4.15.21 Richard Jeffrey Rhodes Examining school improvement through a holistic lens In my three decades in education—in both public and private schools, at the classroom level as well as in district administration—I’ve witnessed and been part of many efforts to improve the way... Read more
4.13.21 Candi Fowler How Achieve the Core and MAP Growth can help you build math skills If you’re a busy educator like I am, you might be thinking, “Oh, no! Two-thirds of the school year is over and I’m not two-thirds of the way through our math program! What am I going to do?”... Read more
4.8.21 Chase Nordengren Formative assessment is not for grading There’s something to love about the first pancake that comes off the grill in the morning. The first pancake usually comes out a little more lumpy, misshapen, or overdone than the rest. Yet... Read more
4.6.21 Erin Beard It’s time to embrace “assessment empowerment” As we near the end of this chaotic COVID school year, assessment processes are top of mind. This final stretch is usually marked by classroom summative tasks or projects, standards summatives... Read more
4.1.21 Nick Joe How to support math growth with differentiation and scaffolding It has been one year since COVID-19 flipped our world upside down. While hospital beds filled up, classroom desks emptied out. As educators, we were not prepared for an event like this. We were not... Read more
3.30.21 Jen Allen 3 must-haves for school improvement plans following COVID-19 We all need something—anything—to make the last impossibly difficult year of COVID-19 learning worth it. What if one of the big rewards at the end of all of this is a bolder, more effective... Read more
3.25.21 Keith Kindred How to teach in deeply divided times In the past year, educators have heard a lot of talk about students’ social and emotional well-being due to COVID-19–related isolation, diminished interaction with peers and teachers, and the... Read more
3.23.21 Cindy Jiban Best practices in reading instruction for students with dyslexia Advocates for students with dyslexia are finally gaining more attention, in both the media and legislation. Dyslexia, they note, is more prevalent than many realize, and students with dyslexia are... Read more
3.18.21 Jonathan Fine This time it’s personal: Making the most of distance learning We’re all looking for silver linings these days. For example, while many of us are weary of living so much of our lives online, we also recognize it’s fortunate that tech tools exist to help us... Read more
3.16.21 Jen Allen 4 things to focus on this spring as you begin your 2021–22 school improvement plan If you’re a school administrator, you know your state or district will require you to develop a school improvement plan for next school year soon. It will need to be based on data and research, but... Read more
3.11.21 Monica Rodríguez How to meet math students where they are Many of us are worried about how kids are doing in math right now. NWEA research released in December 2020 gives us reason to be concerned: students in grades 3–8 had a 5–10 percentile point drop... Read more
3.9.21 Kristie Werner 5 things to know about the new MAP Reading Fluency Dyslexia Screener Since 2018, MAP® Reading Fluency™ has made it easier for teachers to understand their students’ reading skills so they can spend more time teaching and less time testing. By assessing the... Read more
