are committed to empowering educators with the highest-quality instructional materials and effective teaching strategies to increase student achievement,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “Long committed to developing evidence-based, student-centered learning solutions, Savvas this year is delivering new math and reading programs that continue to give educators what they need to help all students succeed.”

Savvas solutions focus on putting the student at the center of learning. The company’s award-winning blended programs — delivered digitally on its innovative Savvas Realize platform and visually through engaging print resources — feature real-world learning experiences designed to increase student engagement along with high-quality instructional materials to accelerate academic outcomes.…Read More

MDM solutions and gamification make perfect interactive learning partners

In the era of mobile devices and tablets, interactivity has become the norm for schoolchildren. To facilitate effective teaching and learning, modern schools must equip every classroom with interactive touchscreens and utilize gamification techniques. As these modern education tools require management and security, integrating MDM solutions has become imperative for every organization.

Understanding the Basics of Gamification in Education

Gamification means adding interactive gaming elements to processes such as learning. Everyone loves games, and competition motivates people to perform their best. So, by adding gamification elements during teaching sessions, schools can significantly increase their participation and engagement levels.

In addition, gamification can improve student skills such as active learning, problem-solving, and critical thinking. It also helps students enhance teamwork and collaboration.…Read More

Curriculum Associates and Corwin Partner on i-Ready® Assessment and Professional Learning Services

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass.— Leading education companies Curriculum Associates and Corwin are partnering to help districts nationwide elevate teaching and learning practices that most impact student growth. The partnership allows the two companies to make recommendations and referrals for the other’s products and services. Educators will see the power of adopting both the i-Ready Assessment with its best-in-class services to help measure and deliver purposeful, data-driven instruction, and Corwin’s professional learning consulting services, which are rooted in Professor John Hattie’s Visible Learning research to build knowledge and skills for effective teaching practices. Additionally, Hattie will now serve as a technical advisor for i-Ready Assessment, bringing over 30 years of research on what works best to improve learning.

“Professor Hattie’s Visible Learning research and our i-Ready Assessment program are a natural complement to one another. The research helps teachers tune into the strategies that have the most impact on student learning, and i-Ready helps teachers truly understand the impact their instruction is having in that moment,” said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “Through the partnership with Corwin, we will collectively be able to help more educators use practices to drive student outcomes, while further strengthening i-Ready Assessment through Professor Hattie’s expertise.”

Corwin’s professional learning consulting services provide sustained, job-embedded professional learning to support educators in implementing effective classroom strategies that have the greatest influence on student achievement. Notably, the Visible Learning research, which is at the center of these services, is the world’s largest evidence base on what works best to improve learning. It encompasses more than 1,850 meta-analyses, comprising more than 108,000 studies involving more than 300 million students to date.…Read More

The 14 most innovative SEL districts, part 2

[Editor’s Note: This article was first published on the Move This World blog on November 1, 2018.]

Make sure you read “The 14 most innovative SEL districts, part 1.”

In this article, we will be highlighting districts that have shown tremendous commitment to the well being of their students and staff. These 14 districts are being recognized for their efforts in social emotional learning (SEL) and their dedication to creating safe learning environments where individuals feel empowered to express themselves, and where effective teaching and learning can occur.…Read More

The 14 Most Innovative SEL Districts, Part 1

[Editor’s Note: This article was first published on the Move This World blog on November 1, 2018. Come back tomorrow for part 2.]

In this article, we will be highlighting districts that have shown tremendous commitment to the well being of their students and staff. These 14 districts are being recognized for their efforts in social emotional learning (SEL) and their dedication to creating safe learning environments where individuals feel empowered to express themselves, and where effective teaching and learning can occur.

What is SEL? As defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), social emotional learning is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.…Read More

Here’s how 4 schools are supporting wireless internet needs

As wireless internet needs become more important for students and instructors, many schools are bolstering their connectivity to ensure smooth learning experiences.

Schools and campuses must support 1:1 online learning initiatives, artificial intelligence/virtual reality (AI/VR) use, BYOD, shared resources, and on-campus surveillance–these efforts require reliable and cost-effective wireless connections that support collaborative digital-learning environments.

And at a time when internet access is of the utmost importance for effective teaching and learning, IT leaders must ensure consistent access and reliable connectivity.…Read More

The benefits of adding video to teacher evaluations

A Harvard researcher shares her national perspective on improving professional development

One of the biggest challenges in K-12 education is finding an effective and productive way to evaluate teacher performance. In a world where technology is rapidly reshaping the classroom, it’s natural to look to its potential, especially considering that many schools now have the technology to do classroom observation via video. However, these same schools aren’t yet convinced whether the investment will change status quo evaluations. To find out, in 2012, the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard, where I work, piloted the Best Foot Forward Project (BFF), a study that grew out of the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project.

BFF began with pilot programs in large districts in Georgia and North Carolina as well as Relay Graduate School of Education. In an effort to gather data from large and small districts in both urban and rural areas, we then expanded the study to include Los Angeles Unified School District, the state of Delaware, and a number of districts in Colorado.

We randomly selected half the teachers to be in a treatment group that would take videos of themselves in the classroom. These videos were then passed along to their principals for evaluation purposes. We also had remote peers provide our treatment group teachers with formative feedback on their subject matter. The control group did “business as usual” when it came to their evaluations.…Read More

Should student test scores be used to evaluate teachers?

Teachers who lead students to achievement gains in one year or in one class tend to do so in other years and other classes, the report said.

The so-called value-added model is an “imperfect, but still informative” measure of teacher effectiveness, especially when it is combined with other measures, according to the preliminary results of a large-scale study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The study’s early findings have ratcheted up the debate over whether student test scores should be used in evaluating teachers—and if so, how.

The report, entitled “Learning About Teaching: Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project,” reportedly gives the strongest evidence to date of the validity of the value-added model as a tool to measure teacher effectiveness.…Read More

Are qualified teachers always effective teachers?

An effective teacher can alter a student's achievement by as much as 50 percentage points.
An effective teacher can alter a student's achievement by as much as 50 percentage points.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools are required to make sure every teacher is “highly qualified,” which—according to the law—means teachers must be certified in the subject areas they teach. But amid a growing consensus that “highly qualified” doesn’t necessarily mean “highly effective,” a movement is under way to reshape how the nation views successful teaching.

The effort is particularly relevant as learning in today’s schools undergoes a 21st-century transformation, some observers say—and they say true reform won’t occur until education leaders redefine what “highly qualified” teaching means.…Read More

Poor teachers may hamper good students: U.S. study

Researchers said an unusual genetic study supports the argument that good teachers make a difference and shows that poor teachers may do damage, even to gifted students, Reuters reports. The study, published in the journal Science, showed that effective teachers help kids with the best genes read better, while poor teachers brought down all the children in a classroom to the same mediocre level. The findings by behavioral geneticist Jeanette Taylor at Florida State University and colleagues could influence the debate in Congress, the White House and school districts across the United States about measuring the quality in schools. “In circumstances where the teachers are all excellent, the variability in student reading achievement may appear to be largely due to genetics. However, poor teaching impedes the ability of children to reach their potential,” Taylor and colleagues concluded…

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