Teacher professional development is considered as one of the key factors for improving the quality of teaching and learning. This study aimed to investigate teachers' participation in technology professional development across the states between 2005 and 2015. The present study explored the differences in students' mathematics achievement scores…

In 2016, McREL and the University of Southern California (USC) were awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund (Award Number U411C150011) to develop a translation of the identity-based motivation (IBM) in vivo program "Pathways to Success" to a digital platform to deliver IBM to middle and…

The requirements that students must meet to be considered well-prepared for success in a rapidly changing world are increasing and evolving. Students learning English must not only meet academic standards and acquire 21st century skills including technology proficiency, they must also develop their language abilities. Students' success depends…

The advent of new technologies and increased access to robust connectivity is reshaping the K-12 landscape for teaching and learning. School districts nationwide are leveraging digital instructional materials and resources to deliver transformative and impactful personalized learning opportunities for students and to enhance the administrative…

"Hybrid schools" are schools that combine "face-to-face" education in a specific place with online instruction. In this article, the authors describe school models which offer a vision for what deeply integrated technology can mean for children's education, for the way schools are structured, and for the promise of greater…

Many reports on rural education give little attention to digital learning. At most, they tend to note either infrastructure needs or the potential of remote course access, with little focus on instruction, outcomes, or exemplars. This report intends to begin correcting that imbalance by connecting the dots between rural regions, rural education,…

Increasingly, school districts, schools, and their partners are incorporating technology into strategies that help engage young people who have fallen off track to on-time graduation get back on track and move into effective educational pathways. This is especially true in light of the continuing pressure to raise high school graduation rates and…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation extended grants to three educational organizations working to develop or enhance competency-based approaches in large, urbanized school systems. The grant initiative, called Project Mastery, funded the development of technology-enhanced tools, including curriculum materials and online learning…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Project Mastery grant program to support competency-based education initiatives in large school systems that serve a high proportion of disadvantaged youth. Competency-based education meets students where they are academically, provides students with opportunities for choice, and awards…

Can daily access to laptop computers help students become better writers? Are such programs affordable? Evidence from the Inspired Writing program in Littleton Public Schools, Colorado, USA, provides a resounding yes to both questions. The program employs student netbooks, open-source software, cloud computing, and social media to help students in…

The comprehension of interdependent complex systems, which is part of state and national standards, is an enormous challenge for learners. In traditional physiology teaching materials, which structure the human body into decoupled subsystems (e.g., respiratory and cardiovascular) isolated in separate chapters, there is a ubiquitous absence of…

The Afterschool Alliance and MetLife Foundation are proud to celebrate a fifth round of the MetLife Foundation Afterschool Innovator Awards. For the past five years, we have collaborated to highlight the work of quality afterschool programs that support children, families and communities across the nation. This compendium is a compilation of four…

By all accounts, the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) is a special school. It was the first public charter high school in Denver to become a one-to-one laptop school, thanks to a $1 million gift from Hewlett-Packard. Even though the school accepts applicants via a lottery system and its charter requires that 40% of its students come…

The success of each nation will depend on the agility (see www.edgility.net) of its citizens to acquire and utilize knowledge. In response to this imperative governments have crafted and followed rigorous educational strategies. For example, the European Union's Lisbon Agreement outlines an agenda for education and training focusing on educational…

In at least 44 states across the country, students are logging in to learn at all times of the day and night--accessing courses they might otherwise be unable to take, interacting with students they might otherwise never know, and working with highly qualified teachers they otherwise could not access. In these and countless other ways, online…