Author and education nonprofit leader Lynne Munson recounts how she helped steer an ambitious curriculum development initiative that worked directly in concert with teachers. More than a decade later, district leaders have learned much more about how coherent, classroom-tested, and teacher-supported curricula can transform student learning. With…

Educators instruct students in ways of thinking every day--from critical thinking to logical reasoning to abstract and conceptual thought. But thinking can get overwhelming, and it's easy for students' minds to wander. Juan-Diego Estrada explains how educators can incorporate mindfulness practices into the school day to help students focus,…

College- and career-readiness skills can easily get lost if you don't have a clear school-wide plan for teaching them. While curriculum in schools is primarily meant to ready students for college and career skills, ensuring those skills actually transfer is another story. Andrew Miller lays out a system for teaching and assessing key…

Craig Simmons, an assistant principal in Atlanta, discusses the setup and role of curriculum vetting teams in schools. When well-structured, he says, such committees can be effective in maintaining curricular alignment and quality at a time when many teachers download supplementary materials from the internet. They can also save teachers' time and…

Human beings construct narratives about the world and their experiences in it--whether in math class or at the dinner table, people tell themselves stories about who they and others are, how the world works and why. Among teenagers, these meaning-making narratives are related to the activity and changing connectivity of the networks in their…

Curriculum storyboards frame learning in clear, compelling ways for students and caregivers. By presenting curricula narratively, students can better grasp connections among concepts and picture learning as a process. Authors and education consultants Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda share how educators can use storyboarding as a tool to…

Creating a coherent, high-quality curriculum--one that all teachers in a school or department use--can narrow gaps and raise overall achievement. Mike Schmoker makes the case for the primacy of curriculum and describes a process teacher teams can use to create a common, high-quality curriculum.

New brain imaging methods are helping us better understand how children learn, writes neuroscientist John Gabrieli. But "education neuroscience" has become the source of both promise and debate.

Students need "critical data literacy" skills to help make sense of the multitude of information available to them, especially as it relates to high-stakes issues of social justice. The authors describe two curriculum modules they developed--one on income equality, one on immigration--that help students learn to analyze data in order to…

Self-directed student learning begins with self-directed educators. Teachers in Greenville, North Carolina, are training in the Habits of Mind, a series of thinking behaviors that support self-directed learning by helping students successfully tackle complex problems. The authors outline key instructional strategies that have grown from these…

When teachers lead professional learning for their peers, it raises a challenge--presenter vulnerability. Porosoff discusses the many reasons teachers may feel vulnerable as they present PD to peers and ways school leaders can help them manage that vulnerability.

Two superintendents who are infusing social-emotional learning throughout their districts (in Minneapolis and Atlanta) discuss strategies they've found that help their efforts. They note support they receive through participating in the Collaborating Districts Initiative, a multidistrict effort launched by the Collaborative for Academic, Social,…

To engage all learners, schools must offer career-pathway courses that combine academics and deeper learning. Gene Bottoms, until recently head of the Southern Regional Education Board, describes a transformation he believes must happen in US high schools--adopting curriculums that include intellectual rigor in career and technical education (CTE)…

Most district, school, and classroom leaders know commercial publishers don't comprehensively meet educators' curricular needs--particularly when it comes to culturally relevant learning materials. Curriculum expert Evan Gutierrez proposes an alternative: an expert-mediated design process where teacher teams create curricula, aided by a mediator…

To prepare students for a tech-intensive future, educators cannot hold on to 20th-century learning practices. They must reimagine education and cultivate an updated skill set. Lessons led by caring educators will continue to help students be strong learners and critical thinkers; but "human" skills will equip them to handle an uncertain…