Project-based learning (PBL) is gaining momentum as a rich and multifaceted instructional approach that is motivating and engaging. Miranda S. Fitzgerald and Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar argue that PBL provides a particularly rich context for fostering students' literacy motivation and engagement. One reason for this is that characteristic…

Relationships between and among school administrative team members are critical components of school culture. They serve as a guidepost for the behaviors and attitudes of staff and students. To invigorate these relationships, three embodied practices have high yield not only for the relationships among administrators, but also for fostering a…

Educators have long agreed that parents have a role to play in furthering their children's education, but they have not always agreed about what the nature of that role should be or about how schools can develop more productive relationships with parents. In this monthly column, Teresa Preston traces how that debate has played out in Kappan.…

Conflict management is one of the most stressful and frustrating aspects of a school leader's job. An inability to overcome conflicting viewpoints, ever more palpable in today's polarized climate, stymies innumerable school reform efforts. Yet, the subject is rarely examined in graduate-level leadership preparation programs or in-service…

The 42 school districts participating in the state of Washington's Inclusionary Practices Project achieved a significant 12.8% increase in inclusion in the least restrictive environment (LRE 1, or in general education for 80-100% of the school day) over four years, surpassing the state average increase of 6.8%. Katie Novak and Helene Paroff…

Care and social-emotional supports are of concern for school district leaders who want to create a caring culture throughout their district. In their study of central office leaders, Kate Kennedy and Jeff Walls found that caring leadership is complex, that school district leaders practice care in collaboration with others, that partnerships with…

The capacity to navigate conflict and solve problems will persist as an essential skill of the future, even if today's students will be doing jobs that haven't been invented yet. What are we doing in schools right now to ensure students have these skills? For nearly a decade, a program called Speak Truth has taught students to use their voices,…

During a time when teacher turnover is high, retention is low, and some positions go unfilled for years at a time, the conditions have never been more favorable to redesign the fundamental way we staff our nation's schools. Brent W. Maddin and Randy L. Mahlerwein describe how Arizona's Mesa Public Schools and Arizona State University are working…

Reality TV -- or certain design-oriented TV shows -- may be better known for their focus on competition, but what we actually see when we look more closely are models of collaboration and assessment that can illuminate important principles of classroom learning. Erin Furtak reflects on the ways that three of these shows -- The Great British Baking…

Middle school teacher Michael Yell and education professor Geoffrey Scheurman discuss a decades-long partnership of ongoing professional development opportunities that involve teachers, university faculty, and teacher candidates working together to create personalized, meaningful, and sustained initiatives that enhance the growth and skills of all…

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are long-term collaborations between researchers and practitioners aimed at educational improvement and transformation through engagement with research. Yet RPPs can be challenging to implement, and even long running RPPs experience bumps in their work together. Caitlin Farrell, Laura Wentworth, and Michelle…

Principal leadership is a crucial element in high-performing schools. Research reveals that principals are second only to teachers in impacting student achievement at school. Accordingly, how school leaders are prepared has received increasing attention in recent years. Drawing from the findings of recent reports highlighting exemplary programs…

Middle school brings rapid developmental changes for adolescents, and parent engagement is as essential as ever. However, what worked for parent-teacher partnerships in elementary school doesn't fit so well in middle school. Adolescents are building their autonomy, and teachers must help empower parents' efforts to bolster students as independent…

When parents push back against educators' comments or recommendations about their children, those parents may actually be reacting to a long history of negative interactions with schools. This is especially true when Black parents are interacting with white educators. Research has shown that teachers, who are predominately white, tend to…

Researchers Martha Abele Mac Iver, Joyce Epstein, and Steven Sheldon summarize the outcomes of their four-year partnership with an urban district aimed at improving the ways schools engage families during the critical transition to high school. They describe how schools put into practice the strategies learned in ongoing professional development,…