Background: To enable all students to reach their full potential, teachers have to adapt their instruction to students' varying needs. In order to do this, teachers need to engage in activities associated with formative assessment, as well as those associated with differentiation. However, both of these types of activities are, in themselves,…

This topic brief is one in a series on personalized learning prepared for Conversations with Innovators, 2018. It seems logical that students would be more successful in learning if instruction is tailored, including the environment, pace, and presentation of concepts, to each student's needs, interests, and aspirations. However, personalizing…

What we have learned from the many challenges of online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic is the focus of this authoritative resource. Featuring teachers' experiences and classroom examples, the authors examine what's needed and what works in order to help educators improve current models of technology-integrated instruction in…

Poway Unified School District (PUSD) is located in northern San Diego County and operates 25 elementary schools, six middle schools, four comprehensive high schools, and one continuation high school. The district serves approximately 33,000 students. Their vision at Poway is that all students will graduate ready for college. With a strong focus on…

Gateway Public Schools--a middle and high school serving a diverse group of about 800 students in San Francisco--was founded in 1998 by parents of students with learning disabilities seeking a supportive environment for their children. As a public charter organization with a lottery entrance system, Gateway seeks to admit a student body that…

Classroom assessment is central to effective teaching and learning, making assessment literacy a core component for teacher education. The present study explores self-reported, differentiated assessment practices of Malaysian in-service teachers. The practices were evaluated using an analytic framework that was developed based upon the existing…

Most gifted children in the United States spend the majority of their school time in regular classroom settings, grouped with age peers who have a wide range of academic achievement and potential. This expansive range of needs in every classroom underscores the importance of assessing all students appropriately and providing differentiated…

This paper describes high quality teaching practices in two schools that produce exceptional growth for all kinds of students. These practices focus on making the most of instructional time and exposing students to high quality content in a variety of contexts. They prove teachers don't need to choose between differentiating to meet students'…

Between 1990 and 2010, the demographics of Everett, Massachusetts underwent significant change. Families that were new to the community, and new to the United States, arrived to the predominantly white working-class community, bringing ethnic and linguistic diversity. Everett Public Schools faced a challenge in accommodating a more diverse student…

The Center on Innovations in Learning (CIL) is a national content center established to work with regional comprehensive centers and state education agencies (SEA) to build SEAs' capacity to stimulate, select, implement, and scale up innovation in learning. This report is a collection of evidence ratings and practice briefs. The categories for…

Metro Deaf School (MDS), located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is one of the first charter schools in the nation. MDS, provides a bilingual environment in ASL and English for deaf and hard of hearing students, ages 3-21, in pre-K through high school. In its 20 years of operation, MDS has seen its students become more diverse, and with the diversity…

This study supports the work of Black and Wiliam (1998), who demonstrated that when teachers effectively utilize formative assessment strategies, student learning increases significantly. However, the researchers also found a "poverty of practice" among teachers, in that few fully understood how to implement classroom formative…

In this article, James J. Gallagher proposes that understanding the political issues and the debate surrounding the education of gifted students is based on the recognition that education policy (including rules, regulations, financial allocations, etc.) reflects social policy. Hence, society prioritizes needs so that the most important of these…

The "Handbook on Innovations in Learning", published in 2014, responded to a call by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to "leverage the innovation and ingenuity this nation is known for to create programs and projects that every school can implement to succeed." In December 2015, passage of the "Every Student Succeeds…

State by state, our country is revamping our education system to ensure that each and every one of our young people is college and career ready. To ensure high-quality competency education, in 2011 one hundred innovators created a working definition to guide the field. This paper delves into the fourth element of the definition: "Students…