The Common State Standards require that students master increasingly complex informational text. But how can we enable students to meet this challenging goal? "We don't simply expect our students to hurtle themselves headlong into a piece of complex informational text alone," write Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher. Instead, teachers…

In Maplewood Richmond Height, Missouri, the Teacher Home Visit Program has become a crucial component of the district's success. At the end of the first semester of the 2010-11 school year, discipline referrals were down 45 percent, and parent attendance at each school's first open house was up by almost 20 percent. Attendance is nudging up as…

Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder believed to be genetic. The most visible symptom is the presence of tics. These involuntary movements or sounds can range from simple (sniffing, throat clearing, blinking) to complex (words or phrases, hopping, body contortions). They may be frequent for a few weeks, then fade away almost…

The win-win approach to solving conflicts, which has become popular in the business world, should be a natural for the school environment. Win-win thinking can foster a cooperative school climate by meeting educators' and students' needs for dignity, belonging, and respect. Yet win-win thinking faces a number of obstacles in schools, writes…

School truancy--defined by a student's refusal to attend part or all of the school day, along with a defined number of unexcused absences--is an increasingly frustrating and complex problem for teachers and school administrators. Although statistics on the prevalence of truancy in the United States do not exist due to lack of uniformity among…

To learn more about how parents understand the whole child approach to education, ASCD commissioned KRC Research to conduct a study that included parent focus groups in Richmond, Virginia; and Columbus, Ohio, as well as a survey of 800 parents across the United States to identify their perceptions of what a whole child education is, how it is…

As school district administrators, the authors have observed that too many beginning teachers struggle in their first few years. Questioning the quality of the university teacher preparation programs that supply a majority of their district's teachers, they decided to ask the new teachers themselves how well prepared they felt. A focus group with…

It's easy for professional learning communities to become stalled at the stage of collegial discussions about improving teaching practice. The authors explore what spurs communities to progress beyond talk to collective action that brings change. Smith, Wilson, and Corbett participated in the creation of teacher learning communities in urban…

What standardized tests can not do--indeed, what almost no test can do--is capture a child's essence. Tests don't speak to the internal factors that play a major role in life success: curiosity, effort, resilience, and compassion. Howard Gardner and Daniel Goleman have each noted that success stems largely from interpersonal skills. Educators know…

Most students think about social justice issues, whether schools encourage this focus or not, and they look to the adults in their lives to help them decide what to do about them. Educators should encourage authentic conversations about difficult issues, embrace the question, What can we do about it? and teach students to act. Teachers can…

The authors describe a program implemented in Red Bank Middle School in New Jersey to help at-risk, minority middle school girls realize their leadership potential. The GLO (Girls Leading Outward) program was developed by the Developing Safe and Civil Schools Project at Rutgers University and is facilitated by university students. Selected middle…

Teachers' attitudes, beliefs, values, and dispositions have a powerful influence on why teachers teach and why they remain in the profession in spite of difficult conditions that test their resolve. Conditions at the school and district levels and attitudes and actions on the part of teachers themselves are also crucial. School districts should…

Broadening computer science learning to include more students is a crucial item on the United States' education agenda, these authors say. Although policymakers advocate more computer science expertise, computer science offerings in high schools are few--and actually shrinking. In addition, poorly resourced schools with a high percentage of…

The skills that students need for the 21st century are not really new, assert Rotherham and Willingham. Critical thinking, problem solving, information literacy, and global awareness have been important to human progress throughout history, at least among the elites in different societies. What is new is the extent to which individual and…

There's no doubt that Web 2.0--the social and technological phenomenon that enables users to generate content, interact, and share information across borders--can be a force for good in the world of education. The author's enthusiasm for collaborative Web-based content is tempered, however, by concern about these three challenges: (1) Partners…