A new study reveals four responses school leaders typically take toward conflict among students--but one rises above the rest for success. Research shows that community-driven responses to acts of intolerance can reenforce a school culture of inclusivity. Researchers John Rogers and Joseph Kahne present case studies from schools across the country…

Educators have many "meetings of the minds": Grade-level planning sessions, PLCs, coaching meetings--which together should allow teachers ample opportunities to create high-quality, rigorous lesson plans that deepen student learning. But do these meetings actually work? Frequent planning sessions often become a time for teachers to…

Teacher-research clubs are an effective and infectious way to solve problems and fuel passion. Educators Sally Donnelly and Megan McCormick discuss how their do-it-yourself teacher research club helped their colleagues gain perspective on problems of practice and grew to be an influential part of their school district.

How can we guarantee the time and effort we invest in professional learning will lead to meaningful and enduring improvements? Thomas R. Guskey, professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky, shares six steps to evidence-based professional learning that makes a difference.

Teaching during a pandemic, with a constant need to invent or learn new ways to instruct and reach students, has been traumatic for many educators. Teachers are feeling burnout, moral injury, and compassion fatigue. School leaders can move teachers--and school systems--toward post traumatic growth by making four shifts to create organizational…

Educators need collaborative opportunities to renew their love of learning, not just to review data and rework lessons. Researcher Ian Parker Renga and coauthors examine the power of Math Teachers' Circles--a group of educators that get together to play math games and solve problems just for the joy of it.

Colorblind ideology--grounded in the belief that race is not a determinant factor for economic or academic outcomes in the U.S.--can thwart teachers' learning in PD focused on equity and anti-racist education. Colorblind ideology deflects conversation from race and suppresses a group's ability to address racial issues. Mayfield spells out how to…

Education leaders play a fundamental role in shaping curricular expectations and students' access to books, write education professors Daniel Liou and Kelly Deits Cutler. But it's not easy to know how to respond when leaders are under intense political pressure to pull a book (or topic) from the proverbial shelves. Liou and Deits Cutler share five…

When launching schoolwide tech initiatives, there is often "little organizational vision beyond securing the necessary devices," says Catlin Tucker, author of "Power Up Blended Learning." This can lead to an adversarial relationship between school leaders and teachers, who may feel like they have been set up to fail. To avoid…

Hart shares the story of a high school student who was unmotivated by traditional academic work and on a downward trajectory--until he enrolled in a program that allowed him to take vocationally oriented classes at a community college while in high school. Content that was relevant and meaningful to him (EMT and firefighter training) led Max to…

This article describes a community mapping project that urban-based teachers and teacher-candidates did as part of their graduate courses. New teachers are often strangers to the urban communities where their schools are located and often come from very different social and cultural backgrounds than the students they teach, which can cause missed…

High school instructional leaders describe how they reframed professional learning around autonomy with structured support. The new system, guided by trust and teacher inquiry, sparked innovation that proved critical during the pandemic.

Realizing that many teachers at her middle school struggled with classroom management--especially rather at sea with how to reach and motivate students of color--the author formed a teacher working group open to any colleague wanting to learn how to better reach the school's kids of color. This group reflected and learned together about working…

Ellis describes the Building Resilient Communities process, which in facing trauma, considers not only "adverse childhood experiences," but also adverse community environments--inequitable conditions within a community that feed trauma. In BRC networks, partners from various community sectors--schools, healthcare, criminal justice,…

The authors argue that, amid the stresses of their jobs, educators are expected to continuously "recharge for survival" rather than being given opportunities for authentic recovery. To make teaching jobs more sustainable, they write, schools need to rethink the way they conceive of time, space, and connection, and attend to the…