Can we be the next Kalamazoo?
Kalamazoo, Michigan is not a place you hear of often. Yet back in 2005, something happened that changed everything for the unassuming town of 80,000: “The Kalamazoo Promise,” an anonymously established and endowed offering to public school graduates of tuition at any Michigan public university or college. Five years later, what...
Fraction Infraction
My 4th grade son is learning fractions in his math class. Last night, he asked my husband for some help with his homework. I was surprised to hear my husband say that he never really learned fractions and, to this day, really struggles with the concept. Instead of working with the raw fractions he has to first convert the...
Teacher Effectiveness Study Offers Lessons for Delaware
Student perceptions and previous students’ performance are the best predictors of teacher effectiveness, according the initial findings from the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project. The Gates Foundation launched MET in the fall of 2009 with the goal of answering such questions as: what are common...
Bayard Middle School Drops Everything for Reading
Before their involvement in the Vision Network, leaders at Bayard Middle School knew they needed to make improvements. They wanted to differentiate teaching methods to meet the individual needs of students, and also to streamline the process. When they started to work with the Vision Network, they received the support and direction to...