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This article highlights the benefits of engaging in school partnerships to enrich student learning. With high-art experiences, underprivileged students can improve their performance in various subjects and strengthen the connection with community and learning.

This is a document provided by the NEA on how schools can improve students reading achievement in school. I like this resource because it breaks down steps school can use from teachers, students and parents to improve reading. It starts by discussing literacy skills taught in kindergarten and goes into talking about text meaning for older students. Great resource!

Use of "buffering" strategies to reduce achievement gaps of black students.

This article from ISTE discusses how blended learning can be used to bridge the achievement gap for students who don't have access to technology (or who have minimal access) outside of the school setting.

This article discusses the effects of learning targets on all people in the school - students, teachers, principals and central-office administrators. It goes on to describe ways to create an effective learning target and the actions necessary order to do so. Furthermore, it outlines the process of learning targets. Effective learning targets are able to help close the achievement gap!

This article provides a literature review on studies that have been completed to look at the impact of Computer Technology and Math learning. This review looked at 46 studies that were conducted. The results overall showed a positive effect when Computer Technology was being used. However, the study also points out that when using CT, it must be combined with good teaching in order to maximize student understanding and learning.

I found this article to be very intriguing, because although it makes the common claim that increased school attendance will result in higher GPA, it also describes how another variable, a student's distance living away from school, affects their attendance rate. According to this study, there is a statistically significant effect of the farther away one lives from school, the greater their absences will be. This is something I want to investigate further once I return to school and can see where some of my historically truant students are traveling from each day.

DimensionU creates engaging and interactive multi-player video games that focus on core skills in mathematics and literacy. Our content aligns with the Common Core, state standards and classroom instruction Learn More about DimensionU Comprised of four engaging, multi-player games with access to curriculum in both Math and Literacy, grades 3 - 9. Some available games: * Meltdown is the DimensionU game that offers students a second chance when answering difficult questions, and rewards creative strategies to achieve victory. * Velocity is DimensionU's high-speed obstacle course that ensures players answer questions correctly in order to continue progressing through the race.

Week 7 - This is an excellent article for second language teachers who want to be inclusive of all students through digital story telling. Dr. Vinogradova's personal experience affirms the importance of cultural identity integration using technology to achieve pedagogical goals. By Polina Vinogradova, Ph.D, Director of the TESOL Program, Department of World Languages and Cultures, American University....

In this first chapter of his book, Popham (2008) attempts to define what formative assessment is and what it is not. He insists on the fact that formative assessment is a process and in his opinion a classroom process. He refers to a meta-analysis conducted by Black and William (1998b) to show evidence of the benefits of formative assessment and quotes Black and William's claim that "student gains in learning triggered by formative assessment are "amongst the largest ever reported for educational interventions" (p. 61). Popham also warns educators against testing companies who are now offering interim or benchmark tests as "formative assessments" and claims that there's no scientific evidence that district-developed or state-developed periodically administered assessments will improve students' achievement.

This article discusses strategies of detracking students, working with families (i.e. community schools), and better ways of working with students of diverse backgrounds and how these strategies worked to close the achievement gaps.

Addresses the potential of active learning with increased teacher feedback and interaction as a way to help close the achievement gap and involve more students in advanced level STEM classes. Focused on University level students, but an interesting read for teachers of all levels to consider how instruction may have a cultural bias.

This article guides teachers through the difficult navigation of ferreting out important data versus minutiae when it comes to developing data-driven plans of action to improve student learning and retention. It offers many divers strategies for implementation.

This guide offers five recommendations to help educators effectively use data to monitor students' academic progress and evaluate instructional practices.

I like how this article breaks down five different recommendations and makes it easy for the reader to explore what they choose without overwhelming them. I will be bookmarking this!

My school does not use data for instructional purposes. This is a great guide for us to use in order to start collecting and using data for instructional purposes.

The Teaching Channel is "a thriving online community where teachers can watch, share, and learn diverse techniques to help every student grow." This module includes videos and handouts that you can view on your own or present to others. Objectives are to "develop an understanding of how to use multiple data sources, analyze data to trace the causes of low achievement and find solutions, and articulate how to support teachers' use of data to improve instruction."

This study describes a program designed to increase student achievement in reading. The targeted population consisted of two first grade classes and one second grade class in a small central Illinois community. The median household income was in the lower range.

This article details the difference in achievement that has been attained by the KIPP charter schools in Baltimore, especially in middle schools. Although I was interested in how KIPP succeeded where so many others have failed, I realized that there are many differences between these schools and the school I teach in. (Parent & teacher buy-in, selectivity of the students they serve, etc). As such, I don't think the successes described here would be replicated at my school, with my 8th graders.