Although "top-down" indicators, such as the ratio of adults to children in classrooms and program rankings based on standardized test scores, can predict some of the future impact of children's education, "bottom-up" factors, such as whether children feel welcome and whether they find the learning activities to be meaningful…

Research tells us we can learn complex tasks most easily if they are taught in "small sequential steps." This column is about the small sequential steps that unlocked the powers of digital photography, of portraiture, and of student creativity. The strategies and ideas described in this article came as a result of working with…