As the Presidential election grows closer, students are hearing a lot about deficit spending, the national debt, and balancing the budget. Now they have a chance to be in the government’s seat and come up with their own solutions.
Common Core Standards and Independent Schools
According to a recent article in Education Week, Common Core State Standards, which are being adopted in public schools in 46 of the 50 US states, are starting to move into some independent school curricula. The standards cover K-12 math and English/language arts, in an attempt to provide all US students with the knowledge and skills they need for college and employment success.
Teacher Induction That Supports and Inspires
A well-planned introduction to the school’s policies, processes, mission, culture, and values helps new faculty members get off to a good start. Many private-independent schools put much time and energy into carrying out upbeat, friendly, and informative “new-teacher orientation” programs each fall. Effective induction, however, must be more far-reaching in scope than simply having an engaging orientation meeting. This article provides a framework for an induction effort that has long-lasting effects on teacher performance and career satisfaction. In this way, a broadly conceived induction process will benefit not only the new teacher, but also your students and the life of your school.
Training to Lead
Here’s a question for you: Why did you become a Division Head? You probably have a mix of reasons—maybe you just enjoy leadership activities, or you wanted a new challenge, or you wanted the chance to impact a larger number of students, or you wanted a better salary, and so on and so on.
Pop Record Debuts From Mars Curiosity Rover
On Tuesday, August 28 at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, pop music got another first…a song debuted from the Mars Curiosity Rover. Singer-songwriter-producer will.i.am, best known as a member of the group Black Eyed Peas, released his single "Reach For the Stars", carried live on NASA’s online live TV channel during a Jet Propulsion Lab Mars Special.
Redesign a Benefit-Oriented Summer Program
Now, while this summer’s experiences are fresh in your mind, is the best time to design next year’s summer program. How well did your program meet its mission, its goals, and the needs of today’s families?
How the Findings of the ISM Student Experience Study Relate to Retention
In an earlier I&P, we detailed results of a yearlong study conducted during the 2010–2011 academic year. Titled the Student Experience Study (SES), the project measured the effects of student-perceived predictability and support from their teachers on student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm. The results were clear. While there was a positive correlation between predictability and support and performance, there were extraordinarily strong correlations between predictability and support and both student-reported satisfaction and student-reported enthusiasm (each measured separately).
The Characteristics of Professional Excellence II
In the 2010–11 school year, ISM conducted a one-year partial replication—using a stronger research design and a more exacting statistic—of its original six-year International Model Schools Project, a research project that focused on student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm. The results of the 2010–11 project, titled the ISM Student Experience Study (SES), were published by ISM in complete form as a white paper in January 2012, and summarized in Ideas & Perspectives in Vol. 37, No. 4.
The following article, featuring one of the instruments derived from the SES findings, is designed to be read in the context of either of those two documents. Readers are asked to take note of the fact that the Characteristics of Professional Excellence II, shown in this article, supersede ISM’s original Characteristics of Professional Excellence, first published in Vol. 31, No.8, and then expanded upon in Vol. 32, No. 16.
Three Ring: Named Best Education Start Up App at New York Tech Day
Crumpled and lost assignments—the bane of teachers’, parents’, and students’ existence. If you are using smart devices in your school, though, that circus could be leaving town!
Student-Centered Scheduling
Does your schedule accomplish what you want it to? In the 21st century, your schedule is an important strategic document. It will determine whether some or all of your students will succeed or not; it will either cost or save you money; it will make your teachers better at what they do or get in their way; it says whether you are an adult or a student-centered school.