Steven L. Miller, Ph.D., K-12 Research Consultant, Author at eSchool News

5 questions to help every district leader make better decisions

September 15, 2026 by Steven L. Miller, Ph.D., K-12 Research Consultant

Here's what a 33,000-student science meta-analysis teaches district leaders about better decision-making for district students.

As budgets remain tight and expectations for measurable student growth increase, every instructional decision carries greater weight. Choosing one initiative often means delaying another, making it even more…

K-12 Cybersecurity

Why K-12 cybersecurity education needs practice, not just awareness

September 14, 2026 by Paul Cuffe, GetIntoCyberJobs.com

K-12 cybersecurity education can do is help students build habits that remain useful as technology changes.

Students are already making cybersecurity decisions every day. Giving them a list of rules is not the same as teaching them how to recognize a threat.

Universal Design for Learning

The compliance trap waiting on the other side of Title II

September 11, 2026 by Luis Pérez, CAST

A Web Content Accessibility Guidelines audit tells you if a tool passes a test--it won't tell you if students can actually use it.

Every few years, something shifts how schools think about accessibility. A law changes, a new technology arrives, or a group of advocates succeeds in bringing attention to the…

Building & Campus Security

The everyday access control gaps schools overlook

September 10, 2026 by Mike Garcia, HID Global and Mercury Security

Modern access control connects people, policies, technologies, and emergency procedures into a coordinated safety program.

School leaders have invested heavily in campus security over the past decade. Cameras, visitor management systems, emergency communication platforms, and access control upgrades have become standard parts of…

Classroom Management

When practice becomes data: Helping teachers respond to student misconceptions

September 8, 2026September 8, 2026 by Henry Yang, EduNinja

A student can complete 20 questions and still leave a teacher with very little useful information. A score may show that something went wrong, but it does not…

Literacy

Why reading interventions plateau—and why New York’s new dyslexia center won’t change that

September 8, 2026September 7, 2026 by Russell Van Brocklen, Dyslexia Researcher

New York is investing in earlier dyslexia identification, but identifying struggling readers is only the first step in reading interventions.

I’ve sat across from more than one district administrator staring at a dashboard full of reading intervention minutes and a flat progress line. The pattern is familiar: a…

AI in Education

Career readiness in the AI era needs decision practice, not just tool access

September 4, 2026 by Gleb Tsipursky, PhD, Disaster Avoidance Experts

When it comes to career readiness, the best prep for an AI-shaped labor market is more practice making decisions when AI is in the room.

Schools are racing to teach students how to use AI. That is necessary, but it is not enough. The workplace advantage will increasingly belong to people who can…

AI in Education

Building an everyday equitable practice for AI in schools

September 3, 2026 by Chelsie Thielen, Winona State University

Ai in schools must move beyond superficial bans and passive policies to everyday practice grounded in scrutiny, judgment, and equity.

AI technology is advancing rapidly in schools, but research is increasingly showing that Large Language Models (LLMs) lack the common sense, morality, and knowledge of individual classroom dynamics…

Curriculum & Assessment

A new approach to middle school math data boosted our state test scores

September 2, 2026 by Kaitlin Fields, Metropolitan School District of Washington Township

$Having more clarity about what middle school math content is being taught—and why—has led to increased rigor in classrooms.$

Picture a group of middle school math teachers meeting to mull over a specific problem. Their eighth graders keep missing the same assessment question about graphing a system…

Teacher Professional Development

We stopped waiting for the teacher pipeline–we built our own

September 1, 2026 by Bonnie Toffoli & Kimberly Wood, Orange County Public Schools

How one district created a cradle-to-career teacher pipeline and development ecosystem, and what other districts can take from it.

Every hiring season, school districts ask the same question: Where are the teachers? We stopped asking and started building.

District Management

A blanket screen-time ban won’t fix what’s broken in edtech

August 31, 2026 by Todd Wirt, Discovery Education & Former Public School Superintendent

A ban on edtech and screen time won't work if we want to prepare students for the future and help them build digital fluency and AI literacy.

Many parents, policymakers, and educators are worried about screens in schools. They’ve observed the positive effects of cell phone bans and are wondering how edtech might contribute to…

Curriculum & Assessment

Students won’t remember every lesson, but here’s what’ll stick

August 27, 2026 by Ryan Sprott, PBLWorks

How project-based learning, or PBL, builds the curiosity, empathy, and practical skills that last well beyond a student's time in school.

For a lot of students, school can feel like a transaction: You do the work, you get the check mark, and then you move on. That model can…

District Management

Building inclusive school communities through integrated digital strategy

August 26, 2026 by Alex Tarin, Finalsite

Administrators and technologists must look at digital strategy as a key bridge to equity and inclusive school communities.

Clear, timely communication is the bedrock of the relationship between a school and its families. It is the invisible thread connecting a student’s classroom progress to the support…

AI in Education

Beyond spotting deepfakes: Teaching multilingual learners to interrogate AI

August 25, 2026August 25, 2026 by Nesreen El-Baz, ESL Educator

Helping multilingual students spot deepfakes in the age of AI will help them better assess authenticity of online content.

Long before computers entered our homes and classrooms, photographs helped shape what people believed. Images carried a particular kind of authority: We did not simply look at them;…

District Management

Financial education must not sacrifice student privacy

August 24, 2026 by Vince Shorb, National Financial Educators Council

Students need practical experience with financial education, but no classroom exercise should put their personal information at risk.

Financial education is gaining real momentum across the United States. More states are adopting mandates, more schools are adding graduation requirements, and more policymakers are acknowledging that students…

District Management

Attendance is the scoreboard–connection is the game

August 24, 2026August 21, 2026 by Luvelle Brown, Ithaca City School District & Concentric Educational Solutions

Don't wait for the school district to solve student disconnection and attendance challenges on its own--it won't, because it can't.

If I had been asked a few years ago, I would have told you that chronic absenteeism was a school system's problem to fix. With better data systems,…

Literacy

What it really takes to accelerate adolescent literacy across our district

August 20, 2026August 20, 2026 by Dr. Michelle Picard, Loudoun County Public Schools & Dr. Octavia Gray-Essex, Lexia

Gaps in foundational skills, from decoding and spelling to fluency, undermined the district’s adolescent literacy efforts.

When people hear about the literacy gains we’ve seen in our middle schools, they often ask a simple question: What program did you use?

College and Career Readiness

Uncovering the college and career readiness shifts that exceptional school systems are making

August 19, 2026 by Dr. T.J. Vari, MaiaLearning & Thomas O’Brien, Winward Academy

Instilling college and career readiness in students is the cumulative result of thousands of intentional moments across 13 years of schooling

If you ask most educators where college and career readiness (CCR) begins, many will point to high school. That's when many students start thinking seriously about graduation requirements,…

Featured on eSchool News

Today’s classroom isn’t broken–but it wasn’t built for today’s top students

August 18, 2026 by Allison Altvater, Laurel Springs School

To serve today’s most driven students and prepare all learners for what comes next, we have to rethink long-held assumptions about education.

Walk into almost any classroom in America, and you’ll see a system designed for consistency: same lesson, same pace, same expectations for every student. For decades, that model…

AI in Education

5 ways AI can strengthen your teaching this school year

August 17, 2026 by Timothy Montalvo, Iona University & the College of Westchester

The conversation around AI and teaching has changed and is no longer about using AI—it’s about using it wisely.

A year ago, many educators were still asking whether artificial intelligence belonged in the classroom. Some were cautiously experimenting with AI-generated lesson plans, while others were focused on…

Education Policy & Funding

Public schools at the starting line: Beginning a new pathway with scholarship granting organizations

August 14, 2026 by Dr. Harold Jeffcoat, Van Buren School District

Scholarship funds from SGOs can be used for qualified expenses, which include academic tutoring and special needs services and supports.

For the first time, a federal tax credit is opening a clear path for public school students to access expanded learning opportunities through Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs).

Student Well-Being

The foundation for student success is a positive classroom culture

August 13, 2026 by Tiffany Wilson-Pugh, Dr. Yuvraj Verma, Dr. Luther Riley, & Rachel Campbell, Empower Community School

A positive classroom culture is built not built on a single activity but through thousands of intentional interactions.

As the school year begins, teachers often devote significant time to planning lessons, reviewing standards, organizing classrooms, and establishing routines. While these are all essential components of effective…

Classroom Management

The biggest back-to-school challenge

August 12, 2026August 12, 2026 by Christine Miles, M.S. Ed., The Listening Path

Teaching listening gives students practical tools they can use to remain mentally present, organize information and ask meaningful questions.

As students return to classrooms across America this fall, parents are focused on school supplies, class schedules, and academic expectations. Teachers are preparing lesson plans, organizing classrooms, and…

Classroom Management

How to build a positive classroom in the first 5 days of school

August 12, 2026August 11, 2026 by Kim Harding, Van Andel Institute for Education

The most important thing educators can do at the start of a new school year is build trust and create a positive classroom culture.

There’s a wise quote that says, “Kids don’t care about your expectations until they know you care about them. Connection is the foundation everything else stands on.”

School Management

4 things new principals can do to strengthen school culture

August 12, 2026August 10, 2026 by Dr. Cristiana Jurgensen, Ras Tanura Middle School, Saudi Arabia

A new principal's job is not to change the school--it is to spend the first year understanding the school culture.

Over the last 15 years, I have observed a recurring pattern. A new principal, whether brand new to the role or a veteran principal arriving at a new…

AI in Education

Schools are building AI rules before they know the destination

August 12, 2026August 7, 2026 by Scott Laband, Colorado Succeeds

America’s schools are moving quickly to respond to the rise of artificial intelligence, with parents, teachers, administrators, and lawmakers working to wrap their arms around what this means…

District Management

The grading paradox: Better data is key to understanding real subject mastery

August 12, 2026August 6, 2026 by Chris Rose, Abre

A unified data system offers a shared roadmap where every stakeholder has the clarity to understand subject mastery.

There’s a confusing trend going on in the nation’s classrooms: While national test scores have dropped to levels not seen in decades, average high school GPAs are actually…

Emergency Planning & Response

In a school emergency, 911 is still flying blind

August 12, 2026August 5, 2026 by Dean Drako, Brivo

Cameras are ubiquitous on public school campuses, so why are 911 dispatchers still operating in the dark in a school emergency?

School safety emergencies are inherently chaotic, frightening, and made even more perilous by a lack of real-time visibility once an emergency is underway. In an active shooter incident,…

District Management

Does school design help or hinder adolescent learning?

August 12, 2026August 4, 2026 by Heidi Neumueller AIA, NCARB, LEED AP®, Amy Keller Frye

How one school reimagined learning spaces–and what others can learn

Adolescence is one of the most consequential periods of human development, yet the environments designed to support it often fail to reflect its complexity. Spanning ages 10 to…

District Management

The grade gap: Helping parents understand students’ academic progress

August 12, 2026August 3, 2026 by Scott Peters, PhD, NWEA, & Kara Stern, PhD, SchoolStatus

What closes the grade gap between reporting and understanding is real-time context around what impacts student academic progress.

For as long as school has existed, so has the parental question: How are my kids doing? For nearly two centuries, educators have used some type of report…

Literacy

The one literacy metric schools miss: Students’ love of reading

July 31, 2026 by Dr. Jared Bloom, Franklin Square Union Free School District

Literacy technology that amplifies teachers’ expertise ensures students spend less time on their screens and more time reading and learning.

To ensure children build foundational reading skills in the early elementary years, educators have embraced the Science of Reading with its emphasis on phonics and phonemic awareness.

Curriculum & Assessment

First graders need a chance to explain their math thinking

July 30, 2026 by Ashley Landry, Reynolds Elementary, Spring ISD

$Research shows that young students build stronger math understanding when it connects to their everyday lives.$

In first grade, educators shape the trajectories of how students feel about math. Long before they discover algebra or standardized tests, six- and seven-year-olds are forming beliefs about…

Teaching Trends

Don’t forget nature’s classroom

July 29, 2026July 29, 2026 by Vanessa Garza, Girls Athletic Leadership School Los Angeles

Outdoor education has been shown to improve academic outcomes across subjects, including science, reading, and math, while also strengthening motivation, well-being, and school engagement. Studies also link outdoor…

Literacy

Digital detox: Reducing screen time creates space to build literacy skills

July 28, 2026 by Dr. Cheryl Lundy Swift, Learning Without Tears

In a digital world, handwriting remains an essential way young students build the physical and cognitive foundations for literacy.

Walk into almost any elementary classroom today and you will likely hear the same concern from teachers across grade levels: Many students can swipe, tap, and navigate a…

Teacher Professional Development

Teacher training needs more community and less compliance

July 27, 2026July 27, 2026 by Quinn Simpson, Gedi Village

Professional development and learning, like teaching itself, flourishes through relationships built on trust.

Professional development is one of a school district's most powerful strategies for improving student outcomes. Yet, educators often leave workshops feeling inspired in the moment, but take little…

Teacher Professional Development

Summer reading for teaching and school improvement: Harnessing the Science of Learning

July 24, 2026 by Miriam Williams, M.Ed., 3P Learning

When implemented thoughtfully, Science of Learning principles help educators focus their energy on what moves the needle for student learning

Every summer, I find myself in conversations with teachers and administrators trying to figure out why their current pedagogical practices are or aren’t working. So, once I came…

Literacy

My son wasn’t dyslexic—he was never properly taught to read

July 23, 2026 by Jenny Kier, Reading Horizons

Children deserve explicit instruction in phonics, decoding, and language structure before frustration with literacy becomes identity.

When my son Hunter was in fifth grade, his teacher told me he was struggling with reading comprehension. I nodded politely and moved on.

District Management

Chronic absenteeism isn’t the problem–it’s the signal

July 22, 2026 by Dr. Natasha Scott, Cumberland County Schools

Chronic absenteeism will not be solved by a stricter attendance policy--it will be solved by people who focus on belonging and support.

Every school leader I know has a version of the same moment: You pull up a student's attendance record expecting to find a discipline problem, and instead you…

Teacher Professional Development

PD for innovation: Reimagining solutions for engagement, burnout, and achievement gaps

July 21, 2026 by Adam Piccoli, Special Education Teacher

Innovation in PD gives teachers autonomy to pursue PD that benefits their students and aligns with district priorities.

Do you think you’re creative? Try this: List as many uses for a paperclip as you can in two minutes. Most people imagine a standard size metal or…

Digital Learning Tools

Not all screen time is equal

July 20, 2026 by Dr. Carolyn Brown, WordFlight

Screen time debates should center on if individual technologies, programs, and digital learning experiences support student growth.

With the growing movement to limit technology in schools, parents and educators are right to question how much time students spend on screens. But, as schools reconsider the…

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