We love the growing conversation about the importance – especially in 2020 – of high-quality curriculum. Lately, the buzz about curriculum has been hard to miss. Here’s what has the field talking: Renewed Concerns About a Popular Curriculum Lucy Calkins, the author of the Teachers College Readers Workshop program, recently acknowledged a longtime concern about her program – […]
The Green Garner Award, presented by the Council of Great City Schools, honors educational leaders from urban school districts. This week, the 31stannual award will be presented to one of twenty finalists—all of whom are impactful, inspiring leaders. No matter the winner, they will have earned it! Leading an urban district at any time is […]
Julie and Madeline are two teachers in my district that happen to be a mother and daughter pair.
Of all the topics that we as academic leaders have fielded over these past few months, in contemplating with colleagues what teaching and learning should look in the many different remote and hybrid schooling models under consideration in our districts, few have been more meaty – and, indeed, more professionally enriching – than those surrounding […]
When we created modEL Detroit – a set of lesson resources designed to ease year one implementation of our ELA curriculum – we were trying to support our teachers. Little did we know that we were helping to prepare ourselves for a global pandemic, and also building a bridge to some of the top districts […]
In Baltimore City, all students work with rich, grade level texts in English Language Arts. Evidence shows that this approach fosters the most growth for learners, so we carefully selected a curriculum designed around grade level work for every student. The alternative – reading instruction that revolves around leveled reading groups, in which some students […]
Professional Development is my thing. Arguably nothing is more important than investing in our teachers… and yet it’s an area that all too often falls short. I’m passionate about solving that problem. It’s an urgent problem. In recent years, we’ve had a national reckoning about the critical need for professional development in reading instruction, as […]
We’ve never experienced a school reopening like this one. (Understatements.) When our ‘squad’ connected this season, the refrain was the same: “We would be LOST if we did not have high-quality curriculum in place in our districts.” We’ve been hearing this message a lot. This Spring, teacher Kyair Butts explained why Curriculum Matters More in a […]
Right now, we need to be sharing positive stories in K–12 education! That’s true because we’re going through a tough moment – and we don’t just mean the challenge of the coronavirus. Midway through this school year, the nation reflected on worrisome NAEP outcomes suggesting that literacy instruction needs work. Once, Cecil County had a […]
I never thought I’d be explaining how curriculum helped me to navigate a global pandemic – but here we are. It’s a story that deserves to be told. In social media, I see many teachers struggling with the challenging transition to distance learning; often, it causes me to reflect on how much harder this transition […]
