While science fairs may be a familiar sight at many schools, The Charter School of Wilmington’s Junior Research Project makes student research central to their high school experience. The whole school gets involved, providing a rigorous research course to students as sophomores, mentoring them throughout their junior year, and teaching additional workshops to help students… Continue Reading Students Making Science
Lakewood Elementary School Overland Park, KS Activating Student Engagement Through Brain-based Learning. Educators at Lakewood Elementary School take pride in creating schoolwide, interdisciplinary curriculum that students find exciting and memorable. They ground their strategies in a brain-based approach, meaning that lessons are designed to activate students’ brains, and that educators help children understand how learning… Continue Reading Audio: Activating Student Engagement Through Brain-Based Learning
Lt. Col. Horrace Meek Hickam Elementary School, (Honolulu, HI). Hickam Elementary School is located on the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii. Approximately 99% of the student population are military dependents. Students are highly transient due to military mobility. One of the biggest challenges military children face is integration into new communities and schools.… Continue Reading Aloha Transition Center for New Military-Dependent Students
In New Orleans, Louisiana, Lusher Charter School serves students in grades K-12 by integrating the arts across all grade levels and disciplines. As the school’s CEO puts it, “Lusher is a school where a student can come and thrive regardless of the level of their talents. We’ll use the arts when we’re happy, when we’re… Continue Reading Building Culture and Enriching Learning through Art
Willow Creek Elementary School (Centennial, CO). To promote a positive school climate and growth mindsets, Willow Creek focuses on POWER which stands for Persistence, Optimism, We are Flexible, Empathy, and Resilience. The school designates 10-15 minutes daily as POWER Time for activities that teach students a growth mindset and appropriate school behaviors using a common… Continue Reading POWER Time and Videos
University Academy—Upper School Kansas City, MO University Academy Upper School is a 9-12 high school located in Kansas City, Missouri and is on a mission to prepare students, not only for college admission, but also for college success. With a high school graduation rate of 100%, this mission-focused public charter high school located in an… Continue Reading Audio: College Readiness Through Mastery Learning and Teaching
Teaching with Art and Heart highlights the resources a dedicated principal has secured for the 700-plus students in her rural South Carolina school, Skyland Elementary. For more than two decades, Dr. Carolyn Styles has created a thriving community of passionate educators and young scholars. In addition to identifying and remediating students’ educational gaps and… Continue Reading Teaching with Art and Heart: A Rural School Reaches the Whole Child
Still Making the Grade showcases the Brooklyn (NY) School for Global Scholars, P.S. 748. Originally designed as a district-based application school for gifted and talented students, P.S. 748 featured a self-created and evolving curriculum that used project-based learning and departmentalized, interdisciplinary learning to prepare global citizens for the future. It opened in 2010. Two… Continue Reading Still Making the Grade: From a G and T District School to a Top Neighborhood School
The DSST (Denver School of Science and Technology) network, part of Denver Public Schools, was founded in 2005 to expand educational opportunities through open enrollment in STEM-focused schools. Green Valley Ranch High School opened in 2011 and has seen 100% of its seniors graduate and go on to college. Green Valley Ranch High School operates… Continue Reading New Faces in STEM Careers
Nikki Bowen and Meredith Anderson, the principals of Uncommon Schools Excellence Girls Charter School (Brooklyn, NY), are committed to changing history. Anderson, the middle school principal explains, “We know that all students can be successful, and that, in particular, girls can achieve.” In a nation that hasn’t traditionally held high expectations for girls, especially girls… Continue Reading Interview: Creating Tomorrow’s Fierce Females