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3 Things High School Students Should Know about College

As the stakes rise regarding the necessity of a high school diploma for lifelong success, so do the standards to earn one. High school students and graduates today must know more than the generations that came before them, both in academic and real-world applications. College, which was once considered an option for some students, is now viewed as a necessity. All of the lesson planning from Kindergarten forward funnels student information into the end goal of high school and college graduation. While rigorous academics can certainly prepare students for college, which is just one facet of what I believe they …

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The Impact of Educational Entrepreneurship on Traditional Public Education

What if there were total free markets in education in the United States, and traditional public education systems as we know them today did not exist? Education would be a product for sale, just like any other product on the U.S. market. The idea may be mindboggling, but many education entrepreneurs would likely see an opportunity that fits with their vision of how education systems ought to work. With such an opportunity unavailable, they must be content to effect change in education by working within the current system. Education entrepreneurs are driven by the belief that public education organizations are …

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Important Concepts of Instructional Leadership

In instructional leadership, the principal’s role is deeply involved with setting the school’s direction. The “mission” dimension focuses on the principal’s role in cooperating with staff, ensuring the school continuously runs on clear, measurable, and time-based goals that result is the academic progress of students. Principals are responsible for communicating goals, which should be widely known and supported throughout the school. The process of goal development is not considered; its importance is less critical than meeting performance outcomes. This is a weakness in the model. The research simply accepts that goals should be set by the principal, in collaboration with …

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My Vision for the Future of Classroom Management

Historically, classroom management has been one of the greatest challenges that every teacher must overcome on a day-to-day basis. Each educator acquires his/her own unique set of strategies for handling common problems like interruptions, bullying, and the management of effective group work. As with every other area of education and life in general, technology is rapidly altering the way we do classroom management. New challenges and new solutions will shape the classroom of the future. Here’s how the future looks for these common classroom management issues. Collaboration and Group Work No matter how much time and thought goes into creating …

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My Vision for the Future of Personalized Learning in Schools

Personalized learning consists of customized learning paths. These paths adapt to the learner as each student accesses the curriculum and moves forward. Students set the pace and take responsibility for the learning process. In theory. Creating a bespoke learning opportunity involves more than setting up a student login and password in a digital curriculum program, but it can produce outstanding results when done well. Digital learning strategies can fill learning gaps, provide reinforcement or allow for enrichment while the teacher works with other students, but personalized learning must provide the right strategy at the right time for pupils. So there …

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10 Essential Skills for the Education Leader of Tomorrow

What will the schools of tomorrow be like? No one can say for certain. But one thing we do know: schools are under pressure to keep up with the ceaselessly rapidfire changes occurring in our culture. It is difficult to prepare students for the future when we have no way of knowing exactly what that future will be like. In this context, educational leaders need a unique skill set to make sure that students get what they need. The prevalence of technology inside and outside the classroom, as well as the increased accountability for student achievement, have drastically changed the …

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What Would Happen if Learning Materials Were Provided to All Students on or Before the First Day of Class?

Mike Hale, Ph.D.  VP Education North America VitalSource   Why Doesn’t this Happen? If all required learning materials, including textbooks, were provided to all students on or before the first day of class, the average price per student of learning materials would drop and students would be more successful. Then why is it the vast majority of college students do not come to class with required content on the first day of class, and a significant number never get their core textbooks at all? First, because required doesn’t actually mean required in higher education. Is this because colleges and faculty …

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A Digital Future: What Will EdTech Look Like By 2117

Rapidly changing technology continues to make its mark on K-12 learning. Let’s take a look at the future and see how technology will improve education in the next 100 years. What will be the new innovations in EdTech? What will future classrooms look like?  Will the need to study medicine, law, and science disappear when robots start working in these professions?  What about art? Sure, no robot can be better than David Bowie, Leonardo Da Vinci, or Shakespeare (not yet), but with the number of innovations we see every day, we can’t be sure it won’t happen. While these innovations …

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A Guide to Ending the Crisis Among Young Black Males

When we talk about reaching students in our classrooms that come from disadvantaged backgrounds, we tend to put several groups under one umbrella. Minority students. Immigrant students. Kids from low socioeconomic households. While it’s true that all of these groups of students need a different approach than their white, English-speaking, middle-class peers, our education system is not yet doing enough to address specific needs within these at-risk groups. The initiatives that help one group tremendously may not have as large a positive impact on another, and vice versa. Black boys are a student demographic that has been, and continues to …

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How to Help Low-Income Students Succeed

By Matthew Lynch Students from low-income homes hit the K-12 scene at a disadvantage. Materially, they often do not have the means for the resources they need for basic classroom functions. In non-tangible ways, 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. Ensuring that students from low income households succeed in K-12 classrooms is multi-faceted and must include: Physiological considerations. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, students need …

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