Well-crafted rubrics create a shared language that lets teachers and students work together. Rubrics are typically used to judge the level of students' understanding and skills or quality of a product. High-quality rubrics can also give students and teachers feedback to improve teaching and learning. Authors define "effective" feedback…

Increasing student agency doesn't mean having students choose among preselected options in their learning experience. Understanding what it means to have agency and the power of using one's voice are life skills that should start being developed in the classroom. Tanji Reed Marshall, director of P-12 practice at The Education Trust, explains why…

Last year educators nationwide met the challenges of hybrid teaching and intensive block scheduling and gained a deeper understanding of the extensive inequities that so many communities face. Educators and students alike were asked to completely rethink schooling as the pandemic laid bare a fundamental question: What should education look like in…

To encourage student empowerment, teachers must recognize and discuss the tension between their own instructional power and students' power and agency--especially in the fraught area of grading. To truly invest students with power in learning, educators must ask the tricky question of whether they are willing to give kids more ownership over the…

Teachers spend tremendous amounts of time giving students feedback and grades. Their efforts fill weekends, late nights, and planning periods. The time they spend correcting student misconceptions, engaging with their thoughts, and coaching them toward deeper intellectual work is often deeply intertwined with their identity as educators. In their…

This article discusses the prevention interview, a one-to-one interview with a student, asking open-ended questions. Prevention interviews help educators learn about the whole young person to build trust that allows for new solutions for recurring problems. Prevention interviews also work well when done soon after a student has made poor behavior…

An urban school principal contends that the best way to recruit, support, and retain effective teachers right now is to set up conditions that restore and reinforce interpersonal connections for teachers. She details ways leaders can restore connections between teachers and students, between teachers and colleagues, and even between teachers and…

Despite the trend to do so, teachers should never treat race conversations with students as a "moment's theater," says Matthew Kay, a Philadelphia educator and author of "Not Light, But Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom." When white teachers stand up in front of students to declare they're…

Gaps in teacher communication can cause confusion, especially when it comes to grades. To reduce asymmetries of information when grading performance tasks and projects, teachers should seek to honor each student's unique learning trajectory. Here, authors Eric Carbaugh and Kristina Doubet, present five ways to improve communication--and…

Immigrant origin teens (who either immigrated to the U.S. or have parents who did) are the fastest growing group of students in U.S. schools. The more teachers understand about the lives and struggles of this diverse group of teens, the more they can tap into these teens' resilience and help them thrive in U.S. schools. Case shares some key…

Nurturing the "good" in students of color requires educators to confront harmful stereotypes. Alexs Pate, author of "The Innocent Classroom," describes how teachers can create safe spaces where all young students can thrive.

How can we reassure anxious students while teaching remotely--especially as educators, too, feel overwhelmed by stress and the need to educate kids while minimizing risk of infection by COVID? Minahan details concrete ways teachers can support and calm students with serious anxiety or trauma histories. She includes examples of "what to…

"The current school landscape sucks," writes educator and hip-hop artist Gabriel "Asheru" Benn. At least that would be the opinion of most teenagers when you ask them. The problem isn't that our schools aren't good or that our teachers aren't knowledgeable or even likeable. Rather, it's the "rote, transactional" ways…

One math teacher changed the course of Chaunté Garrett's life and made her believe in her abilities. How? By valuing her culture and identity and allowing her to see herself in the curriculum. Now she shows other educators how to do that for their students.

For students to feel empowered in their learning, they must understand the language, purpose, and goals of assessment. Dueck argues that students need to understand what they are supposed to be learning and determine whether they actually learned it. Clear objectives and cooperative assessments can help with these objectives.