How Do You Achieve Quality When You Have Less?
Many schools are experiencing shrinking resources, hiring freezes, and continued accountability pressures—and are responding by using time, material resources, and educators’ skills in innovative ways. With 85 percent of U.S. school districts anticipating cuts to their funding this school year, how can we serve our students and ensure that each child, in each community, is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged?
In the December/January issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership, teachers and school leaders share how they’ve made scarce resources go further, in terms of staff expertise, materials, coaching, and even the hours for learning in the day. What priorities should schools set when
Connecting the Classroom to the Capitol
What works best for children? What must we all—educators, families, policymakers, and community members—do to ensure their success? Answering those questions pushes us to redefine what a successful learner is and how we measure success.
ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative seeks to change the conversation about education from a focus on narrowly defined academic achievement to one that encompasses a broader definition of accountability. From its
How Narrative Feedback Can Crush the ABCs
Post written by Mark Barnes, a veteran teacher and national presenter. His new book on what he calls a Results Only Learning Environment will be published by ASCD in 2013. Connect with Barnes by e-mail atmark@thepaperlessclassroom.com. This post was originally featured in ASCD Express.
The argument about the value of grades is one that continually vexes many teachers and administrators. Once educators agree that grades do more harm than good, the debate typically turns to a discussion about what is an appropriate replacement for them. “Study after study has found that students—from elementary school to graduate school, and across cultures—demonstrate less interest in learning as a result of being
Playing a Game Is the Voluntary Attempt to Overcome Unnecessary Obstacles
Last month we ran the theme of integrating movement throughout the school day (and outside of physical education classes). Obviously one place where this should be a no-brainer is recess. But it’s been scary seeing how many schools and districts have been cutting back on recess time in order to either provideenrichment classes or to add additional academic study time into the school day. In fact, the reason given why many of these schools are adding “enrichment classes” into recess time is because they have been pushed out of the daily schedule by academic cuts. And this is even though there have been countless studies showing and editorials discussing the benefits of play, whether it be for physical health, social and emotional health, all of the above, and even academic development.
One reason some principals give for eliminating recess is the lack of time in the school day to cover