Superintendent’s Center
Superintendent’s Center Articles
New federal program promotes ‘green’ school policies
As the "green" movement sweeps across the nation, prompting citizens to buy organic produce and reduce their energy consumption, schools are following suit with lesson plans that teach…
How social media can help, and not hinder, during a crisis
It’s important for school leaders to understand basic crisis management principles—and how social media might play a role in the event of a crisis, for better or worse.…
Clearing up some misunderstandings of the superintendency
Overworked, underpaid, stressed out, and under attack—but highly dedicated to the mission and still loving their jobs: That’s the American superintendent.
‘Bring your own device’ catching on in schools
Mobile devices are now found in the hands of most children, and school leaders are using that fact to their advantage by incorporating devices that students already own…
Spring Station Middle School owes its success to ‘trying different things’
The first institution to be highlighted in our brand-new “eSchool of the Month” series is Tennessee's Spring Station Middle School, which “seeks to be a leader in student…
New bill focuses on U.S. graduation rates
New legislation introduced in Congress proposes to reduce the U.S. high school dropout rate in an effort to reach a national graduation rate of 90 percent. The bill…
Viewpoint: Scarce resources, insufficient talent threaten to sink public education
Our disadvantaged students are about to encounter the “perfect storm”: a lack of resources needed to ensure they are not left behind and an insufficient number of talented…
Viewpoint: School leaders need more help, and not red tape, to transform education
Our public system of education seems to be under constant attack from the media and self-appointed “reformers.” Regardless of the opinion those outside of education might hold, it…
ED to unions, districts: Can’t we all just get along?
Despite frequent reports of labor-management strife in the nation’s schools, there are many school systems in which teachers and district leaders are working together to improve public education—and…
How to raise student achievement through better labor-management collaboration
Laura Rico, union president for California’s ABC Unified School District, said the idea of collaboration between labor and management was “very risky—even political suicide.” But the partnership has…
Expert: Federal school reform plan is wrong
The president is wrong. Arne Duncan is wrong. The media are wrong. Many state administrators are wrong: This was the message on the current state of school reform…
AASA focuses on teamwork, collaboration
Nothing makes people come together in good spirits like unexpected warm weather in a terribly cold season, and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) took advantage of…
Meet our 2011 Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award winners
Partnerships with local businesses to provide free Wi-Fi for students … a virtualization project that reportedly has saved $1.5 million in energy costs … an instructional content repository…
Roughly half of U.S. superintendents to retire soon
Today’s school superintendents are more likely than they were 10 years ago to be women, and to be older—and nearly half are planning to retire in the next…
Teen software whiz shows challenges facing schools
Ninth-grader Alex Britton, and the friends he has made throughout North America with the help of Skype, offer insight into the challenges schools face in educating members of…
Forum explores how to spur school innovation
Innovation was a key theme of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 25, and it also was the theme of a recent forum in Washington,…
Amid economic uncertainty, ed-tech leaders do more with less
Though education budgets might be frozen or face further reductions in school districts from coast to coast, some educational technology leaders have found innovative ways to update their…
Ed tech vs. larger class sizes: Worth the trade-off?
Thrusting his state into the center of the debate over education reform, Idaho public schools chief Tom Luna called for more educational technology in the classroom and a…
Report shows high school graduates enter college unprepared
High school students should be exposed to college-level courses early on, and they should learn in technology-rich classrooms that redesign the learning process to emphasize problem-solving, critical thinking,…