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Small Group Instruction: How to Make it Effective
Posted September 27, 2018
All teachers want their students’ achievement levels to increase. Small group instruction and cooperative learning have a significant impact on student achievement (Hattie, 2009) and are widely used in elementary classrooms. Many middle and high school teachers are increasingly using these structures in other content areas. However, prior to implementing small group instruction teachers often have questions to be answered.
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Strong readers need teachers who understand the Science of Teaching Reading
Posted September 12, 2018
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Selecting a Great Curriculum is the First Step; Implementing it Well is a Bigger Challenge
Posted September 5, 2018
By Linda Diamond and Michelle Rodriguez
Numerous recent reports cite the difference in student learning that an effective curriculum can make. These reports include Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Studies, StandardsWork, Curriculum Research: What We Know and Where We Need to Go; Ashley Berner’s report in Thomas Fordham Institute’s Flypaper, August 2018; and Brookings report by Morgan Polikoff,, June 2018. After 25 years of working with school districts to help them select and implement high-quality curriculum, we agree. However, only a couple reports, the Economic Studies Brookings Report by Morgan Polikoff and Ashley Berner’s report, address a critical difficulty—ensuring teachers have sufficient content and curriculum knowledge to use and implement a standards-based curriculum with fidelity.
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Closing the Achievement Gap for Students with Disabilities: Fix General Ed and Special Ed Together
Posted May 1, 2018
Students with disabilities are not making the achievement gains they should make. The achievement gap between students with disabilities and students without disabilities has remained largely unchanged despite adaptive technologies and supposedly research-based methods. But we can improve outcomes for special education students by significantly improving general education and special education together.
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SEL and IDEA – Social Emotional Learning and Special Education
Posted November 9, 2017
The Honorable Robert H. Pasternack, Ph.D, is our guest blogger for November. This month’s blog post provides a brief overview of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) factors and what schools and teachers can do to address those factors.
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