The author tells of his work around the country and world on transforming how schools do recess, free play, and outside time by transforming their outdoor spaces to match. Instead of a playground of fixed structures like traditional school grounds, newer spaces are filled with loose materials that children can use to build forts, dens, and tree…

This study finds that schools are poorly prepared to counsel students about community college certificate or associate degree programs. Instead the mantra of college for all continues to encourage youth to spend time and money on bachelor's degrees, for which many students are not prepared to do well. Teachers desire more information on college…

The author is a middle school principal who has spent a decade working on improving literacy among his largely socio-economically disadvantaged student body. Experience and research have shown, the author says, that a successful effort to bridge the literacy gap between children who live in poverty and middle-class students requires a concerted…

A striking convergence of research, documentation, commentary, and policy in the past five years strongly suggests that an almost exclusive focus on academic knowledge and skills is an incomplete solution. Additional behaviors, skills, and mindsets--sometimes called metacognitive skills or 21st-century skills--are just as necessary for academic…

Simply placing young people in workplaces does not guarantee they will learn. This article discusses seven effectiveness principles (governing technical competence, breadth, personal/social competence, expectations and feedback, teaching roles, academic achievement, and career paths) and recommendations derived from a youth apprenticeship program…