With so many standards to address and templates to fill out, curriculum design and lesson planning can be cumbersome and overwhelming. And every teacher knows the struggle of trying to cover all the required content, which may or may not resonate with their students. In "Streamlining the Curriculum," experts Heidi Hayes Jacobs and…

Explore the web of factors that influence your power as a teacher--and how you can better use that power to foster student agency and empowerment. What kind of power do teachers have? What influences their instructional decision making--and how does that affect students, particularly Black students and other students of color? How can educators…

At the heart of education are two fundamental questions: "What should we teach?" and How should we teach it? Educators striving to design and deliver the best-possible learning experiences can feel overwhelmed by the possibilities. To help them make these critical decisions, Angela Di Michele Lalor identifies five key priorities of a…

"Educating for Justice" teams award-winning principal Julia Bott with scholars Scott Seider and Aaliyah El-Amin to describe schoolwide structures and practices that prepare students at every grade level to challenge injustice and build a better world. Sharing research-backed strategies, concrete tools, and examples drawn from real…

Explore the next step forward for teachers and teaching--one that helps all students gain a deeper understanding of themselves, others, and the world. "Learner-centered classrooms rely on teachers who are willing to change and grow, and on school leaders who are willing to intelligently support them. Change is never easy, but teaching has…

In this 2nd edition of "Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning," Mike Schmoker extends and updates the case that our schools could be on the cusp of swift, unparalleled improvements. But we are stymied by a systemwide failure to simplify and prioritize; we have yet to focus our limited time and energy on…

In his 2011 ASCD best-seller "Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning," author Mike Schmoker described a fresh approach to K-12 teaching built on three core elements: a focused and coherent curriculum; clear, structured lessons; and purposeful reading and writing, or authentic literacy. Now, in "Leading…

Curriculum is the core of the classroom experience, but what makes a quality curriculum? What lessons, learning experiences, and assessments are most effective, and how should they be embedded within the curriculum? The answers to these and other questions appear in this definitive, step-by-step guide. Drawing from her work with teachers and…

What if you could go beyond planning and delivering tightly scripted lessons mapped to a standardized test to facilitating rich, robust learning experiences that prepare students to be critical thinkers and lifelong learners? The good news is that you can do it all when you have the steps and strategies from this guide. Drawing from the principles…

Once your school has established the reason and the will to move forward with Response to Intervention (RTI), you still have to navigate all the difficult steps of implementing core instruction with a multitiered system of supports, data-based problem solving, progress monitoring, and universal screening. That's where this ASCD (Association for…

When you hear students say that what they learn in school doesn't have much to do with life, or that getting the answer right is the most important thing, or that learning is only about getting good grades, what they're doing is reflecting a general set of expectations that are reinforced by schools themselves. Here's a book that boldly contends…

Regardless of your stage at implementing the design tools and using the improved template for Understanding by Design[R] (UbD), this companion to "The UbD Guide to Creating High-Quality Units" is essential for taking your work to a higher plane. This volume features a set of hands-on modules containing worksheets, models, and self-assessments that…

Typical comparisons of schools in the United States to those in other countries ignore critical factors and overlook potential lessons learned. But here's a book that reveals what the best schools from around the world are doing to educate students for a rapidly changing innovation-based world. Find out that American education has not "gotten…

First launched in April 2009, the Common Core State Standards Initiative was conceived to identify and develop college- and career-readiness standards that address what students are expected to know and be able to do when they have graduated from high school. The initiative introduced the final version of the standards in June 2010, and by…

Although Response to Intervention (RTI) is a necessity for all schools, the truth is that supplemental instruction can never compensate for inadequate core instruction. That's why you need this book's improved approach to RTI. Authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey introduce you to a strengthened model of RTI that emphasizes formative assessment…