Thomas J. Capretta, Jingyang (Max) Zhang, Eric M. Anderman, and Barbara J. Boone revisit Joyce Epstein's 1995 Kappan article on overlapping spheres of influence and family-school partnerships. They highlight one idea from the article that has been largely overlooked -- the role of student voice and leadership. To refocus researchers' and…

To better understand the current challenges surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in K-12 schools, a team of researchers (Raffaella Borasi, David E. Miller, Patricia Vaughan-Brogan, Karen DeAngelis, Yu Jung Han, and Sharon Mason) interviewed 36 western New York school leaders in late 2023. Their concerns moved beyond potential…

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…

Many effective strategies exist to keep students safe, supported, and engaged in school. Restorative practice (RP) is a powerful approach for achieving these goals as it elevates student voice and can strengthen school climate. Annie M. White and John Kenneth Weiss share findings from an initiative through which high school student-faculty teams…

While many teachers enter the profession with the goal of creating a classroom in which both the students and the teacher are energized by the joy of learning, they often encounter obstacles to realizing this vision. In this article, Can Viva Zhao describes the creation and development of an anatomy class designed and led by students. In the…

Lyn Mikel Brown and Jenny Flaumenhaft describe the use of student-centered principles to engage in curricular reform in an under-resourced rural elementary school. With a specific focus on student empowerment and self-determination, and in collaboration with students and teachers, Transforming Rural Experience in Education (TREE) integrated…

What teachers write about students has enormous potential to affect their lives. Lauren Porosoff encourages teachers to use their words to empower students to take an active role in their own learning. When teachers use adjectives to describe students, they may be attaching certain fixed characteristics to those students. Verbs, on the other hand,…

The school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in February 2018 led many students to engage in walkouts and other protests during the school day. Some schools supported their actions, while others disciplined students who participated. Alan Singer considers these schools' responses and explains that the social studies standards in many states encourage…

K-12 educators often overlook the needs, talents, and skills of neurodiverse learners, including students with autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. However, while such human differences tend to be misunderstood and even pathologized, there are distinct strengths associated with each unique neurological design. Drawing on their own experiences as students,…

Schools that achieve strong results for black students address racial dynamics directly, empower students to bring their whole selves to school, and teach in ways that leverage students' experiences and cultures. These schools do four things to ensure success with their black students: They direct attention, strategies, and resources to black…

The authors report on a yearlong investigation into similar schools that performed well and less well in the same district. They found that the higher-performing schools engaged in an intentional set of systemic practices that encourage Personalization for Academic and Social Learning (PASL) in one district and integrated structures of academic…

Over the past decades, U.S. immigration has changed significantly, yet the way we teach about immigration in schools has changed little. The American Immigration Council has developed a two-year program on Long Island, an area experiencing an increase of new arrivals and anti-immigrant sentiment. The program empowers teachers with the knowledge to…

Research has suggested that critical consciousness--the ability to recognize and analyze systems of inequality and the commitment to take action against these systems--can be a gateway to academic motivation and achievement for marginalized students. To explore this approach, the authors studied five urban schools that include critical…

If we want talented young teachers to develop the capacity to get students excited about high-quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning, we must develop a network of STEM teachers who can support teachers in their continued learning about their work and enable them to collaborate with others. If we want teachers to…

A California high school develops a Student Justice Panel to hear student concerns about violations of the student code, providing students with a way to not just have a voice but to effect change in how students are disciplined. Restorative justice gives students a feeling of fairness and responsibility for appropriate behavior. Restorative…