News: Increasing Staff Productivity

The Over-Simplification of Education: When Evidence-based Practices are Diluted, They No Longer are Evidence-Based

Blog discussing how districts or schools try to over-simplify complex school and schooling processes into short descriptions or diagrams to guide implementation. When this occurs, staff often implemen...

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Twelve Critical Components for (Continuous) School, Staff, and Student Improvement: Motivation Cannot Compensate for a System with Systemic Deficits

New Blog describes the school improvement experiences of three school districts at different points in the improvement process. It then describes the twelve evidence-based components of effective scho...

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Seven Suggestions to Help Districts Avoid Special Education Hearings: A Short-Term Win May Be a Long-Term Loss

New Blog discusses seven suggestions not just to help districts avoid special education litigation, but to help them to (a) truly educate all students with disabilities; and (b) collaborate with their...

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When State Policy Undermines Effective Practice: Too Much of Anything Often Results in Nothing (or Worse)

New Blog resolves the instructional dilemma of having to choose between (a) providing critical intervention opportunities to high school students with significant prerequisite skills gaps in literacy,...

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Using “Flipped Learning” in a School’s Professional Development Initiative: Engaging Teachers and Support Staff in Outcome-Based PD—Even in a Virtual World

Blog describes an 18-month virtual PD initiative to enhance the multi-tiered (MTSS) services in the largest virtual school network in a mid-Atlantic state. A unique Flipped Learning approach with scho...

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Ensuring that Post-Tenure Teachers Remain Actively Engaged as Collaborative Contributors in their Schools (Part IV)

Blog discusses the four Pillars of Teacher Proficiency. This last of a four-part series focuses on Pillar IV: how schools align their continuous school improvement processes with activities that put p...

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