Gamification is one response. By embedding diverse achievements into activities and assessments, learning progress can be refracted infinitely. These systems would be able to more flexibly respond to unique learner pathways and abilities, and would further serve as encouragement mechanics -- instead of one carrot stick, there are hundreds. And not just carrots, but every fruit and vegetable imaginable.

By focusing tightly on instructional strategies and PD, educators at Cochrane Collegiate Academy saved their school from closure. In just three years, they have doubled student performance, and they continue to reach higher. Read the article. [Interactive Video Player: Look for downloadable PDF worksheets and other resource links to appear under the player as you watch the video.]

How One School Beats the Odds Every Day

By embracing research-backed instructional design, consistent PD, and strong, caring relationships, all boats are rising and teachers have gone from surviving to thriving at this once-failing middle school.

Although student work may reflect many of our previous criteria for what the deeper learner does, we need more information about how and why that happened.

Mesquite Elementary School, in Tucson, Arizona became a top-performing school with a homegrown, easy-to-implement differentiated instruction program.

In this installment, we show you how Mesquite Elementary School developed a teaching strategy that turned their school around in just six months, and that continues to prove out its effectiveness.

Neurologist and educator Judy Willis on the importance of igniting and developing students' executive function -- a part of the brain that controls critical thinking, creativity, and complex decision-making.

Edutopia blogger Suzie Boss shares a variety of online resources to assist educators when teaching students about Sept 11.

In this Schools that Work story, we profiled a rural school district in Northwest Georgia using their resources carefully to replicated successful Project-Based Learning. 

Part three of our New Teacher Boot Camp: Boot Campers are playing with this powerful drag-and-drop storytelling tool this week.

Blogger Ben Johnson asks, "who is responsible for learning in the classroom - the teacher or the students?"

Edutopia Blogger Ben Johnson tackles five classroom myths he believes "an attitue of pessimism that does not belong in American school."

Frequent Edutopia blogger Andrew Miller discusses his strategy for using real world math in order to make math relevant to students.

Edutopians have been busy wrapping up the year and preparing for summer. In this posting, our Community Manager Betty Ray breaks down the top five most practical, most innovative, and most persuasive resources shared on Edutopia

Guest blogger Holden Clemens (pseudonym) describes the frustrations of working with "late to the game" parents and how to better manage parent communications. 

Transformational Leadership Coach and mother Elena Aguilar explains her version of evaluating a teacher's effectiveness. 

AP government teacher Dayna Laur and art teacher Katlyn Wolfgang collaborated to create a joint project between their classes. After Edutopia produced the video, Dayna and Katlyn, who teach at Central York High School in York, Pennsylvania, shared their strategies for creating a successful integrated studies project. You can also find free resources and downloads from from Central York High School.