To be more responsive to students' needs, many local education agencies (LEAs) are creating extended and summer learning opportunities to facilitate learning acceleration. Many LEAs elected to leverage federal funds to create opportunities that increase the time students spend engaged in safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environments,…

Nearly half of all children have been exposed to at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), such as poverty, divorce, neglect, homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence, or parent incarceration. These students often enter school with behaviors that don't blend well with the typical school environment. How can a school community come…

This report illustrates how four high-performing systems--British Columbia (Canada), Hong Kong, Shanghai (China) and Singapore--developed their teacher professional learning. The report and accompanying materials are designed as a resource for teachers, school leaders and policymakers wanting to improve teacher professional learning in their…

The changing demands of the 21st century--and the students growing up in it--are generating fundamental challenges to historical assumptions about what education looks like. The challenge today is to provide a deeper level of personalized learning to each and every student so that all can achieve mastery of the Common Core standards and other…

This document provides guidelines for developing competency-based pathways in Iowa districts and schools and outlines waiver requirements and procedures. Competency-based pathways provide ways to validate learning of standards that occurs outside the structure of the traditional school and offer flexibility for schools to engage students in…

This document describes the many benefits that arise when educators work together as a team to solve problems and share decisions. Although not a quick fix for problems in education, a team-oriented culture helps people feel better about themselves and their efforts, encouraging staff at various levels in the school district to work together for…

The importance of recommending special education services only for handicapped students is stressed, and alternatives for nonhandicapped students are envisioned on a continuum from no intervention, to short-term parent consultation, to six months reassessment, peer tutoring, referral to a guidance counselor, and finally transfer to another school…

The author concludes from phone interviews and site visits that there are many approaches for integrating severely handicapped students into school and community settings. Examples cited include dispersal, planned interaction, provision of program support and support for regular teachers. Staff integration, parental support and positive attitudes…

The importance of arts education for gifted students is discussed, and the terms creative, aesthetic, and artistic are defined. Four suggestions for encouraging artistic talent, including establishing a resource file of master artists and arts institutions, are presented. (CL)

This discussion of problem-based learning (PBL) first describes well-structured and ill-structured problems and then offers a systematic process for finding potential PBL topics. The process involves constructing brainstorming maps to explore potential PBL units and then designing the student's role, the situation the student meets at the unit's…

This article compares two educational approaches, intensive-explicit instruction and constructivist instruction, considering how both can affect instruction for students with disabilities. It concludes by urging the integration of these two approaches, possibly by using models focused on the transformation of explicit knowledge into tacit…

This article argues for the application of curriculum-based evaluation (CBE) in social skills instruction. A rubric is proposed which combines variables related to social competence and summarizes the status of a student's social skills. The model provides a structure for aligning social skills curriculum, assessment, and instruction. (DB)

This guide is designed to help school district leaders promote comprehensive school reform (CSR) and to assist schools in evaluating the implementation and outcomes of their CSR models. The guide discusses why evaluation is critical and how to use it as a tool for continuous improvement in CSR models. Summative and formative evaluations are…

Teacher work groups can be effective mechanisms to support teachers' collaborative efforts to incorporate innovative practices for students with severe disabilities. Three key rules are presented: be positive, be fair, and keep the point in focus. Guidelines for implementing those rules and for dealing with logistical problems are offered. (JDD)

This handbook was developed as a resource on learning disabilities (LD) for North Carolina educators. The first section covers guidelines for identifying, diagnosing, and developing services for LD students. The handbook then provides an overview of effective practices for teaching students with learning disabilities and some ideas for structuring…