School districts on the leading edge of the Birth through Third Grade movement have demonstrated unprecedented success raising the achievement of low-income students by developing coherent strategies focused on the early years of learning and development. These communities are not merely improving preschool. Rather, they are building aligned,…

Recent state and federal policies generally focus on the individual teacher rather than the school organization. These reforms seem to assume that a teacher can do it all, that an individual who succeeds in one school can succeed in any school and, conversely, that a teacher who fails in one classroom will fail in all others. However, there is no…

Teacher shortages and declining test scores and enrollments characterize the science education crisis. Teachers are blamed for the decline yet are underpaid; must be computer competent; and must teach increasingly complicated, relevant courses. Student science competitions, one-year teaching certification internships at full pay, better salaries,…

In Project STAR, 11,571 students in Tennessee and their teachers were randomly assigned to different classrooms in their schools from kindergarten to 3rd grade. Researchers learned that kindergarten test scores are highly correlated with such outcomes as earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings. Students who…

The authors propose and discuss their Playshop curricular model, which they developed with teachers. Their studies suggest a playful approach supports even more rigor than the Common Core State Standards require for preschool and early grade children. Children keep their attention longer when learning comes in the form of something they can play…

Conventional thinking holds that districts and schools face a strategic decision between two fundamentally different alternatives: make or buy? The former refers to planning, designing, and enacting school-specific improvement initiatives. The latter refers to contracting with external providers of schoolwide improvement programs. However, there…

The transformation of the Kansas City, Missouri Public Schools (KCMSD) has been long overdue. Multiple superintendents and administrations, using billions of dollars of desegregation funds ventured to transform the district by creating magnet schools, themed schools, and career-focused high schools. Missing from these initiatives, but included in…

"A Nation at Risk" sounded the call for school improvement and offered recommendations for bringing it about. "No Child Left Behind" was even more prescriptive in its approach to raising student achievement. However, as the author of this article points out, for all their recommendations and strategies, both reform efforts neglect the essential…

There is increasing evidence that games provide good learning environments, particularly in their ability to drive tenacity and intrinsic motivation, two key characteristics needed for student success. Advancing technology now enables games to also serve as assessments with real-time data that gives teachers the ability to have immediate…

Cross-generational learning teams that bring together novice teachers with veteran teachers would address problems at both ends of the teacher pipeline--and benefit student learning at the same time. In this cross-generational learning team, each member brings different skills to support a child's learning--some bring deep science content…

After providing technical assistance to the federal Smaller Learning Community Program grantees, the authors developed five lessons for successful programs: 1) A strong vision of improved instruction needs to drive high school reorganization; 2) A strong vision of improved instruction focuses on strengthening the instructional core; 3)…

This article provides a summary of the five major recommendations from the nation's highly accomplished teachers on the problems in staffing high-needs schools. Insights from these teachers reveal that salary incentives alone will not suffice to attract and retain good teachers for high-needs schools. Working conditions matter--most notably,…

This article presents an interview with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In this interview, Duncan talks about the goal for his work leading American schools and how merit pay, charter schools, and mayoral control would improve student learning.

The director of the National School Safety Center describes the operations of the center and joins three co-authors to discuss the relationship between school climate and school discipline. The authors define six conditions essential to positive climate and explore methods for involving local agencies in achieving these conditions. (PGD)

Computer technology can be used in the classroom in three ways: as tools, integrated learning systems, simulations and games to motivate students. This article identifies eight major observations about schools that have adopted computers, discusses resistance to technology, and outlines guidelines for designing a self-improving school system.(39…