Students with emotional and behavioral disorders have the highest dropout rates of any student group--about 40%. The outcomes for students who drop out of school are dire but are particularly bleak for students with poor academic, interpersonal, and decision-making skills. Helping students earn a high school diploma and gain the skills needed to…

The OECD and its U.S. administrator, McGraw-Hill Education CTB, have recently concluded the first cycle of the OECD-Test for Schools in the U.S. This test is being marketed to local schools and is designed to compare 15-year-olds from individual participating schools against peers nationally and internationally using the OECD's PISA test as…

School personnel have many opportunities to assist students and families in preparing for a successful transition to college and careers. Initial high school efforts may include prescreening incoming freshman student files to identify those at-risk and assuring that support services and interventions are implemented quickly. Early supports for…

A group of New York City public school teachers, angry about the depiction of public schools in 'Waiting for Superman," decide to make their own film about the realities of the current education reform movement. They persevered even though they had no budget when they started and lacked a background in filmmaking. "The Inconvenient…

A state legislator who played a key role in enacting the nation's first charter school law in Minnesota tells the story of shaping the ideas and the bill. She now looks for ways that charter schools can coexist with traditional public schools to deliver a better education for all children.

Social media is the new face of global communication, and, instead of blocking it, schools should be embracing it. Twitter presents opportunities for teachers to link students with real-time information and diverse ideological perspectives. The authors describes the use of Twitter in a high school civics class during the 2012 presidential election.

The author, a former school board member and currently head of nationwide parent organization, assesses the competition between charter and traditional public schools, concluding that the competition and acrimony among them does not help them deliver a better education. Policies should be focused on helping both types of schools improve education,…

The process of determining class rank does not help students achieve more or reach higher levels of proficiency. Evidence indicates ranking students may diminish students' motivation. High school educators argue that they are compelled to rank-order graduating students because selective colleges and universities require information about…

Two Colorado math teachers attribute their participation in a professional learning community to their ability to achieve the highest growth scores of any tested level (3rd through 10th grade) in the three tested subjects (reading, writing, and math) in their 22,000-student school district.

American schools are failing to meet the expectations of a wide swath of students, many of them in low-income and rural communities. What's needed is a new pact putting their expectations at its center. The article is based on the authors' book: "Leaving to Learn: How Out-of-School Learning Increases Student Engagement and Reduces…

The author interviewed hundreds of adolescents about what makes them interested in learning, in and out of school. The result is a formula hinging on creating eight conditions that spur kids to take active, motivated roles in their own learning.

Telling students to study simply because they must or making narrow pitches to a subject's future utility typically fail to generate student interest. Six common mistakes that undermine student motivation can be easily avoided--among them are telling students they need to learn the content now because they will need it when they grow up or…

Houston school officials noticed their best performing low-income students weren't applying to Ivy League and selective colleges. In response, they created EMERGE, a program that develops and guides talented youths toward a top-college path.

Engagement doesn't just happen. As much as teachers would like it if their own fascination with content were contagious for every student, it doesn't work that way. Engagement must be planned for. A teacher discovers what's engaging in the content and designs curriculum so students discover it too. The authors profile one teacher…

For more than a generation, education leaders have advocated for policies at federal, state, and district levels to support the spread of teacher leadership. And yet, teacher leadership has not taken hold in either a strategic or systemic way. Why? Perhaps, as Atul Gawande said of the medical industry, while good ideas abound, not all of them…