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
Central Academy of Technology and Arts (Monroe, NC). Central Academy of Technology and Arts strives to develop students emotionally and socially. As a school we develop our students through intensive involvement in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, advisory periods, and Culture of Respect, our character development program. Our Advisory program, a school-based initiative, engages teachers in… Continue Reading Teachers Mentor Students through High School
Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences (Tulsa, OK). Our fitness program is nothing like a traditional PE; it was specifically designed by our instructor whose background is personal training. Originally developed in partnership with the YMCA that was next door to our original location, this class has been honed to perfection and provides students with a… Continue Reading Custom PE, Student Self-Expression
Austin Independent School District Austin, Texas In only five years, J. Walter Graham Elementary School, a Title I school on the east side of Austin, Texas, went from slipping toward academic unacceptability to “one of the best elementary schools in the state of Texas,” in the words of education researcher Ed Fuller of Penn State… Continue Reading Show Up, Work Hard, Read: J. Walter Graham Elementary School
Boston Public Schools Boston, Massachusetts Fenway High School was founded in 1983 as an alternative program for students at risk of dropping out. Its founders created a small school where students would be challenged intellectually and feel safe socially. Fenway’s motto is “Work Hard. Be Yourself. Do the Right Thing.” To those ends, the school… Continue Reading Engaging Questions at Boston’s First Pilot School: Fenway High School
Beaumont, CA Principal Lauren Kinney explains how explicit, direct interactive instruction (DII) engages students in active conversations and learning, and teachers Jennifer Tillson and Tracy Waters demonstrate how kinesthetic learning helps students retain knowledge and stay engaged in learning. A student reflects on teaching another student as part of an innovative, statewide RTI intervention that… Continue Reading Gateway to Learning: Closing Gaps: Sundance Elementary School