Expert Perspectives


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Putting Data Into Action: 8 Questions for Educators on Effective Use of Assessments

As districts consider their assessment processes and how they will be used to support student learning, asking questions, and determining the goals for an assessment can help. Building and maintaining a balanced assessment system is essential for schools, but the process can be complicated. School district leaders want to make sure they’re using and administering formative, interim, and summative assessments at the right times and in appropriate ways.

The 4 Online Tools That Changed Everything for This Innovative Spanish Teacher

A longtime Spanish teacher and winner of Cypher Learning’s #NEOClearsTheList contest for innovative online learning shares the free browser-based teaching tools that have become indispensable to her instructional practice — even with students back at school in-person.

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Teaching Digital Literacy is a 21st Century Imperative & This is Why

Two education leaders at NWEA delve into what it means to be digitally literate and the role that digital resources with an emphasis on digital literacy should play in advancing students’ academic needs in this two-part series.

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The Role Educators Must Play in Building Digital Literacy & How to Start in the Classroom

Two education leaders at NWEA delve into what it means to be digitally literate and the role that digital resources with an emphasis on digital literacy should play in advancing students’ academic needs in this two-part series.

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Five Ways To Prioritize Teachers' Well-Being and Help Overcome the Staffing Crisis

A tech executive shares experience from dealing with staffing shortages in the tech sector: 5 ways schools can support educator well-being and help solve the teacher shortage problem.

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How a Poor District in NY Leveled the Playing Field with Better Communications [and Lightened the Load for School Staff]

A district administrator explains how their new school-home communications platform gives them not just two-way communications with families, but also the ability to meet parents where they are — and how implementing the platform has solved numerous challenges for the district staff and teachers, for parents, and for students.

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The Hustle-and-Grind Tech Entrepreneur Mindset is Not a Good Replacement for the Industrial Model of Education

The industrial model of education seems worth dismantling; but in the push to increase creativity and individual expression, Silicon Valley has replaced Detroit as the reference point for the workplace we are preparing students for: “move fast and break things,” “hustle and grind,” emphases on hyper-success, hyper-creativity, and hyper-performance. Neither model will suffice if we want to change the world for the better.

Four Key Considerations for Selecting School Security Technology

A security technology executive offers insights for K-12 leaders considering security technology solutions and says schools must make such decisions the way they would with any other business function — that is, they should factor in people, process, and technology or PPT, and must first understand the specific problem that they are trying to address.

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How to Bring SEL Out of the Silo and Into the Computer Science Classroom

A computer science curriculum expert explains that social-emotional learning and computer science are a natural pair, and how incorporating SEL competencies into STEM lessons often creates a richer learning experience for students.

How One District Used Tech to Address Sinking Reading Scores & Overhaul Its Literacy PD

A literacy and intervention director at a California district with a serious literacy issue — only 16% of its 22,000 students in TK–12 were reading at or above grade level districtwide — explains how they used technology to overhaul the district's literacy professional development program and address access and equity problems.