As students return to classrooms across America this fall, parents are focused on school supplies, class schedules, and academic expectations. Teachers are preparing lesson plans, organizing classrooms, and hoping for a successful year.
There’s a wise quote that says, “Kids don’t care about your expectations until they know you care about them. Connection is the foundation everything else stands on.”
Over the last 15 years, I have observed a recurring pattern. A new principal, whether brand new to the role or a veteran principal arriving at a new school, wants to make an immediate impact.
America’s schools are moving quickly to respond to the rise of artificial intelligence, with parents, teachers, administrators, and lawmakers working to wrap their arms around what this means for student education.
There’s a confusing trend going on in the nation’s classrooms: While national test scores have dropped to levels not seen in decades, average high school GPAs are actually climbing.
School safety emergencies are inherently chaotic, frightening, and made even more perilous by a lack of real-time visibility once an emergency is underway. In an active shooter incident, first responders often arrive at the scene with little or no knowledge about what is happening inside the school.
Adolescence is one of the most consequential periods of human development, yet the environments designed to support it often fail to reflect its complexity. Spanning ages 10 to 18, this stage is marked by rapid neurological, emotional, and social transformation.
For as long as school has existed, so has the parental question: How are my kids doing? For nearly two centuries, educators have used some type of report card to communicate with families how their children are progressing in school.
To ensure children build foundational reading skills in the early elementary years, educators have embraced the Science of Reading with its emphasis on phonics and phonemic awareness.
In first grade, educators shape the trajectories of how students feel about math. Long before they discover algebra or standardized tests, six- and seven-year-olds are forming beliefs about whether they are "math people," if their ideas are worth sharing, and what their mistakes say about them as learners.
Outdoor education has been shown to improve academic outcomes across subjects, including science, reading, and math, while also strengthening motivation, well-being, and school engagement. Studies also link outdoor learning to increased attendance, improved behavior, and stronger relationships among students.
Walk into almost any elementary classroom today and you will likely hear the same concern from teachers across grade levels: Many students can swipe, tap, and navigate a screen with ease, but struggle to hold a pencil comfortably, form letters fluently or sustain writing for more than a few minutes without fatigue.
Professional development is one of a school district's most powerful strategies for improving student outcomes. Yet, educators often leave workshops feeling inspired in the moment, but take little action in the classroom. The problem isn’t that teachers don’t want to learn, but that professional development is treated as an event, rather than an ongoing process.
Every summer, I find myself in conversations with teachers and administrators trying to figure out why their current pedagogical practices are or aren’t working. So, once I came across Harnessing the Science of Learning by Nathaniel Swain, Ph.D., I haven’t been able to stop recommending it.
Every school leader I know has a version of the same moment: You pull up a student's attendance record expecting to find a discipline problem, and instead you find a family going through a crisis none of us would wish on anyone.
Do you think you’re creative? Try this: List as many uses for a paperclip as you can in two minutes. Most people imagine a standard size metal or plastic clip. But consider that the “paperclip” could be made out of wood, gold, microprocessors, money, or anything you can imagine.
With the growing movement to limit technology in schools, parents and educators are right to question how much time students spend on screens. But, as schools reconsider the role of technology in the classroom, an important distinction is often getting lost in the public conversation: Not all screen time is equal.
When I taught Spanish, students would often ask, “Why do I need to learn this?” Many thought that learning a new language would only be useful if they wanted to become interpreters or work abroad.
School accountability systems measure whether students are mastering the academic standards states expect them to teach and signal where additional support is needed. Education is one of the largest budget items in most states, and accountability is how states verify that spending translates into student learning.
As the Director of Maintenance and Operations for 42 campuses across our district, my work is never small. From managing facilities and construction to navigating procurement and public sector regulations, the responsibility can feel like a heavy lift.
In an era defined by rapid technological advancement and an unprecedented explosion of information, public education stands at a pivotal and exciting crossroads.
It is an odd thing to hear from someone who builds education technology for a living, but the most important tool in an elementary classroom is still a pencil. The learning science says so.
Schools today are navigating an unprecedented convergence of academic gaps, behavioral challenges, chronic absenteeism and rising student mental health needs.
Summer break has finally arrived, and if you're like most educators, you're probably feeling a lot of conflicting emotions. There's relief that the school year is behind you, pride in everything you've accomplished, but also exhaustion from months of pouring your time, energy, and heart into your students.
As school districts prepare for the 2026–27 academic year, new national data from BlazerWorks reveals a growing staffing crisis across K–12 education, with more than 90% of district leaders reporting increased demand for specialist staff.
Today’s K-12 school districts have numerous responsibilities, from managing staff resources, to ensuring student safety, to fostering a learning environment where all students flourish.
District leaders are under increasing pressure to improve science achievement while balancing competing priorities, staffing challenges, instructional demands, and accountability expectations.
A post-graduation readiness report by YouScience found that the majority of graduating high school seniors lack confidence in their post-graduation plans, including choosing a college, paying for it, pursuing a career pathway, evaluating a job offer, and assessing which risks are worth taking. These types of decisions affect all students, regardless of zip code, ethnicity, or gender.
The answer to stagnating test scores is not adopting technology that has never demonstrated any ability to move test scores. Educators have to finally recognize that hope is not a strategy and cease rewarding vendors who show up without RCTs and rigorous validation.
Students are more than letter grades and test scores. They are unique individuals with their own goals, skills, and needs--deserving an educational journey that supports all three.
Teacher stress declined modestly in 2026, but teachers were still far more likely than similar working adults to report higher stress, worse well-being and greater financial strain, extending a pattern that has persisted since 2021, according to new RAND research.
A student’s school experience can shift dramatically--not just from year to year but from classroom to classroom each day. They may feel seen and encouraged by one teacher, but overlooked and underestimated by another.
Cyber resilience in education starts at the data layer. That is because the data layer is where schools' most important information lives and where recovery begins when something goes wrong.
The future of high-quality middle level engagement will include career exposure and exploration with a focus on transferable skills and the development of career goals.
Ameer Baraka knew something was wrong long before anyone gave it a name. Ameer grew up in poverty in Louisiana and had difficulty learning to read, but no one caught it. By third grade, he had already decided he would never amount to anything.
I've been teaching fifth grade in Massachusetts for 26 years. I hated social studies as a kid. I found it boring, heavy on dates and facts, and light on everything that might make a person actually care.
In 2023, Bob Bolduc, the founder of Hope for Youth and Families, identified a gap in our student’s reading success here in Springfield, Massachusetts. He sought to identify a solution that would specifically support middle school students reading below grade level, and in 2024 partnered with Storyshares and HILL for Literacy to create an intensive, four-week summer literacy program.
Across classrooms right now, many educators are noticing the same shift: Students are even harder to reach than they were just a short time ago. In a recent survey, teachers pointed to rising disengagement as a growing concern, with more students opting out of learning in both loud and quiet ways.
“Maybe we have too much teacher training.” That headline is a sentence I never thought I’d write, given that I run a company built around supporting teachers’ professional growth. But it has been sitting with me since I read the latest Education Scorecard report.
There is a period in the school leadership journey that we do not talk about enough: the time between earning an administrative license and actually becoming a school leader.
Once upon a time. For generations, those four words were an invitation. Children leaned in because a story was beginning. They would listen closely, follow the characters, and stay with the plot until the end.
It’s easy to connect with the families who show up in September already invested: responding to messages, attending events, kids showing up on time. In most cases, building that investment started months or years earlier.
Building a strong foundation in math during elementary and middle school is essential for success in the later grades. Because each concept builds on the last, students must truly grasp the material before moving forward.
American schools spent roughly $30 billion on educational technology in 2024--a figure that's projected to nearly double by 2033. Superintendents are constantly bombarded with emails, brochures, and demos from education technology companies.
As I wrapped up my student conferences, one conversation stuck with me. Steven had barely touched his final project for our computer science course, a virtual simulation of a piano, despite showing real promise earlier in the year.
The recent Instructure/Canvas breach should be a wake-up call for every school and university relying on third-party platforms to power teaching and learning.
Educators often see recommendations, dashboards, and strategic plans labeled as “data-backed,” as if the numbers themselves drive outcomes. The truth is that data alone cannot make decisions or explain why students struggle or programs succeed.
In the second week of January, a senior mathematics teacher with 22 years in the classroom raised a hand at the end of a staff meeting and asked a question that changed the way I now design AI literacy work for entire faculties.
A fictional space station orbiting the moon is turning into a real-world digital success story. Spacegate Station, a STEM series created in 2022 by Duval County Public School (DCPS) to support daily instruction, has unexpectedly taken off on YouTube, drawing sustained engagement from viewers far beyond the district.
Across the country, educators, parents, and policymakers are struggling with a question that schools can no longer afford to avoid: What role should cell phones play in today’s classrooms?
The overreliance on AI is a widely discussed topic for teachers, administrators, and families alike. The last thing we want is for technology to stifle the creativity, expertise, and human connection that educators bring to the classroom or hinder our students’ ability to think critically.
Every June, once the last bus leaves and the halls go quiet, I get the strong desire to take a deep breath and to allow the pressure of the previous school year to subside and let the slower pace of summer settle in.
The MacBook Neo may narrow a pricing gap, but it also exposes a management gap. A lower-cost Mac may be enough to spark fresh interest. However, it alone isn’t enough to guarantee a smooth rollout.
Summer is full of learning opportunities that many children miss. When back-to-school season begins, some kids are already starting behind. That's all due to a lack of access to high-quality programs and resources.
Libraries are more than a quiet corner of school where students can pick up a book now and then--they are vibrant learning environments that support classroom curriculum, spark curiosity and creativity, and enhance vital literary skills
There’s never been a more turbulent time for young people to plan for and embark on their futures, and a new survey gives insights on their feelings and plans.
When people outside of education talk about comprehensive school safety planning, it can sometimes sound theoretical: a checklist of protocols or a compliance exercise.
Last year, one of my strongest students could solve complex equations flawlessly--but paused when I asked a simple question: “Why does this method work?”
New York is currently standing at a historic crossroads. With a rare alignment of executive leadership in Albany and NYC and a tireless advocacy community, the state is poised to transform the promise of universal early childhood education (ECE) into a reality for tens of thousands of families.
AI is a daily reality in the nation's schools, and in Illinois, it shapes how students research, problem-solve, and create. Now, Teach Plus Illinois and the Illinois Digital Educators Alliance (IDEA) are releasing “From ‘Rules and Tools’ to Schools,” a follow-up to the 2024 report that first sounded the alarm on AI's "Wild West" conditions in schools.
In the Ithaca City School District, we have long understood that relationships are not peripheral to the work; they are the work. A culture of love is not aspirational language but a daily commitment to ensure that every student, every family, and every member of our community feels seen, valued, and connected to something greater than themselves.
AI plays a supportive educational role for nearly 70 percent of top-performing math students asked about their study habits, according to a new survey.
Educational research has never been more abundant, yet its impact on classroom practice remains uneven at best. While universities continue to produce studies on instructional strategies, student outcomes, and emerging technologies, many K-12 educators rarely engage with this work in meaningful ways.
Last month, Mesick Consolidated Schools banned digital devices in its elementary school of about 250 students. The decision wasn’t an agonizing one. The ban came at astonishing speed, almost overnight, after a conversation between Mesick Superintendent Jack Ledford and Jewett Principal Elizabeth Kastl.
In mathematics education, we have long relied on a familiar sequence: introduce vocabulary, demonstrate procedures, and assign practice. For some students, this works well enough.
In many schools, AI is being handled through individual teacher decisions rather than a shared structure. That makes sense in the short term. Teachers are responding in real time, trying to protect their classrooms, their expectations, and their students.
After 20 years teaching high school math, I thought I understood why students struggled. Then I sat in my first professional learning session focused on early math and was humbled.
In many K–12 schools today, fragmented student data has quietly become one of the most significant barriers to effective decision-making and day-to-day operations. While digital tools have expanded rapidly in classrooms and administrative offices, the systems managing student information, communication, and reporting often remain disconnected.
Does the thought of student-led inquiry make you nervous? For some teachers, handing over control of the classroom to their students sounds like an invitation for disaster.
In recent years, educational research has sparked significant discussion about whether boys and girls learn differently and if gender-specific teaching strategies could enhance academic outcomes.
AI is rapidly reshaping education, but not always in ways that support learning. A growing number of AI tools promise to “help” students by doing assignments, writing papers, solving problem sets, or even completing exams automatically.
My first few years teaching math were a struggle for me and my students. Our textbook focused primarily on direct instruction: I do, then you do, but rarely we do.
AI is here, and it’s moving fast. For schools, that speed is both an opportunity and a risk: The right tools can transform learning, but the wrong ones can compromise data, equity, and instructional goals.
Reading is competing for attention in a world built for scrolling. A recent University of Florida study found that the share of Americans who read for pleasure on an average day dropped from 28 percent in 2003 to just 16 percent in 2023.
Some might worry that the introduction of AI tools in the English classroom will simply lead to more cheating and even worse literacy rates, leaving students unprepared for college and careers that demand strong writing and communication skills.
I once met a student who had attended three different schools before arriving at mine. His parents described him in familiar terms: quiet, disengaged, unmotivated.
The world of work is changing fast. Careers no longer sit neatly within a single industry, city, or even country; they span disciplines, time zones, technologies, and cultures.
Last fall, during a professional development session I was running with a group of teachers in São Paulo, a fifth-grade teacher raised her hand and asked a question I have since heard in every country I work in: “I want to use AI to plan better lessons. But how do I do that without just putting kids in front of another screen?”
Schools have seen rising problems with student behavior since the pandemic. For too many K-12 districts, these student behavior challenges are leading to violence against teachers.
Recent updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act means digital accessibility for public educational institutions can not be ignored. It will become a legal mandate.
While nearly every industry is racing to integrate artificial intelligence, most schools are still teaching high school math the way it’s been done for decades--rooted in instructional material that is abstract, disconnected, and detached from the world students actually live in.
In other words, while technology can generate information and automate tasks, people still need to evaluate options, weigh tradeoffs, and determine what to do next. These are decision-making skills--and demand for them is rising.
District leaders across the country are grappling with a deepening crisis: Student mental and behavioral health needs are growing more complex. In a recent national survey, 58 percent of school-based providers reported that student mental health has worsened, a noticeable jump from the previous year (46 percent).
School leaders everywhere are working to implement change--new initiatives, new instructional frameworks, new technologies, new approaches to student support.
As children, we play hide-and-seek. There is a kind of logic to it: If you cannot see me, then I cannot see you. As adults, and sometimes as leaders, we can fall into a similar pattern.
When Senator Bill Cassidy recently questioned whether K–12 systems are adequately preparing students for college-level math, he touched a nerve in the national conversation.
Schools have been struggling for nearly a decade with stagnant or declining test scores. Some have blamed external factors like the pandemic or children’s screen use outside of school.
I’ve been a principal for 14 years, during which time I served as the leader of an alternative school, an early college, and a large middle school. Through it all I’ve seen firsthand just how anxious families get during school transitions at every stage of the game.
