Posted on

Top 5 Techniques for Culturally Responsive Teaching

The growing popularity of culturally responsive instruction is slowly causing traditional trends to be reversed. Teachers are increasingly being expected to adapt to the demands of a multicultural classroom. Given the wealth of diversity in our nation’s public schools, it is no wonder that instructional theory is advocating a shift toward a pedagogy that emphasizes a comfortable and academically enriching environment for students of all ethnicities, races, beliefs, and creeds. Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centered approach to teaching in which the students’ unique cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about …

Continue reading “Top 5 Techniques for Culturally Responsive Teaching”

Posted on

5 Facts Everyone Needs to Know About the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Our nation’s public schools play an integral role in fostering talents. They also play a role in building our children’s internal worth. It is therefore not surprising that our schools can assist in reducing our nation’s prison population as well. Here are five facts everyone should know about the school-to-prison pipeline, and how to end it: An increased prison population costs us all money. Those of us who fall outside the group of perceived misfits who make our nation’s prison population may wonder why the school-to-prison pipeline should matter. Aside from caring about the quality of life for other individuals, …

Continue reading “5 Facts Everyone Needs to Know About the School-to-Prison Pipeline”

Posted on

4 Expert Tips to Help Low-Income Students Enjoy Unparalleled Success

Students from low-income homes begin their education at a disadvantage. They often don’t have the means for even the most basic resources needed for success in their educational pursuits. Then when it comes to the non-tangibles, they often do not have the same academic support as middle- or high-income peers and know less when they arrive in kindergarten. When parents are unable to provide for their children, that responsibility then falls on the schools and the community. Here are some ways to make sure that students from low-income households succeed in K-12 classrooms. 1. Meet the children’s basic physiological needs. …

Continue reading “4 Expert Tips to Help Low-Income Students Enjoy Unparalleled Success”

Posted on

Wasted Data: 5 Facts about Why We Don’t Use Existing Student Databases

It’s no secret that technology implementation in P-12 schools comes with some serious red tape. While American colleges and universities tend to be at the forefront of innovative ways of learning, childhood education lags seriously behind. A recent PBS study found that while 90 percent of P-12 classrooms have at least one computer, only 35 percent have tablets or electronic readers. The amount of policy writing that goes into allowing “new” technology like tablets, let alone the budget for them, makes it prohibitive for most schools to implement the equipment in reasonable time frames. But what about technology that already …

Continue reading “Wasted Data: 5 Facts about Why We Don’t Use Existing Student Databases”

Posted on

3 Reasons School Security Is a Waste of Money

Most parents and educators would do anything to keep students safe—whether those students are pre-Kindergartners or wrapping up a college career. Nothing is too outlandish or over-the-top when it comes to protecting our kids and young adults. Metal detectors, security cameras, more police presence in school hallways, gated campuses – they all work toward the end goal of sheltering students and their educators and protecting the most vulnerable of our citizens. Emotions aside though – how much does school security really increase actual safety? And do school security efforts actually hinder the learning experience? It sounds good to tout the …

Continue reading “3 Reasons School Security Is a Waste of Money”

Posted on

5 Leadership Styles that Can Transform Education As We Know It

When considering school reform, it’s often easy to think of factors such as who is responsible (teachers, parents, school systems, the government?), or of funding issues such as the fact that 23 states spend less on poor schools than on more affluent schools. Of course all the obvious factors are important. But what about leadership? Not just who is leading the change, but how. Fortunately, when it comes to developing an ideal for effective leadership, there’s no need to invent the wheel. There are several leadership styles that prominent leaders in any school reform movement can choose to embody. Here …

Continue reading “5 Leadership Styles that Can Transform Education As We Know It”

Posted on

3 Tips for New Teachers Who Want Well-Behaved Students

Student defiance is an unpleasant experience for all teachers, new and experienced. But as a new teacher, this can be particularly daunting. You might be tempted to take the belligerent actions personally. Even worse, by not controlling the students well, you run the risk of creating a chaotic classroom atmosphere where the actions of one (or a few) students lead the others to believe that defiant behavior is acceptable. It is normal as a new teacher to worry about defiant students. However, making students have control over their behaviors by setting rules together can help you avoid this problem. Make …

Continue reading “3 Tips for New Teachers Who Want Well-Behaved Students”

Posted on

5 Factors that Influence the Future of HBCUs

When HBCUs (or historically black colleges and universities) first began popping up in America, they were a necessity to higher educational paths for African American young people. Benefactors like John Rockefeller founded Spelman College in Atlanta (named after his wife, by the way) in order to give black students a shot in a nation still very much in the throes of Jim Crow laws. Most of the 105 HBCUs were founded in former slave areas that still presented steep challenges for African Americans that aspired to higher education but faced discrimination in predominantly white college settings. HBCUs fulfilled their original …

Continue reading “5 Factors that Influence the Future of HBCUs”

Posted on

2 Concepts that Illustrate How Fun Math Actually Is

President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative emphasizes STEM learning, particularly in mathematics, in order for more students to make it to high school graduation and the college degree beyond it. At its core, mathematicians’ median annual pay in 2013 was just over $101,000 – and is expected to grow by 23 percent by 2022. Take into account all of the computer science, technology and engineering jobs that are also rising rapidly, and it’s easy to see why students today NEED math proficiency and why it is up to P-12 educators to instill both aptitude and an interest in the …

Continue reading “2 Concepts that Illustrate How Fun Math Actually Is”

Posted on

3 Facts You Can’t Miss Before Paying for a Private University Education

With the rising costs of college tuition and increases in student debt, financing an education at any college can be daunting. Figuring out how to pay for an education at a private institution can be downright nerve-wracking. Will the student be overburdened with student loans? Will the degree even pay off in the end? The answer may surprise you. Here are three things everyone should know before forking over money for that elite private college education: A private school education may not earn you a higher salary right after graduation. Ivy League schools are prestigious, with many students vying for acceptance …

Continue reading “3 Facts You Can’t Miss Before Paying for a Private University Education”