Service-Learning and Innovation in Columbus, OH

By Kevin Hart
Disciplina in civitatem – Education for citizenship. The official motto for Ohio State University is taking on a new, stronger meaning for public school students in Columbus, OH, thanks to a grant designed to help priority school students excel at learning and serving their communities.
Last week, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel was in Columbus for [...]

Denver Priority School Gets Presidential Treatment

By Kevin Hart
National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel conducted a nationwide back-to-school tour from August 23-27, meeting innovative educators and touring priority schools throughout the country. One of his first stops was at Denver’s Math and Science Leadership Academy (MSLA), a union-designed, teacher-led public school that is making a difference for urban students within [...]

Chicago Study: Leadership, Collaboration Are Keys to Transforming Schools

By Mary Ellen Flannery
As educators and policy-makers struggle to find solutions to the persistent problems in low-performing priority schools, there’s a new book that lights the way to school reform that works.
Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago, a recent release from the University of Chicago Press, looks at student achievement data from the early [...]

Final Title I School Improvement Grant (SIG) Requirements and Application Procedure

For application and details: http://www.ed.gov/programs/sif/applicant.html 
Application Deadline:          February 8, 2010
SEA Requirements

ELIGIBLE SCHOOLS.  Provide a list, by LEA name and NCES ID #, of each school designated as Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III in the state. 
EVALUATION CRITERIA.  Provide the criteria to be used to evaluate the LEA’s application for a SIG grant. 
CAPACITY.  Explain how SEA [...]

Solving the Attendance Issue at Priority Schools

Starting next month, students from across the country will begin returning to school for a new academic year.
The challenge at many lower-performing priority schools is to get those students to keep returning, day after day.
Any educator at a priority school will tell you that each day of instruction is precious, especially when students have multi-year [...]

Unions Help Build Bridge Between Home and School

By Dana Fisher and Kevin Hart
Parents and caregivers are truly our students’ first teachers – and school districts across the country are finding that getting parents more involved in their local schools can have a significant, lasting effect on student achievement. The National Education Association and its affiliates have been leading the effort to enhance parent and community [...]

NEA’s Wilson Talks SIG, Teacher Bashing and More

At a recent meeting hosted by the Aspen Institute, as part of its Innovation in Education series, National Education Association Executive Director John Wilson shared thoughts with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other dignitaries on 21st century skills, school improvement grants, and a dangerous trend of “teacher bashing.”
To watch video of the event, click [...]

FAQs on School Improvement Grants for Illinois Schools

The Consortium for Educational Change and the Illinois Education Association’s Center for Educational Innovation have introduced a new document answering frequently asked questions about school improvement grants. The FAQs cover everything from selecting an improvement model to collective bargaining.
To download the document, click Illinois-SIG-FAQs.

Pilot School Charts New Course in Colorado

By Kevin Hart
It’s 10 a.m. on a Thursday, and the students of William Smith High School in Aurora, CO, are on the move – literally. Woody Dodd’s U.S. history students are recreating the 1965 marches in Selma, AL, altering the words to the civil rights tune Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round. 
One by one, [...]

Chasing Experienced Teachers From the Classroom

By Kevin Hart
Every public school student deserves access to a highly-qualified, experienced educator. But experience may matter more at lower-performing priority schools, where students often enter classrooms suffering from significant skills gaps and a variety of social issues that interfere with learning. That’s why many educators are so baffled by a federal plan that they [...]

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