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My school district switched to a 4-day school week. It’s been a game changer for teachers, who were previously leaving our schools in droves.

Gregg Klinginsmith, a Missouri superintendent, switched his district to a 4-day school week in 2019. The district nixed a day in an effort to keep teachers from leaving for better pay in bigger cities. Both students and teachers love the new schedule, and teacher retention is up after four years. This as-told-to essay is based …

My school district switched to a 4-day school week. It’s been a game changer for teachers, who were previously leaving our schools in droves. Read More »

A District’s Long-Term Investment in Cultivating Future Teachers Is Paying Off

While schools across the country struggle to fill vacant teaching positions, one Texas district is capitalizing on groundwork it laid in 2019 that has led to a near-zero vacancy rate. When Ector County Superintendent Scott Muri took over the 33,500-student district in the summer of 2019, there were 356 teaching vacancies—the equivalent of 18 percent …

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We need a new school of thought about charter schools

When friends suggested I include charter schools among the places to visit during my recent trip to see innovative learning models in New York City, I was skeptical. I was focused mostly on spotlighting microschools, learning pods, hybrid homeschools and similar experimental programs created by entrepreneurial parents and teachers who are reimagining K-12 education in …

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Charters succeed at teaching — that’s why their enemies hate them

Faced with the undeniable fact city kids attending charters schools do far better on state exams than those stuck in the regular public-school system, critics routinely complain that charters “teach to the test” — as if that’s somehow a bad thing. Tests, after all, measure what kids are supposed to learn. Schools that don’t “teach to the test” effectively …

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OPINION: America should take a multilingual approach to education

In all of my language-learning experiences, whether that’s taking Japanese in college or learning Spanish in high school, I often ponder what a challenge learning a language actually is. At the time, I would question, “How did I even learn English as a kid?” Well, in many cases, children are better language learners than adults. …

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As threats against teachers increase, we need to redefine what’s off-limits in public schools

The deterioration of boundaries, compounded with poor teaching conditions, leads to a myriad of problems. It’s difficult to create connections, let alone teach content, while being cursed by students. I usually don’t care to talk about my experiences teaching. I’m afraid that I would paint a deficit-based portrayal of my students and families (unless, of …

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Education Secretary: Standardized Tests Should No Longer Be a ‘Hammer’

Standardized tests should be used as “a flashlight” on what works in education not as “a hammer” to force outcomes, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said during a speech last week. The statement reflects a shift in thinking since annual testing became federal law more than 20 years ago, and it echoes past comments from Cardona, who …

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