Sounding Board
#WhatMatters to You?

By Kevin Brown   As schools across the country begin to reopen, the focus has shifted to how districts and educators can facilitate recovery for schools, and more importantly, students. Uncertainty regarding the magnitude of instructional learning loss abounds and many leaders are developing plans to tackle any exacerbated learning gaps while also asking themselves […]

by Kevin Brown Stephen Elliott, Pui-Wa Lei, Christopher Anthony, and James DiPerna of SSIS CoLab conducted a research study regarding the benefits of concurrent screening of social emotional learning (SEL) skills and emotional behavior concerns (EBC). They were able to identify a more accurate, holistic understanding of a child’s social emotional well-being enabled through the […]

By Grace Shelton @GraceCShelton In continuing our series on school leadership, this article discusses relevant research on principal effectiveness. More specifically, this article looks at how teacher and student perceptions of leadership can impact performance, and how principals primarily impact school climate in a way that makes all the difference to their ultimate success (or […]

By Kevin Brown COVID-19 & Virtual Learning: What Challenges Did Teachers Face? In a Wall Street Journal article titled “The Results Are In For Remote Learning: It Didn’t Work”, an in-depth review of the successes, failures, and challenges of distance learning is provided. A key theme of the article is the role that technology played in […]

By Grace Shelton @GraceCShelton In our previous school leadership posts, we have discussed how leadership matters. It matters a lot—school leaders need to be instructional gurus, assessment builders, community engagement experts, budget analysts, and much more. The role might appear easy to anyone outside of education, but all those within the education sphere know that […]

By Grace Shelton @Grace C Shelton It has become increasingly apparent that school leadership is the driving force of positive change in schools. Our previous posts on leadership focus on the importance of great principals. If principals and effective leadership are so important, what are some ways school leaders can ensure their success? What makes […]

By Grace Shelton @GraceCShelton In continuing our series on technology use in schools, I thought it important to examine a more recent work of research that tied together technology use and personalized learning. The original impetus behind the addition of technology in schools was that it would allow for more individualized learning for students, therefore […]

By Grace Shelton @GraceCShelton In response to Robert Slavin’s article and our subsequent piece, I’ve done some continued research into the use of technology in the classroom. Unsurprisingly, much research appeared during the turn of the century, as a new era was ushered in with promises of technology and innovation. I thought it pertinent to […]

By Grace Shelton @GraceCShelton Our previous blog posts (The Importance of the Parent/Teacher Relationship & Parent and Teacher Relationships: How Communication is Key) focus on why parental involvement matters in schools and how parents and teachers can establish trusting relationships. These are both important to a student’s ultimate success in school. Family engagement can increase […]

By Grace Shelton @GraceCShelton   We have discussed the many merits of engaging parents in schools in previous blog posts. Schools can include parents in a variety of ways, and parent involvement often leads to positive student outcomes. However, parent involvement is multifaceted, and engaging parents in schools is often easier than engaging parents with […]