All students are familiar with homework, but not all students approach it as a fun or particularly engaging part of their education. Oftentimes, the end of class coincides with a mad dash to answer homework questions before the bell rings as struggling students slip through the cracks and pass their incomplete homework forward. But now a new model of teaching called flipped learning is beginning to take hold in schools across America and change classroom instruction, according to a recent article by Christina Hoag in the Associated Press. Flipped l…
School Athletics to Become More Inclusive of Students with Disabilities
On the official blog of the U.S. Department of Education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently emphasized the need for sports and extracurricular activities to be more inclusive of students with disabilitie\, as “participation in extracurricular athletic activities promotes socialization, the development of leadership skills, focus and, of course, physical fitness.” Reflecting on his own history of playing basketball and the lessons that he gained from those experiences, he reminds students and coaches that students with disabilities are “no different” than any other student, and all athletes should be chosen based on their abilities rather than individual differences.
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Study: School Design Affects Student Performance
They say that “clothes don’t make the man,” but when it comes to schools, looks matter. Several recent studies have shown a connection between school environment and student performance. Not only can well-designed schools boost student performance, poorly designed schools can negatively affect student achievement.
STUDIES AND SURVEYS
The Huffington Post reported the findings of a study that is currently being conducted in the United Kingdom. The architecture firm Nightingale Associates paired up with the University…
Dartmouth College Stops Accepting AP Credit
With over 34 subject area offerings, more high school students than ever before are pursuing college credits through Advanced Placement (AP) examinations.
Recently, we shared an infographic documenting rising trends in AP offerings and exams (click on the image to view our infographic). However, Dartmouth College has expressed concerns with the rigor of these exams, and after a decade of discussion, college faculty have decided to stop awarding college credit for AP exams starting in 2014.
In an Associated Press article, Holly Ramer explains th…
The Myth About Computer-Based Reading Software?
This blog was originally published on Finding Common Ground at Education Week by Peter DeWitt on January 20th, 2013 6:52 AM.
It's the 21st Century thing to do. Take students who are struggling readers or those classified as special education students and put them on an interactive reading program to learn how to read. Many educators buy into it. After all, kids are enveloped in technology from an early age and these programs have sound, graphics and the programs ask in-depth com…
The Debate Over Guns in Schools Heats Up
In response to the school shooting tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the California State Teachers Retirement System has announced that it will sell all of its stock holdings that are associated with firearms. Such holdings include the Freedom Group, producers of one of the brands of semiautomatic weapons that Adam Lanza used during his rampage, according to The New York Times.
Since this announcement, other states have been looking at their retirement investments to find out exactly whom they have been supporting. In this public act of retaliation against automatic and semiautomatic weapon accessibility, the debate over …