Every reading and writing instruction initiative has its challenges and unintended consequences and leaves someone a bit behind. What's a school leader to do? This article offers three key questions that school leaders should ask every day to optimize literacy instruction in their schools.

According to Jim Knight, learning something new--such as a new instructional approach or other innovation--and applying it in practice is complex and involves adaptations that take time. Knight describes the five stages he believes people go through in learning and practicing any innovation, from "non-use," gradually up to the stage of…

Students with anxiety are prone to giving up a difficult work assignment before they even start it. So how can teachers help these students develop skills to successfully start and finish assignments and succeed in school? Behavioral analyst Jessica Minahan offers some practical solutions that teachers can implement in the classroom to motivate…

Surveys show rates of sexual harassment and misogyny among students are high in U.S. secondary schools--yet most schools fail to deal with this problem. Many educators would like to intervene when they hear students use degrading or sexualized language about girls (or LGBTQ youth) or harass them, but don't know how to do so effectively. The…

What's the best estimate of student performance on the Common Core State Standards? ACT, an organization involved in developing the standards, wanted to know how well today's students are meeting them. To find out, it analyzed the test results of 256,765 11th graders who took selected forms of the ACT test in spring 2010. In its report, "A First…

Child psychologist Peg Dawson explains that some students who appear to be lazy simply lack the executive skills they need to stay organized and get their work done. She tells the story of Josh, a student with attention problems whose academic performance started plummeting in middle school. With the help of a coach, Josh learned to manage his…

Describes a short-term intervention program, the Awareness, Readiness, and Commitment (ARC) workshop, that provides the opportunity for school staffs to explore factors that have utility for effective change. (Author/MLF)

Explains how the instrumental enrichment program helps adolescents and adults develop higher order thinking and problem-solving abilities. (Author/MLF)

Although depression is classified as an adult mental health disorder, middle to late adolescence is the age when symptoms most commonly surface. If teachers can recognize the signs of depression in students, Crundwell and Killu assert, they can provide a supportive, flexible school environment that enables depressed students to learn and thrive.…

About 1,300 school students in Round Rock (Texas) Independent School District attend redesigned summer school program that provides intensive interventions in reading and math for students functioning below grade-level standards. Most take reading and math on alternate four-hour days for six weeks in classes with 15:1 student/teacher ratio.…

Through her work as a consultant, Burns has found that a handful of students in all classes lack an adequate foundation in basic math concepts and lag far behind their peers in both understanding and skills. Students who lack a foundation on which to build new learning are generally not well served even by well-planned, differentiated instruction;…