Sounding Board
#WhatMatters to You?

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 Kevin Brown Social-Emotional Development and Student Outcomes Longstanding debate has taken place over what should be considered appropriate qualifiers of a “good” high school. Districts flaunt their proficiency levels, schools display the various ribbons and accolades they receive, and parents seek to find the largest offerings of AP, Honors, and IB courses. However, based […]

By Kevin Brown With school – and COVID-19 – well under way for the Fall 2020 academic semester, the country has seen school districts take a variety of measures ranging from a “business-as-usual” approach to a strictly online experience. Much of the nation’s focus has been on how to get students back into the classrooms, […]

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 Robert Slavin’s recent blog article “A Powerful Hunger for Evidence-Proven Technology” examines the impacts, or lack thereof, of increased technology in education. In this piece, he contemplates whether or not technology in the classroom has lived up to its expectation. Originally, the idea behind the use of computer-assisted learning was that these […]