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…

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…

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…