Verbal Assessments Are an Alternative to Traditional Exams
Verbal assessments can reduce stress, improve grades and protect academic integrity, according to new research reported by Educator Online. The benefits: A more authentic and personalized assessment experience enables students to display their subject matter understanding in a less formal setting. A verbal assessment is an authentic conversation between an assessor and a student. It…
How a Rural County Tackles Student Mental Health
Born and raised in the agricultural foothills of Tulare County in California’s Central Valley, Greg Salcedo attended the only K-8 school and high school serving his rural town of about 3,000 people. Friends and family never spoke about adolescent depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress or suicide, issues that have, for decades, disproportionately affected rural, high-poverty communities…
How SEL Can Help Students Reduce Cellphone Use
While some schools have banned cellphones, a blanket ban policy can be hard to implement according to an article in Education Week. Resistance comes from both students and parents. And most educators work in schools without cellphone bans. Social-emotional learning might help by teaching students the social-emotional skills needed to help break addictive phone habits….
Use AI Thoughtfully to Alleviate Burnout
An article in eSchool News points out the benefits and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence (AI) to help reduce ever-increasing demands on students: The potential: Automate administrative tasks: By offloading repetitive tasks to AI, teachers could see real relief, freed from administrative chores that don’t require their expertise and focus more on teaching. Personalize student…
Four Fundamentals to Transform the School Experience
Preparing confident students for the future rests on four foundational promises–Joy, Connection, Growth, and Success–and educators committed to put them into practice, writes Dr. George Philhower, superintendent of Eastern Hancock Schools, a rural district east of Indianapolis, in the eSchool News. These are essentials for creating a student-centered, future-focused environment delivering the academic, social, and…
High-Dose Tutoring Helps Improve Lack of Focus and Inattention
A quarter of public school leaders reporting a “severe negative impact” on student learning due to lack of focus or inattention in the 2023-24 school year – a persistent repercussion of the pandemic — according to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, as reported in K-12 Dive. The NCES School Pulse Panel surveys also…
Encourage Good Sleep Habits for Students
Most middle and high school students do not get enough sleep, which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is approximately 8 to 10 hours a night for teens ages 13 to 18, according to an article in K-12 Dive. One problem is smart phones. “We have so many distractions that are easy…
District Uses Top-Performing Teachers to Coach Peers
Opportunity Culture is a new staffing model being implemented in the Fort Worth Independent School District that designates top-performing teachers as multi-classroom leaders, according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram. The aim is to raise overall instructional quality and improve academic performance by supporting not only struggling teachers but also those who are average. The…
How to Improve Engagement in Learning
Nearly half of teachers (46 percent) say student engagement has declined compared to 2019, according to a survey by The Harris Poll for Discovery Education, according to an Education Week article. And most students, 83 percent, say there are not enough opportunities at school for them to be curious. That’s a disconnect that all vendors…
Workforce Prep Can Start in 1st Grade
Preparing students to succeed in college and careers starts long before high school and doesn’t only involve occupation-specific training, according to an article in Education Week. The abilities to collaborate, solve problems, and communicate effectively – useful in almost in any job — are skills employers seek in new hires, according to numerous surveys. A…
