Positive School Climate Improves Student Attendance
Positive school climate factors such as safety, good relationships with peers and teachers, and parent engagement strongly relate to better school attendance, according to a new study by the University of Chicago. The study, which examined records from Chicago Public Schools students in grades 6-11, also found middle and high school students with fewer absences…
Study: Some Social Emotional Lessons Improve Academic Achievement
Academic researchers are collecting evidence for what high-quality SEL programs deliver for students, according to an article in The Hechinger Report. The latest study by researchers at Yale University summarizes 12 years of evidence, from 2008 to 2020, and finds that 30 different SEL programs, which put themselves through 40 rigorous evaluations involving almost 34,000 students, tended…
Developing Classroom Management Skills
Classroom management is one of the toughest things that teachers do – and it is a skill that you can develop and perfect over time, according to a post on the We Are Teachers website. Use these teacher-tested classroom management strategies and techniques to create and manage your classroom environment. 1) Understand special needs Consider…
What the Workplace Can Teach K-12 Educators about “Quiet Quitting”
The homework slide, beginning at least since the early ‘90s, has accelerated in recent years, according an Education Week article citing Monitoring the Future, an ongoing national research project that tracks behaviors of teens and others. In 2023, 8th graders averaged 36 minutes of homework daily, down 17% from 2021; 10th graders spent on average 47…
How Student Engagement Is Often Misunderstood by Educators
Student engagement and motivation are surface-level indicators of learning that can be misleading, writes Rebecca A. Huggins, a secondary literacy leader and instructional designer, in an Education Week opinion piece. Activity doesn’t always mean understanding. As education researcher Graham Nuthall observed in The Hidden Lives of Learners, some of the most “engaged” classrooms are simply exploring…
How Mississippi K-12 Education Produced a “Miracle”
In education circles it’s known as the “Mississippi Miracle.” As recently as 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in the country for education, which seemed predictable for a state with low education spending and one of the nation’s highest child poverty rates. But today, Mississippi is a top 10 state for fourth graders learning how to read, and…
AI Tools Can Enrich, Not Replace, Empathy and Relationships
For the last two years, conversations about AI in education have tended to fall into two camps: excitement about efficiency or fear of replacement, writes Timothy Montalvo, a middle school educator, in an eSchool News essay. Teachers worry about losing authenticity; academic integrity concerns leaders and schools everywhere are trying to sort out a technology…
Schools in China Are Quickly Implementing AI: What Can the U.S. Learn?
Visiting a classroom in Shanghai prompted Julia Rafal-Baer, CEO and co-founder of ILO Group, a women-owned national education policy and strategy firm, to conclude that the U.S. needs a strategy for how AI will impact workforce skills and economic competitiveness and also covering ethical principles and guardrails, according to a K-12 Dive article. In China,…
Student Behavior Problems Have Spiked Since the Pandemic
Student behavior problems continue to plague schools, and educators say they’ve become more serious, according to a 2024 survey by the EdWeek Research Center and reported in Education Week. Nearly half of teachers, school leaders, and district leaders reported in the survey that students’ behavior was a lot worse when compared to their pre-pandemic behavior….
States Take Carrot-and-Stick Approach to Address Troubling Student Behaviors
State proposals and new laws aim to allow or ban corporal punishment, remove violent students from classrooms, and restrict preschool suspensions, according to an article in K-12 Dive. Three examples: Arkansas has a $7 million program to support students’ mental health by restricting their cellphone use and using telehealth to connect students to mental health…
