"Radically Responsive Music Schools" is a philosophical reimagining of music higher education culture from the ground up, arguing that holistic cultural change is the key factor needed for music schools to prepare 21st-century graduates for contemporary challenges. The author discusses how university and conservatory music programs can…

In the second edition of "Data-Driven Dialogue: A Facilitator's Guide to Collaborative Inquiry," authors Bruce Wellman and Laura Lipton provide strategies that transform school culture through data-driven inquiry. By applying a three-phase model and a host of process tools to facilitate collaborative data analysis, K-12 school and…

A blueprint for structuring the school environment around teacher learning and collaboration as a foundation for equitable learning and student engagement. In "Learning Together," Elham Kazemi, Jessica Calabrese, Teresa Lind, Becca Lewis, Alison Fox Resnick, and Lynsey K. Gibbons share findings from their decade of experience in…

Teachers know they need to focus on practices that can make the biggest difference to their students--but which practices have a track record of improving learning and growth? Read the second article in our five-part series to discover specific classroom formative assessment practices proven to take students from zoned out to tuned in. You'll…

The realities of the 21st-century learner require that schools and educators fundamentally change their practice. "Educators must produce college- and career-ready graduates that reflect the future these students will face. And, they must facilitate learning through means that align with the defining attributes of this generation of…

As shown by MetLife's 2010 "Survey of the American Teacher," America's educators strongly believe that all students should graduate from high school ready for college and a career (85 percent). Additionally, according to MetLife's 2009 survey, 86 percent of teachers believe that setting high expectations for students will improve student…

Flexible modular scheduling (flex mod)--a schedule philosophy and system that has been in place at Wausau West High School in Wausau, Wisconsin, for the last 35 years and aligns nicely with current research on student learning--is getting more and more attention from high school administrators across the country. Flexible modular scheduling was…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent to which they engage in educational…

Van Allen (1996) supports a paradigm shift in how Americans think about education, from a view of school as hierarchy to school as continuum. While the relationship between elementary and secondary education is not always visible, teachers can model cooperative learning for students by working as a team across grade levels to solve problem,…

Schools are raising standards to improve academic and technical achievement and intellectual growth for all groups of students, particularly at-risk students. This newsletter contains tools and strategies that school leaders and teachers are using successfully to help students meet higher expectations. It organizes the techniques into five…

Through lively discussions of specially selected texts, students of diverse abilities often discover that they can learn a lot from one another. The Touchstones Project in a Baltimore (Maryland) middle school features group discussion of classical texts. (Author/TE)

The literature urges business schools to change their undergraduate curricula in response to changes in the models and methods currently used by corporate America. Critics contend that business schools should place more emphasis on teamwork and integrative models. Business schools are urged to "break down the silos" between functional subjects by…

Effective schools research demonstrates that school principals are an important factor in schools' success. Yet many factors of the job inhibit principals' learning. To help leaders, professional learning experiences should center around what we know about the difficulties of the job and how principals can better learn from their own experiences…

This paper presents an alternative instructional strategy, cooperative learning, and argues that it can help to address the recognized need for greater student participation in learning at the higher education level. Cooperative learning is presented as a complement to the traditional lecture/discussion format. The method is described as…

Everyone talks about "best practice" teaching--what does it actually look like in the classroom? How do working teachers translate complex curriculum standards into simple, workable classroom structures that embody exemplary instruction--and still let kids find joy in learning? In this book, the authors present seven basic teaching structures that…