The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement's January 2007 newsletter, "A Teacher's Guide to Differentiating Instruction," [ED495740] summarized the following four planning stages teachers can use to effectively differentiate instruction: (1) A thorough understanding of content; (2) Use of preassessments and regular formative…

Across the country, educators in schools that have not met their targets for improved student learning are considering next steps. As a first step, a school improvement plan that is grounded in data and based on a comprehensive needs assessment can provide a framework for effecting change for a school's programming, student support systems, and…

Assessment can be one of the most difficult aspects of teaching. The educational, emotional, and formative ramifications of judging a young person's work can weigh heavily on the mind of a teacher. In spite of the anxiety it poses, knowing how to assess students in order to improve instruction is a core principle of effective teaching. This…

Beginners in many disciplines learn that correlation never proves causation, but sometimes, even in public health, correlation, mistaken for causation, becomes the basis for policy and great expenditures of public and private money. "True experiments" with random assignment to experimental and control groups hold a special place in the…